Human-Centered Design Overview

An introduction to human-centered design benefits your graduate research and broadens your career prospects. Whether studying to be a designer, engineer, scientist or artist, your work ultimately impacts real people and the world around us. Taking users seriously improves how projects are conceived and executed. 

DESIGN MATTERS

The act of creating something new shows up in many human endeavors. It can be a solution to a mundane problem like holding sheets of paper together or something as complex as the formulation of new institutions. Human Centered Design (HCD) is focused on opportunity- and problem-finding, and problem-solving, and is charged with understanding the needs, wants, and limitations of end-users. This is accomplished through methodologies and practices where these considerations are integrated at every stage of the design process.

HCD creates novel learning and discovery opportunities that are needed to train the future professoriate, workforce, professionals and civic leaders. HCD can only be taught in a true interdisciplinary educational environment in which coursework and research embrace diversity, inclusiveness, educational breadth, and interdependence, while promoting a person- and world-oriented, rather than a product-oriented, attitude towards education. 

INTERDISCIPLINARITY MATTERS

Recent trends show that both higher education institutions and government agencies seek employees with interdisciplinary backgrounds, demonstrating strengths in more than one field, and the agility to work with colleagues across fields. To address this, our Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program (IGEP) provides opportunities for graduate students whose goals cannot be met by a single discipline from a degree granting academic unit at the university. 

“Real world problems don’t fit nicely into boxes, specific fields, departments or programs,” said Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Amy Pruden, who managed the program from 2015-17. “We need to have the opportunity for students so inclined to tackle these problems.”

In the Certificate program, students learn the core ideas of HCD, explore how it applies in their own professional domains, and discover how their own research connects with projects in other disciplines. In particular, it leverages interdisciplinarity to see how to learn from the world around. The ability to collaborate across disciplines is a high-demand skill set in the private and public sectors and higher education careers, because institutions recognize that creative solutions to the most important societal challenges requires integrating aesthetics, analysis, and technological development.

HCD is a part of Virginia Tech’s Creativity + Innovation (C+I) transdisciplinary initiative and the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT).

For additional info visit the HCD website.

HCD Certificate Admission Requirements

Any student who has gained admission to a graduate program at Virginia Tech is eligible to take part in the Human-Centered Design (HCD) Certificate program. Other than filling out the appropriate certificate forms provided by the Graduate School, there are no additional admission requirements associated with the HCD Certificate.

HCD Course Requirements

The graduate certificate requires completion of 12 credit hours, with 6 credits prescribed, and 6 credits selected from two of three areas. Take both courses from the ‘Required’ section below, then choose at least 1 more course from any two of the areas 1, 2, and 3 for a total of 12 credits. (The elective courses should be in different areas.) Given that some of the courses are offered sporadically, potential substitutions are possible, where appropriate. If you have questions, please contact Ivica Ico Bukvic and Scott McCrickard, co-directors.

Required: INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

• GRAD 5134: Topics in Interdisciplinary Research (when HCD topic is offered)
• CS 5724: Models and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction

1. DESIGN STUDIES

• ART 5524: Topics in Human Centered Design (studio)
• ENGE 5024: Design in Engineering Education and Practice
• STS 6614: Adv. TS: (Cultures of Design; Origins of Innovation)

2. UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE

• CS/ISE 5714: Usability Engineering
• CS 5734: Computer-Supported Collaborative Work
• EDIT 5234: Intro to the Learning Sciences
• ENGE 5404: Assessment Techniques in Engineering Education
• ISE 5604: Human Information Processing I
• ISE 6604: Human Factors in Visual Display Systems
• ISE 6094: Cognitive Task and Work Analysis
• PSYCH 5354: Information Processing
• STS 6244: TS: History, Culture, and Politics of the Internet

3. DESIGN REALIZATION

• ART 5714: TS: Creative Code for Art & Design; TS: Interaction Design
• CS 5764: Information Visualization
• CS 5774: User Interface Software
• CS 6724: Advanced Topics In Human­ Computer Interaction
• ECE 5564: Wearable + Ubiquitous Computing
• EDIT 5624: Interactive Learning Media, Arts, and Design
• EDIT 5614: Digitally Mediated Learning
• EDIT 5624: Interactive Learning Media, Arts, and Design
• EDIT 5634: Interactive Learning Media Development
• ENGL 5074: Introduction to Digital Humanities
• ENGL 6344: Rhetoric in Digital Environments
• ISE 6604: Human Factors in Visual Display Systems
• ISE 6614: Human Computer Systems
• ME 5644: Rapid Prototyping