Global HCI Curricula: The Case for Creativity

This paper makes the case for the inclusion of experimental creative practice within global HCI curricula. The interface between HCI and creative practice is often found in the discipline of user experience design where students are trained in the various methods, approaches and techniques of designing for digital systems, objects, and interfaces. User experience design has traditionally been seen as at the service of both the people who are intended to use a digital product and the business objectives of the commissioning organisation. Most recently, this has led to a number of negative consequences including the emergence of surveillance capitalism, a flattening of creative possibility, and an arguably damaging prioritisation of human needs above all others. In order to revitalise the discipline, this paper suggests that HCI education needs to widen its scope to encompass conceptual risk taking through several approaches that we detail.