What's missing in #UX Design Education today?

Between Dec 2015 and Feb 2019, before I left for my sabbatical in Europe, I had the opportunity to serve as part of General Assembly's (GA) Singapore founding instructing team as a part-time User Experience (UX) Instructor. The opportunity gave me my first break to see if I would enjoy a career in education.

I recall rushing down after a busy day at work a few times a month to deliver an Introduction to UX Workshop to anywhere between 20 to 50 professionals. I derived much joy from interacting with the participants, several of whom went to build their careers in UX and one even became my intern at Razer and subsequently joined Grab as a Product Designer. I recently invited Maverlyn, my ex-intern at Razer, to share her career journey over a Facebook Live interview.

There are plenty of free and paid options to study UX today and LinkedIn ranks as one of the top 5 hard skills companies need in 2020. Herein, lies part of a bigger systemic problem, there is way much information and options touting content and awarding certifications liberally. The current state of #UX education is a replica of GA's bootcamp formula: learn as many of the latest available design software out there, work on unwarranted project redesigns (that may not solve a real problem) and build a portfolio website with written case studies following the given structure.

The result is an increase of cookie cutter design graduates that can only apply the UX process like a checklist but not think for themselves or understand the larger context of the methods and tools. Years ago that worked well for a period of time because there was strong demand for junior talent, that period is now gone and made worse because of COVID-19. The demand in Asia Pacific has now shifted towards mid-level talent (3 to 5 years) through my recent conversations with a handful of Head/VPs of Design in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

So what's missing in UX design education today? The current state of design education lacks contextual mastery and soft skills training.

In Julie Zhou, VP of Product Design at Facebook, 2017 Medium article she shared three keys to a successful product design career.

• Craft and execution skills (>90% of programs out there teach this only)
• Product thinking
• Influencing skills

I got to sharpen the latter two skills while working as a Product Manager and being an Entrepreneur and I spend the majority of my time today as an educator today thinking how I can distill my product thinking and communication experience into classroom contact time.

An approach I adopt is to teach beyond the given curriculum to build a stronger scaffold in the learners' mind connecting the dots from research to design to testing. In the classes I am assigned to, I dive deeper into the context and nuances of the various methods in UX to help learners' reflect and apply what they learnt in class constantly. My hypothesis is, an increased number of feedback cycles in class will help learners retain and internalise the concepts better. I experimented with this approach as early as 2016 teaching for GA's 5-day UX intensive program and have received feedback from several past students they haven't found a need to attend another UX course based on a recent check in. Some of them now work in senior positions in organisations like Alibaba, Shopee and GovTech mentoring the next generation of design leaders.

For those who are thinking of self-studying UX, I implore you to do more research about the assessment methods of the MOOCs you sign up for, the quality of the feedback you receive in your work is just as important as the quality of the content you study.

In future, content will no longer be the differentiator but pedagogy, feedback and industry access will differentiate which design schools produce effective designers who continue to thrive in the industry.

I graduated 2007 from design school and less than 50% of my peers have remained in the creative industries. This seems to be a common phenomenon based on straw poll surveys done with colleagues in the industry.

Atelier 2.0

I've been experimenting on a different andragogy (for adult education) on a private group coaching program I am running with some of my ex-students who are working adults. The focus of the part-time program is not on technical skills although my coaching clients learn from their peers and me as they work on real projects with real clients (mostly non-profits around the world). The content focus revolves around strategic product thinking and marketing communications. They also receive feedback from their clients, curated experts and me throughout the four month period.

This approach is an adaptation of the atelier model practiced in vocational trade in the 19th century in Europe where an experienced tradesman takes in a group of apprentices and grooming them to be journeymen and eventually masters over a number of years. I also took some inspiration from the Bauhaus approach of cross-disciplinary skills immersion.

In this experimental program delivered online, I play the role of curator, coach and mentor to help my coaching clients sharpen their thinking skills, position in the job market and portfolio; all of which design schools seem to have placed very little emphasis on yet highly valued by hiring managers.

I guess time will tell whether this group of coaching clients will do well in the industry especially when some are mid-career switchers. Some may ask if four months is enough to groom a professional considering that many have invested time and money in one to three years design programs? The truth is I don't know at this point but from the progress they are making thus far through accelerated learning, I remain cautiously optimistic given the current economic climate.

My challenge to faculty members of established design schools are as follow:

• Is your teaching faculty imparting resilience and have prepared strategies for graduating students coming into an impending economic recession and post-COVID era?
• Do you have a career coach as part of your faculty and how are they measured based on performance? Do they prepare students on CV writing and interview skills?
• How do you know if your student portfolios are ready for the industry?
• Do members of your teaching faculty know the strengths and weaknesses of each student and have advised them how to position themselves and think ahead?
• How do students practice higher order thinking and communication skills throughout their coursework?
• How regularly do you consult a pool of independent industry experts who do not sit on your school's board to do an audit on your curriculum and its delivery?
• When was the last time your school's staff interviewed the needs of hiring managers?

Industry practitioners and educators, open to hearing your views in the comment section below. If you are a design professional and this resonates with you, please feel free to distribute these ideas and questions.

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@daylonsoh