Courses

In today’s competitive technological climate, good design is a distinct advantage in boosting product adoption, user satisfaction, and market success. Design-centric organizations are outperforming the S&P 500 in market value by adopting a design thinking mindset and investing in building usable, frictionless products. The attention and focus on user experience (UX) has increased dramatically in recent years, a trend that no doubt will continue well into the future. This course will provide an introduction to the basics of user experience design, design thinking, and user-focused product development. Students in this course will build a well-rounded UX knowledge base by stepping through the techniques of UX research (persona development, user journey mapping, usability testing), examining design principles, deconstructing design sprints to rapidly prototype new ideas, and deep-diving into case studies of successful (and unsuccessful) products. In addition, students will develop familiarity with industry-standard tools for wireframing, prototyping, and digital design. Finally, we will cover tips to help leaders to engage in a collaborative, productive way with UX designers, investigate considerations for emerging interfaces (e.g., voice, augmented reality, and virtual reality), and incorporate user feedback into the iterative design process.