PS1028 Summary

The Psychology of Human Centred Design is an online undergraduate course at UNSW that explores how psychology and cognitive science underpin the creative practices, processes and methods that lead to innovation. Over the course of the subject, students engage with a transdisciplinary range of frameworks and methods for entrepreneurial innovation, creative thinking, ideation and prototyping by imagining a new solution to an identified problem.

I was PSY1028 project lead, taking the project from the ideation stage and conducting research, educational design, writing lecture outlines, recruiting, briefing and co-ordinating guest lecturers, content production and digital upload.

PSY2018 Behind The Scenes

Process

This course was a tricky jigsaw job in bringing together what have historically been very separate fields: the academic study of psychology and cognitive neuroscience → industry practice of creativity and innovation.

Research → I began the year with both secondary and primary research: to gather perspectives from courses and content already available online, and to talk with those in the industry to understand their practices and philosophy on human centred design.

Content design →I turned these ‘skills’ into what I called ’topic blocks’. Topic blocks were pieces of content that had to be covered in the course, but could flexibly be covered in any of the lectures. After creating the key learning outcomes, and course objectives I arranged the topic blocks across a learning journey and began searching for guest lecturers.

Guest lecturers →I created briefs for each lecturer, and over the course of 2-4 meetings would give feedback on their outlines and use their outlines to adjust the lecture content on either side of them.

Production → I contracted an external editor for this course, to round out the designer/videographer on our team. We designed the course ‘branding’ to align with the FM Labs branding including keynote slides, handouts, web banners, course overviews and post-production guides.

Mindfulness resources→My favourite feature of this course is the series of 3-5 minute guided meditation videos preceding each lecture, designed to help students feel relaxed, focused and grounded. These meditations were designed in collaboration with with clinical psychologist Lara Kocijan from the Indigo Project.

Collab credits

Luke Szalla Designer and Videographer
Dr Sebastian Rogers Cognitive Neuroscientist Guest Lecturer + Ongoing Course Coordinator
Professor Joel Pearson Cognitive Neuroscientist Guest Lecturer + Ongoing Course Coordinator
Lara Kocijan Clinical Psychologist Guest Mindfulness Guide
Bryan Hoedemaeckers Director Deloitte Digital Guest Lecturer
Emila Yang Interaction Designer Google Guest Lecturer
Alessio Colli Design Lead Kearney Guest Lecturer
Georgina Hibberd Design Researcher Northcott Innovation Guest Lecturer
Bonnie Abbott Design Researcher XERO & RMIT Guest Lecturer
Tim Heffernan Anthropologist UNSW Guest Lecturer