Applying Human Centered Design to Human Centered Design Alumni
How the Human Centered Design and Engineering Alumni Leadership Board at the University of Washington applied HCD to their own alumni
When you graduate from a university program, you can expect some level of communication as you become an alumni. How effective do you find it? Do you feel connected to the department in a way that is meaningful to you? Or do you quickly scroll to the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email?
In January 2019, the University of Washington Human Centered Design and Engineering department formed the first Alumni Leadership Board (ALB) to address the need for more intentional alumni and student community building, career connections, and industry skill sharing outside the academic curriculum. Our group of committed alumni have a desire to give back to the next generation of HCDE graduates and build the HCDE network for years to come.
Before we could truly appreciate our mission and principals or what events we wanted to create for our alumni and wider HCDE community, we wanted to learn more about our users: our fellow alumni. We wanted HCDE alumni to reengage with us, not unsubscribe.
So we did the only natural thing for a group of UX professionals to do: perform user research on our alumni. What were their needs? What challenges were they facing in their careers? How might the amount of time since their graduation inform their needs? If we were going to serve as a useful resource to fellow alumni, we first needed to research their goals, behaviors, contexts, and a variety of post-grad career trajectories.
Leading a Directed Research Group
During the summer of 2019, under the direction of former HCDE Department Chair, Dr. David McDonald, Michael Berg and I led a group of both undergraduate and graduate students in a Directed Research Group (DRG) to answer: what needs do HCDE alumni have post graduation and how can we best enrich them as well as the department?
The students were split into two groups; one group studied recent grads who were early in their careers, and the other studied alumni who had been out of the program for a longer period of time and were more senior in their careers. The students did secondary research about alumni programs, developed interview scripts to conduct semi-structured interviews with representative users and completed an analysis of their interview findings. They then created user personas and a journey map for both the junior and senior career alumni. Finally, they presented their findings to a group of stakeholders: the Alumni Leadership Board as well as HCDE department staff.
Summary of Findings
Early Career Alumni
- Steep “first job” learning curve. Recent grads felt prepared academically and had plenty of group project work to boot, but felt overwhelmed to be a one-stop-shop UX person at smaller companies, did not know how to navigate the UX role in their organization, or get buy-in for the value of UX research and user centered design processes.
- Dislike of traditional mixers. Events that were primarily social events, centered on mingling or drinking, felt awkward and unappealing to attend.
- Eager to give back. Junior career alumni have a huge sense of empathy for students who will follow in their footsteps and would like to help them through mentorship.
Senior Career Alumni
- Give and get value. Alumni look for opportunities where they can get value, such as professional development, industry connections, and updates on the latest UX trends. They also hope to positively contribute to the department and give.
- UX connections come from everywhere. This finding recognizes that alumni value connections that they made at different phases of their journey and many were not tied to the department. Many of their career paths were shaped by connections made outside of school. This is important to understand when defining the ALB’s purpose to alumni among other resources they already have.
- Clear and personal communication matters. Alumni are looking for clear and personalized communication from the department so they feel like they matter.
Putting these Findings into Practice
As the summer drew to a close, the next best opportunity to put these findings into practice was at the annual HCDE Alumni BBQ, a casual event that brought alumni together on the Seattle campus before the academic year began.
Armed with our enlightened understanding of the needs of our HCDE alumni, we did the following:
Finding: Clear and personal communication matters.
Action: We sent out a personalized email to alumni from the ALB to reiterate our excitement to see them individually and increase attendance.
Finding: Give and get value.
Action: We created “Give/Get” cards for alumni to fill out. These were handed out and explained at the sign-in table but also laid out on folding tables for alumni to fill out. The intent was to not only ask alumni what they can give to the department, but what they can get to advance themselves and their UX career goals. This will help the board plan future alumni events.
Finding: Dislike of traditional mixers.
Action: We created introvert-friendly activities like a poster board for identifying yourself along a spectrum of career tenure and industry type as well as another poster board dedicated to giving new students advice on post-its (It’s not a UX event without post-its!)
We were able to have a great event and the research inspired Give/Get cards led us to a new treasure trove of alumni data to use when we want to plan future events and evolve how we serve our alumni and the department in the most meaningful way.
Human centered design is at its core an empathy driven endeavor and applying it to our own alumni so we can create meaningful experiences in the future is a quintessential application.
Thank you to the students of the summer DRG, HCDE 496, Michael Berg and Dr. David McDonald.
To learn more about the UW HCDE Alumni Leadership Board or to get involved, visit us here: https://www.hcde.washington.edu/alumni-board
