From Usability to Responsibility: Embedding UCD, Soft Skills, PBL, and Sustainability in HCI Education

Abstract

This paper investigates the integration of User-Centered Design (UCD), soft skills, and sustainability principles into Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) education. Through a case study with undergraduate Computer Science students in São Paulo, Brazil, the study applied Project-Based Learning (PBL) to engage learners in real-world projects aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We report a case study in a sixth-semester HCI course at a private university in São Paulo, Brazil, involving 36 Computer Science undergraduates who worked in teams (2–3 students) to deliver 16 sustainability-oriented projects aligned with the UN SDGs. The semester was structured around a ten-step PBL cycle and UCD practices (personas, scenarios, prototyping, and iterative feedback). Each team produced medium-fidelity prototypes, implemented a functional version, and conducted user evaluations with five participants per group, including SUS administration and heuristic inspections by usability specialists. Course evaluation combined product evidence with student self-assessment of six transversal competencies (communication, teamwork, organization, leadership, learning, and creativity). Results indicate that the integrated PBL+UCD design fostered both technical proficiency (e.g., requirements modeling, prototyping, and usability testing) and socio-emotional growth, with most students rating themselves “good/very good” on key competencies and reporting higher motivation under PBL (52.2%), with a further 34.8% preferring a mix of PBL and traditional exams. The resulting portfolio spans awareness and behavior-change tools (e.g., energy/water dashboards, recycling education, carbon-footprint trackers), illustrating SHCI’s potential to translate ecological concerns into actionable interactions. While limited to a single institution and semester, the study offers a reproducible course design that operationalizes “from usability to responsibility” by aligning UCD rigor, active methodologies, and sustainability principles. We discuss curricular implications and outline future work on longitudinal tracking, OERs for SHCI, and AI-supported evaluation.