International Student Classroom Interaction

Tonight I had an interesting discussion with a group of first year HCI students regarding the CHI 2008 design competition. We are all working on it as part of different classes but face similar problems.

The part of the discussion I found the most interesting was how people design and where their inspiration comes from. For some it comes from research others from the actual subject themselves or a population close to the subject at hand. It is really interesting to watch these students start to find who they are in the design realm. Everyone has their own ways of finding inspiration and these first year students are just starting to develop their design processes and voice.

Something I have really started to internalize over the past few days is my design inspiration and voice. I have realized that I am really a human-centered designer. The reason I came back to school was to learn more about usability which is a very human-centered field. I have learned so much more than just usability in the domain of HCI in the past year and a half. I have realized people are my inspiration. This is how I helped my team come up with our CHI solution. I saw a problem some interesting points and found a possible solution.

Much of my research for capstone has been papers that talk to people or statistics about people. My capstone is about a group of people and I am waiting on Human Subjects Committee approval to survey this group of people. It is kind of funny when you finally internalize something that was there all along.

Another topic was the PRInCiPleS framework and its merits as a design system. One of the students debated that this was not a useful way to design and that his team had thrown it out. Other people from other teams talked about how they are using it and how it is helpful. The PRInCiPleS are not intended to be a end all be all solution for everything they are just a framework that helps you make sure you have everything covered to create a solid design argument. Also as someone else said if you get stuck it is a good place to come back to and say ok where am I and can this help guide me toward a solution. Thinking about my capstone project I started to try and fit things in to the PRICPS as we lovingly call it and realized that I am doing it without really thinking about it.

As has been said many times before design is a very non linear process. I believe everyone has to take the ideas that are out there regarding design and find their own way to design.

Find your own process and run with it.

Probably the most interesting piece of research I have found for my capstone so far is a dissertation from 1959 about International student adjustment. Interestingly I am working on pretty much the same topic.

Did you know that Indiana was one of the top schools for International students in the United States in the 50s and 60s? Back then IU had around 400 students which was really large for that time.

Many of the things I have read over and over again in more recent research is also noted in this dissertation. The question is are these problems that we are doomed to have to deal with or is it that everyone just talks about the problems but doesn't try to solve or at least reduce them. Some of the issues discussed in this dissertation have been addressed by the international student center but many of the common ones haven't.

Do I expect to solve these problems with my capstone no but I hope to make some improvements at least within the Department of Informatics.

This little glance back in time is really very interesting and even with how old it is I think I has some interesting information.

Right now I am waiting on my HSC to come back and then I need to set up my online survey. I am also planning on meeting with someone from the International student center so I can understand the orientation process more. Maybe I can observe orientation in the spring.