The study examined whether students in MIT's Course 6 (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) placed less emphasis on users' interests in design compared to other MIT students. A design scenario and open-ended questions were used to assess user-centeredness. Results showed Course 6 students scored significantly lower on questions about prototype iteration and design success criteria, though not initially on problem exploration. This suggests the technical curriculum decreases consideration of users' needs in later design stages. Limitations included sampling bias and need for more diverse studies.

1. The Effect of an MIT Engineering Education on User-Centered Design Skills Li Bian, Blaine Ziegler, Simon Shum

8. Methods Experimental Design Dependent Independent User-Centered towards Question 1 User-Centered towards Question 2 User-Centered towards Question 3 Average User-Centered towards all questions Course 6 Non Course 6

17. Results Course 6 (n = 22) Non-Course 6 (n = 27) t-stat p-value Q1 ( 2.47 , 1.18) ( 3.05 , 1.30) 1.619 0.056 Q2 ( 2.47 , 1.05) ( 3.44 , 1.08) 3.182 0.00130 Q3 ( 2.56 , 0.95) ( 3.23 , 1.14) 2.229 0.015 Overall ( 2.50 , 0.82) ( 3.24 , 1.00) 2.811 0.00358

22. Questions? Thanks