Impact of user involvement on design students’ motivation and self-confidence

• Published in: International journal of technology and design education Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 183 - 197
• Main Authors: Conradie, Peter D., Van Acker, Bram B., De Vos, Ellen, Saldien, Jelle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Art education; Confidence; Design; Education; Educational Technology; Learning and Instruction; Motivation; Science Education; Self Esteem; Student Motivation; Student Participation; Students; User involvement; Design education; Design methods
• ISSN: 0957-7572; 1573-1804
• DOI: 10.1007/s10798-019-09531-7

Involvement of users in the design process is generally viewed favourably, both within academia and industry. Their involvement can be seen as a strategy for designers to clarify their design task and reduce uncertainties in the design process. Simultaneously, there is a lack of understanding about the impact that user involvement has on students and how they experience doing so. This paper reports on a study where students were asked to self-report their motivation and self-confidence throughout a design exercise, stretching 11 days, with surveys repeating daily. Additionally, students were asked to indicate which—if any—strategies of user involvement they used every day. We find that students self-reported motivation did not change statistically significantly, while self-confidence did change. However, in neither case did student’s involvement of end-users impact how motivated or self-confident they were. We discuss our results in relation to existing research on method use in general and user involvement in particular and conclude with some suggestions for future work.