Engaging design students in user research

Understanding of people is increasingly vital to design. Although designers are expected to take a people-centered approach and cater for people's real needs, there is a gap in design education which might have prevented designers from embracing user research in the design process. In recognizing this lack of training, we introduced a new module ‘User Research’ to third-year undergraduates when revising the design programmes, aiming to equip future designers with this important skill. The module took a project-based, reflective learning approach, and students were asked to conduct team projects that required extensive user input during the process. Their understanding of user research theories was assessed through short essays in which each student had to apply a combination of user research methods in a self-selected topic under a defined theme. This paper reflects on the teaching and learning of this new module, discusses the results of the 14 group projects and 72 student essays, and proposes means of engaging undergraduate design students in user research.