In this presentation for SIGDOC 2013 (http://sigdoc.org), I reflect on heuristics and methods for building industry partnerships around a graduate-level class in UX design.

1. G U I S E P P E G E T TO
E AS T C AR 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

2. What I’ll Cover
 Framework for the Class
 Industry Partners
 Networking for Partnership
 Sustaining the Collaboration

3. 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

4. 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.)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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?

11. 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?

12. 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

13. 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