Guest Lecturing: Teaching UX Research at Framingham State
A 2-hour workshop teaching 6 undergraduate students research methods and Figma prototyping.
October 16, 2025 · Henry Osterweis
1. The Opportunity
Invited to guest lecture for an introductory UX research class. Core message: research fundamentally shapes design decisions.
2. Research Methods
Covered qualitative vs quantitative approaches, when to use each, and three methods from my professional experience. Competitive research from Thorsun. Usability testing from Willkie. User interviews from Beyer Blinder Belle where I conducted power-user interviews that informed the design system I built.
3. Interactive Workshop
"Good vs. Bad Question" exercise. Presented 10 interview questions, identified problems, rewrote them together. Students practiced writing non-leading, experience-focused questions from scratch. The nuance of question design clicked when they saw how small wording changes completely change responses.
4. Figma Prototyping
Hands-on session building three common interaction patterns. Product card-to-cart flow. Image gallery carousel. Expandable accordion components. Students followed along and built working prototypes.
5. The Slides
Full lecture deck from the session.
6. Outcome
Students left understanding how research findings translate directly into design decisions. The goal was a mindset shift: approach design with curiosity and user empathy rather than jumping straight to visual solutions.
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