My keynote on experience architecture as a humanistic practice, a feminist method, and an undergraduate degree program. Includes information about our work at WIDE Research Center within the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University.

1. Liza Potts
Director of Experience Architecture
Director of WIDE Research Center
Associate Professor of Awesome
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
Experience Architecture
How the Humanities Goes to Work

2. TL;DR @LizaPotts
Director of WIDE Research
 Participatory culture, social user experience, internet studies, fan studies
 Research sponsored by the NEH and IMLS
 Chair of Association of Computing Machinery’s SIGDOC
Associate Professor in Dept. of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures
 Director of Experience Architecture program
 Teaching classes on User Experience, Information Design, Content Strategy,
Digital Rhetoric, Research Methods, Digital Humanities
User Experience Architect working in/with Industry Partners since 1994
 Built software used by millions, managed teams across three continents
 Design Consultancies, Start-Ups, Microsoft

3. Today’s Talk
 Experience Architecture (XA) Degree Program
 Guiding Principles for XA
 WIDE Research and Outreach Projects

4. PLAYS a strategic role in researching, building,
and sustaining digital experiences for
participants
EDUCATES architects who know user experience designers,
information architects, user researchers, content strategists,
project managers, and front-end developers
IS the strategy and practice of user experience from the
perspective of the Humanities

6. B.A. in Experience Architecture
Experience
Architecture
Rhetoric
Writing
Design
Information
Technology
Philosoph
y
Computer
Science
Capstone
Community Outreach
Research Project
Field Trips and Site
Visits
Workshops
Networking Events
Study Abroad
Portfolio Shows
Internship
On Campus
Off Campus

8.  60 students from across the university and
beyond, many non-traditional
 First Class = Type A’s  Do it NOW!
 Advanced: Several Honors Students
 Diverse: 50/50 gender / 33% diverse
 Transfers: 33% from Community College
 Origins: 1/3 Liberal Arts students;
1/3 Engineering (elec, mech, compsci); 1/3
from all over
Who Are Our XA
Majors?

9. 2016 First Graduating Class
http://www.emilydallaire.com/

10. Industry Needs for XA Students

11. from
Onward
Search

12. Guiding
Principles
for XA
Experiences built by
Humanists
Diversify & Decolonize Tech
Social Justice Design

13. Experiences built by Humanists
“…a basis in human values is something that we cannot afford to look
beyond when it comes to preparing the next generation of professionals for
technology-focused careers. STEM curricula are notoriously jammed with
requirements that impose practical limits on studying ethics, history, and
yes, even dystopian novels.”
- Potts, Lauren, Tegtmeyer, Schopieray, MSU XA Faculty in their article “Killer Robots and the
Humanities: Building an Interdisciplinary UX program

14. Diversify and Decolonize Tech
“One way for TPC to engage issues of power and legitimacy is by
taking a critical stance toward social justice and diversity, as it is
represented in instruction and scholarship in our field.”
- Natasha Jones, in her Journal of Technical Writing and Communication article about
integrating social justice approaches into research and teaching

15. Social Justice Design
“…social justice UX projects seek to understand context through
critique and research methods. The end result of that critique to
design user experiences for traditionally marginalized or under
resourced populations that will benefit users by changing the social
environment to further democratize social goals and/or facilitate
justice, and to address violence, oppression, discrimination or other
undesirable social dynamics. What, perhaps, we make is that the
location of this benefit may take place both within the development
cycle or as a product.”
Douglas Walls, Assistant Professor, NC State
From his 2016 SIGDOC paper “User Experience in Social Justice Contexts”

16. MSU’s WIDE
Research
Center
Our Goals:
 Create research opportunities and new
knowledge about digital experiences
 Promote the transfer of discoveries
about digital experiences in a way that
has impact in the world
 Help prepare a new generation of
researchers and leaders

17. XA Research Projects
Participatory and Visible
Intentionally Inclusive
Social Justice in Research and Design

18. Participatory and Visible

19. DigiDiss // Sponsored by NEH
http://digidiss.eserver.org/
With Co-PI Kathie Gossett, Iowa State
Participants include:
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Shana Kimball
Quinn Warnick
Carrie Lamanna
Martine Courant-Rife
Aaron Collie, MSU Digital Curation
Ranti Junus, MSU Librarian
Student Researchers:
Beth Keller, Tom Lindsley, Alex Galarza

20. Participatory Memory Digital Projects
Undergraduate Researchers (and grads!):
Emily Dallaire, Kelly Turner, Katie Grimes

21. Intentionally Inclusive

23. Organizations Built for and Led By Women

24. Ojibwa and Cherokee Language Archive // Sponsored by IMLS
With Co-PIs Ellen Cushman,
Gordon Henry, and Rebecca
Tegtmeyer
Student Researchers include:
Minh-Tam Nguyen, WIDE
Cole Knight, XA student

25. Social Justice in Research | Design
"A vital part of our work as technical communicators going
forward is to show our clients how user research and user-
centered design is necessary to create ethical information
flows in digital environments. This becomes a social justice
issue when the information we communicate involves
complex health and medical information. Without
consideration of the user experience, many may be denied
access to this information.”
-Dawn Opel "Communicating the Complexity of Health Care Payment and Service
Delivery Reform," 5th Annual Symposium on Communicating Complex Information
(forthcoming in CDQ)

26. Archive As I See It // Sponsored by NEH
With Co-PIs Michael Nelson and Michelle
Wiegle, Computer Science Dept. Old
Dominion University
Student Researchers, Designers, Devs:
Yasmin AlNoamany, ODU
Mat Kelly, ODU
Heather Turner, MSU
Ian Clark, MSU

27. Social Media Use During Times of Disaster
Researchers
Across the
USA,
Australia,
India, and
Beyond
including:
Joyce
Seitzinger
Dave Jones
Angela Eng
Kristen Mapes
And many
more who
have shared
their stories

28. Thank you!
Liza Potts
Associate Professor of Awesome
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
lpotts@msu.edu @LizaPotts
Director of Experience Architecture
xa.cal.msu.edu
Director of WIDE Research
wide.cal.msu.edu