Human-Centered Design and Development

Human-Centered Design and Development is the study of how to identify, design, build, and evaluate technologies to enhance people's lives. The field focuses on understanding people and their use of technology, the methods and tools used for designing and building effective technology solutions, and the modern information technologies used to create effective solutions. The field involves working with potential users and customers to understand their needs and unique contexts, and then how to design, build, and evaluate impactful products and services. Human-centered design and development integrates ideas from design thinking, human-computer interaction (HCI), interaction design, and user experience design with the skills and techniques needed for software development.

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You Might Like This Program If...

• You are passionate about designing and building interactive technologies
• You want to design, build, and evaluate web, mobile, and other software applications
• You enjoy working with people to understand how they live and how technology fits into their lives
• You want to design, conduct, and interpret data from user studies
• You embrace uncertainty and change, and are not afraid to fail on the path to getting things right

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The Human-Centered Design and Development major (HCDD) in the College of Information Sciences and Technology is a Bachelor of Science degree program that will educate students in the fundamental concepts and state-of-the-art skills in developing applications of technology for people, with a focus on learning outcomes needed to: a) identify opportunities to support human activity with technology; b) design and create useful and usable technology-mediated activities; and c) evaluate and iterate designed technologies in their context of use. Students graduating with a degree in HCDD will be positioned for successful careers in industry, government, and education, helping to ensure that our world of increasingly complex and pervasive technologies remains aligned with human aspirations, requirements, and limitations.

The HCDD major is interdisciplinary, combining foundational coursework in mathematics, statistics, information technology, and application development with specialized courses in social and psychological aspects of information and technology use, usability engineering, user research methods, and user interface design. The major draws on courses already taught as part of the IST BS degree, but also includes new courses that expand the user-centered analysis and design concepts and methodological rigor needed to succeed as an HCDD professional.

If you are a first year student applying to Penn State:

Click Apply to start your Penn State application. Before starting, you can also review the Applying Online Worksheet for more details and helpful hints about the application.

Your application work can be saved at each step of the process by clicking the Save and Continue button at the bottom of the page. This feature will allow you to move back and forth within the application or log off and return to complete your application at a later time.

After completing your Academic History, you will need to provide your Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR). As you begin the SRAR process, a new window will open allowing you to complete your SRAR. SRAR will focus on your high school coursework. It is important that this step is a complete and accurate representation of your school record. Therefore, have a copy of your secondary school records available as you complete your SRAR. You will need to enter every class and every grade earned for the last three years, as well as those classes in progress.

After completing your SRAR, you will be directed back to the Penn State application in order to complete the Program of Study portion of the application. Here, you will indicate your desired starting semester, your intended program of study, and your starting and ending campus. For further details on how to complete this portion based on your applicant type, please see the steps to apply for first-year students.

After completing this section of the application, you will provide some additional information, an activities resume, and a personal statement. You will be able to paste in this information from other sources, but note that the formatting may not always paste in as intended.

If you are a transfer student applying to Penn State:

All international transfer students will be required to submit official high school transcripts in order to complete the application. International transfer students will not complete the Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR) for either their high school or college coursework.

If you have accepted your offer of admission to Penn State:

If you completed SRAR and are accepted to Penn State, please provide the following for grade verification:

• Official transcript from years 9, 10, 11, and 12. If the transcript is issued in a language other than English, it must be accompanied by a separate line-by-line English translation.
• Official copy of the Tawjihi, accompanied by a separate line-by-line English translation.

Society increasingly recognizes the need for technologies designed to account for people's capabilities, needs, desires, and limitations. Human-Centered Design and Development graduates have many career paths available to them depending on their strengths, interests, and focus of study.

Students with more technical interests can become web and mobile application developers, front-end developers, and user interface/user experience designers and developers. Those most interested in the human dimension of technology can become usability researchers, interaction designers, and product managers. In addition, there are many opportunities to pursue graduate study in these areas.

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