Course Description:

As an introduction to the field of User Experience Design (UXD), this course provides an overview of the process for specifying, designing, and testing computer interfaces to enable its users to easily learn, understand and use them. It will discuss how UXD fits within the overall interface development process, how UXD fits within a company's business operations and how each of the elements of UXD fit together into a design and development process. Furthermore, it will address important fields in UXD such as accessibility and mobile computing. This is a team taught course with experts from Industry & Academia.

Topics covered:

• User experience design process from start to completion
• Current practices such as selecting appropriate design patterns, developing user personas, conducting a contextual inquiry and card sorting
• UXD evangelism recommendations for survival within a large company
• Return on investment costing and designing for competitive advantage
• Overview of the professional field and where to look for resources

Outline: 

This is a one-week intensive course.

Session 1:  Introduction to the UXD lifecycle and Agile Programming

Session 2:  Intro to User Research

Session 3:  User Research Case Study

Session 4:  Visual Design

Session 5:  Personas and Journey Maps

Session 6:  Design Studio

Session 7:  Design Prototyping and Lean UX

Session 8:  Interaction Design

Session 9:  Building Prototype

Session 10:  Usability Analysis

Session 11:  Design for Accessibility

Session 12:  Helping Your Organization Strategize with UX

Session 13:  Agile UX

Session 14: Formative Evaluation

Assignments: Homework assignments and a group project.