For decades, psychologists have applied their research methods to solving big problems in design and creating more user-friendly objects, interfaces, and environments. In addition to advancing design and improving people’s daily experience, applied psychology research has led to new advances in understanding the basic nature of human cognition and behavior.
Now, as people become more deeply connected with technology — and as that technology itself becomes more complex — the need for psychologically informed design that is both culturally and contextually appropriate is becoming more urgent.
Psychology MA students have a unique opportunity to tailor their studies to connect with the growing field of user experience research and design by taking courses in Applied Psychology and Design subject area. Students can select coursework that provides conceptual knowledge, research methods and statistical skills they can use to collaborate successfully with designers, data scientists, coders, and more. Coursework in Applied Psychology & Design provides students with access to opportunities for hands-on collaborative work with designers and designers-in-training at Parsons School of Design. Students will engage with critical questions about the ethical treatment of humans — both research participants in the design process and the eventual users of what is being designed — and about the broader social systems in which psychologically informed design is embedded.
Introduction to Applied Psychology & Design, offered each fall, provides a launchpad for additional work in this subject area. In this course, students review how theories of human perception, cognition and interaction have informed human factors and ergonomics, and how attention to the psychology of individual capacities along with environmental and social factors can inform design. They also encounter widely used lab and field research methods, including task analysis, usability testing, experimental design, and observational and self-report measures of users’ experience, cognition and affect.
Deeper connection with the theoretical and empirical foundations that have informed human factors work is available through coursework in cognitive psychology, visual perception, psycholinguistics, and statistical methods and research design. Other courses can provide expertise in adjacent areas of psychology that can inform Applied Psychology and Design, for example in social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, psychopathology, global mental health, political psychology, or qualitative methods. And studio-based courses co-taught with Parsons School of Design, like Visualizing Uncertainty, can provide concrete experience in collaborative project-based design work that includes assessment of user experience.
Available courses in Fall 2021 in both foundational and adjacent areas include:
Students interested in the Applied Psychology & Design subject area are advised to meet with professor of psychology Michael Schober, with whom they can discuss how best to plan their MA experience within and beyond the classroom to help meet their longer-term aspirations. Students are also encouraged to attend conferences and explore memberships to relevant associations such as Human Factors and Ergonomic Society (HFES), Computer Human Interaction (CHI), IEEE, and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), as well as psychology societies such as APS, Society for Applied Research on Memory and Cognition (SARMAC), and Cognitive Science Society.
Although this subject area currently constitutes an informal path within the Psychology MA and does not appear on students' transcripts or diplomas, the faculty will work with students to help them connect what they learn with their professional goals.