Teaching interaction design, prototyping, and product thinking

Overview

Alongside my product design work, I’ve taught 2 university courses focused on interaction design, product design, and the end-to-end design process. Across two different programs:

the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
The College for Creative Studies in Detroit

Both courses were grounded in the product design lifecycle: identifying a meaningful problem, shaping a clear problem statement, researching users and context, uncovering patterns and pain points, generating concepts, prototyping, and testing. But each class required a different teaching approach because the students brought very different backgrounds, skills, and expectations.

What made this work especially meaningful to me was helping students see design not just as aesthetics or software screens, but as a way of thinking — a way to understand people, frame problems, and make better decisions through iteration.

390: Intro to Product Design

University of Michigan, College of Engineering / Center for Entrepreneurship

Context

This course introduced product design to engineering students, many of whom were encountering design, HCI, and user-centered methods for the first time. The goal was not only to expose them to design vocabulary and process, but to help them build practical confidence in moving from an idea to a small, testable prototype.

The class had about 50 students and was co-taught with another instructor. We rotated lecture responsibilities while the other instructor supported students during class time, which created a collaborative rhythm that helped us balance structured teaching with more individualized guidance.

The challenge

The main challenge was teaching students who were often strong analytical thinkers but new to design as a discipline. Many were comfortable solving technical problems, but less familiar with ambiguity, open-ended exploration, and the idea that good design starts by framing the right problem rather than rushing to a solution.

This meant the course had to do several things at once:

introduce the fundamentals of product design and HCI
help students define stronger problem statements
teach methods for uncovering user pain points and patterns
build comfort with critique, iteration, and prototyping
make the design lifecycle feel approachable rather than abstract

Approach

We structured the course around the product design lifecycle, helping students work step by step from problem identification to prototype development.

Core topics included:

defining and refining a strong problem statement
identifying user needs and contexts
recognizing patterns and pain points through observation and synthesis
ideation and concept development
prototyping and testing
preparing a small product concept to communicate and share

Because many of the students were new to design, I focused heavily on helping them understand why each step mattered, not just what deliverable to produce. The teaching approach balanced lectures, examples, critique, and hands-on discussion so students could gradually connect process to outcomes.

The co-teaching structure also helped. By rotating lectures and student support roles, we were able to keep the class dynamic while still giving students more direct feedback during working sessions.

Outcomes

The course resulted in positive student feedback and a set of final projects that demonstrated meaningful growth over the semester. Students were able to move from broad or underdeveloped ideas toward clearer problem framing, better-defined user needs, and more intentional prototype decisions.

For many, the course served as an introduction not only to product design, but to a more human-centered way of building. That made the work especially rewarding: the class was not just about teaching methods, but about helping students expand how they think.