Abstract
Vicious problems are problems that reinvent themselves. One vicious problem is how to educate the next generation of usability (UX) professionals. I borrowed a method from naturalistic decision-making research: the critical decision method (CDM). A CDM is an ethnographic approach that elicits the implicit knowledge of experts in their area of expertise. The methodology reveals the decision points, options, and outcomes with which a decision maker struggles. The decision points derive key attributes, meanings, and goals for the area of concern. UX businesses have a vicious problem similar to education: whom to hire for a UX position, who is qualified and who is not? I used the critical decision method to elicit required skills within the local UX market. These contributed to a reworking of the UX curriculum. The methodology and the results are discussed.
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Elliott, L.J. (2017). Keeping the HF/UX Curriculum Current with the Critical Decision Method. In: Kantola, J., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 498. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_2
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