How, Why, and with Whom Do User Experience (UX) Practitioners Communicate? Implications for HCI Education

ABSTRACT

While being a good communicator is a key skill for user experience (UX) practitioners, human-computer interaction (HCI) education typically prioritizes the creation of tangible project deliverables, e.g., wireframes, over providing students with a more complete set of communication skills. In this paper, we draw from an analysis of 60 interviews with experienced UX professionals to argue that a nuanced understanding of communication strategies should be explicitly included in HCI education. Specifically, we identify five goals that shape communications between UX practitioners and four distinct audiences and show that they select specific methods (techniques, artifacts, and tools) to achieve these goals. Drawing on theories of situated and authentic learning, we discuss three key implications for HCI educators: embracing rhetorical complexity, simulating real-world communication challenges, and highlighting the performative elements of communication. Educators must embrace these challenges to help students become more effective communicators and prepare them for UX careers.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank all of our participants for sharing their valuable time and expertise and our colleagues for helping with the interrater reliability exercise. We also thank our anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful feedback on prior drafts of this manuscript. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge funding from DePaul University to support this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University Research Council, DePaul University [352603-601754].

Notes on contributors

Craig M. MacDonald

Craig M. MacDonald is an Associate Professor in the School of Information at Pratt Institute where he also directs the Center for Digital Experiences, a student-driven UX consultancy and academic research lab. His research focuses on strengthening organizational UX practices and improving HCI and UX education.

Emma J. Rose

Emma J. Rose is an Associate Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma. Her research focuses on human-centered design, participatory and inclusive methods, and UX pedagogy.

Cynthia Putnam

Cynthia Putnam is an Associate Professor at DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media. She teaches in the graduate human-computer interaction program (HCI). Her research interests are in HCI pedagogy, accessible computing, and child-computer interaction.