Code for america as an instructional resource for teaching user centered design and accessibility

Abstract

One of the key challenges in user centered design instruction is how to replicate the professional climate. Code for America is a group of volunteers who work on civic problems from a technology standpoint.The group is ideal for helping to train students in design thinking, civic entrepreneurship, and collaboration with the hope that they will continue to volunteer after graduation. Within the group, there are several development teams. The teams consist of experienced developers, writers, and designers. Often, the development teams lack interaction designers or user experience researchers to help them understand the user, understand accessibility and W3 standards. This article illustrates best practices in our experience. It is a starting point for incorporating open source volunteer development projects into a user centered design curriculum.