Inclusive Experience & Community Engagement

Building on foundational user research and design thinking from Unit 1, this unit develops skills in reframing problems, pragmatic creativity, equity-centered dialogue, and community engagement. Students will translate insights into experience-focused prototypes and multi-level outreach plans that incorporate hardware/software accessibility and trust-building strategies to prepare for deeper implementation in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze user problems by reframing perspectives to identify at least three hidden solution pathways and justify selections with evidence from case studies or class exercises
• Apply pragmatic creative techniques to develop two inclusive experience artifacts (such as experience maps, low-fidelity prototypes, or workflow sketches) that prioritize user needs beyond product features
• Evaluate equity and ethical considerations in design by facilitating or role-playing a courageous conversation and producing a reflective report that identifies power dynamics and concrete mitigation strategies
• Design a multi-level community engagement and outreach plan (inform, consult, collaborate) that integrates hardware and software accessibility measures and specific trust-building tactics, and justify the plan against inclusive design criteria