Threshold Concepts in HCI Education

In this paper, we introduce the notion of “threshold concepts” to an HCI education audience, proposing the value of this framing of development and competence-building for HCI educators, students, and practitioners. We focus on two exploratory studies from the United Kingdom and United States that identify emergent threshold concepts from the perspective of HCI and UX students. We use these emergent concepts to propose research that focuses on developmental capabilities in HCI education and the barriers and opportunities that educators should be prepared to address.