G U I S E P P E G E T TO

E A S T C A R O L I N A U N I V E R S I T Y

G E T TO G @ E C U . E D U

Creating Curricular Partnerships with UX

Practitioners

What I’ll Cover

Framework for the Class

Industry Partners

Networking for Partnership

Sustaining the Collaboration

Framework for the Class

An online, grad-level class that:

1) Introduces technical communication students to researching

and doing UX design

2) Introduces best practices in UX from industry

Ideal paths from the class:

UX internships

UX research and design projects

UX knowledge useful in other tech comm positions

Framework for the Class, cont’d

Sources of UX knowledge:

Research findings and best practices from tech comm

E.g. Albers, Grabill, Hart-Davidson, Potts, Salvo, Spinuzzi, Sun,

etc.

Industry books on best practices

E.g. Courage and Baxter, Garrett, Sharon, Nielsen, Ratcliffe and

McNeill, etc.)

Framework for the Class, cont’d

Sources of UX knowledge, cont’d:

Industry mags and blogs

E.g. UX Magazine, User Experience, Smashing Magazine, Boxes

and Arrows, etc.

Tools and resources from industry partners

E.g. The Nerdery and UserZoom

Framework for the Class, cont’d

Sources of UX knowledge, cont’d:

My own research into and practice with UX design methods

E.g. contextual inquiry, field studies, card sorting, usability testing,

user research, user-centered design, participatory design,

information architecture

Industry Partners

The Nerdery

Why I chose them

Their Apprenticeship Program:

http://www.uxcollaborative.org/partners/

What they’re providing

A baseline listing of methods for their AP

Business Discovery, User Research, IA, IDx,

Evaluation, Visual Design

Industry Partners, cont’d

The Nerdery, cont’d

What they’re providing

Advice on curriculum design

A guest lecture for the class on what they look for in AP

candidates

Industry Partners, cont’d

UserZoom

Why I chose them

Their University Program: http://www.uxcollaborative.org/partners/

What they’re providing

Free access to a robust, industry standard tool for UX research

Free training and technical support for the tool for both students

and myself

Networking for Partnership

Think about utility

What’s the value-add to your class or program?

Is the prospective partner an organization you want to affiliate

with?

What about their mission matches up with your own?

Think about buy-in

What’s in it for the industry partner?

What will they get in return?

Sustaining the Collaboration

Offer to facilitate feedback

Students: have them do a reflection on their experiences with

the partner’s tools or resources

Partners: put something in front of them from the students and

ask them to respond to it, or at least give students a chance to

ask them questions through a guest lecture

You: what about the collaboration was successful and what

wasn’t and why?

Sustaining the Collaboration, cont’d

Don’t be afraid to say no to a second collaboration

Don’t be afraid to ask for something different for a

second collaboration

For More Information

My Program: http://www.ecu.edu/english/tpc/

My Portfolio: http://guiseppegetto.com

This presentation is accessible via Slideshare, which

is linked to from my portfolio site