Developing human-centered design approaches: preparing professionals to address complex problems

In this poster, we describe the types of problems that the SIGDOC community addresses as complex, socially-situated and wicked. As we consider the future professionals who will address these problems, it is important to understand how we can prepare students and early career professionals to continue this work. To this end, we draw on research that describes different stages people might go through in developing design skills to meet human needs, and then suggest educational experiences that would help students and early-career professionals develop competencies in these areas.