Translational Resources

Academic research can offer insights for HCI practitioners, yet past work shows that research findings are rarely used in industry. We interviewed 22 design practitioners to identify why they do not use academic research and why and how they use other resources at work. We contribute recommendations for the design of translational resources to bridge the gap between theory and practice in HCI. We recommend ways to create theory-driven examples tailored to specific activities: understanding, brainstorming, building, and advocacy. Additionally, practitioners prefer actionable guidance and see prescriptive recommendations and downloadable design patterns as most useful. Design-oriented filters, support for mapping design challenges to research keywords, and visual galleries of examples from theory have the potential to facilitate designers' search processes. Finally, translational resources and discussion features can be integrated into tools for designers and academics to support cross-community collaboration.