User Experience Design, Advanced

Course Description

This follow-up to "User Experience Design Fundamentals" covers new design methods and offers hands-on practice. In addition to understanding the UX design principles and processes at a greater depth, advanced practitioners also have to engage users for research, use tools to communicate design, as well as carry out the design in a collaborative product development environment. If you want to take your design skills to the next level and practice advanced techniques in user experience design, this is the course for you.

The course focuses on application of the design methodologies and design strategies, from concept development to prototyping, including user research and design presentations. The goal of this course is to get you ready to take real-world UX design challenges and master industry practices in interaction design, visual design and information design, including DOs and DON'Ts. You will also learn how to apply human cognitive principles in design. The course will expose you to design & prototyping tools to create effective and pleasing user experiences. The course includes techniques for team collaboration, UX design presentation, documentation, and effective codification, as commonly practiced with clients and in corporations.

You will work on individual and team projects while sharpening your UX design skills and knowledge, while receiving feedback from the class. Projects may include websites, software applications, or product interfaces. The course will also provide guidance in establishing a UX design portfolio.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of the course, you should be able to

• Select and use design tools appropriately
• Practice appropriate research techniques
• Apply learnings from cognitive psychology
• Select and use design methods effectively
• Collaborate as designers in a team
• Apply global design principles across domains
• Present and share their work with others
• Clearly codify and document their design ideas and solutions

Topics Include

• Design Thinking
• Design Methods and Strategies
• Applying Design Principles
• Research Methods

 
Note(s): Participants will also be exposed to a deep library of resources and tools for later reference and use.

 
Skills Needed: Students should have completed the prerequisite course, or have at least two years of work experience in the field. Students should also have a working knowledge of an image processing and/or drawing application (e.g. Adobe Illustrator, Google Drawings, OmniGraffle, Sketch, or a similar program). The drawing is to communicate product design in high fidelity graphics.

Additional Information

AI* - This course integrates AI as a collaborative tool to enhance student learning—supporting research, ideation, and design exploration—while requiring students to demonstrate understanding, articulate their use of AI, and independently produce core project work to ensure they are prepared for real-world industry practice.