A Case Study of Cultural-Sensitive Interaction Design Teaching Method

With ever increasing pressure from the global trends of internationalization to teach competence in interaction design, new teaching methods and syllabuses need to be explored. This study presents an approach to developing a syllabus that is focused on the cultural sensitive characteristics in interaction design. It confronts the challenge of rapid progress in globalization of education, focusing on international cross cultural transitions in Australian tertiary design education. Working with this challenge, the study takes into account the cultural context that affect the interaction design characteristics in tertiary design education practice. This study has been considered as a continuation of the approach taken in a former ‘Comparative Study of Australian and Japanese Interaction Design Education’. Based on those findings, a culture sensitive teaching method of interaction design has been proposed, a trial has been implemented in a master class of a cross disciplinary subject, and an evaluation has been conducted. As part of the recent progressive transitions in interaction design education in Australia; this study intends to suggest a teaching method, which may enhance the cultural adaptive ability of both students and curriculum within an internationalized educational context.