0496 - UI/UX Design

Course Description

User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design have emerged as the framing approach to all digital design, including websites, apps and other devices and one of the most valuable skills in today's digital design environment. This course provides a concentrated but substantial introduction to every key element in UI/UX design. The course introduces students to and provides: A basic understanding of competitive research Designing effective user experience Applying design aesthetics Testing for accessibility Creating professional prototypes Summary reports and design proposals Integrated throughout the course are real-world examples and skill-building materials that prepare students to enter into or become more valuable participants in the field of UI/UX design.

• The nature and role of UI/UX design in today's fast-evolving world of digital and interactive design
• To be able to apply in practice principles and practices of stakeholder and user research in UI/UX design
• To wield prototyping tools including user journey maps; use case scenarios; and sitemaps to evaluate, plan and test user experience
• The role of UI/UX design and prototyping apps: Sketch, Figma and Adobe XD
• To prepare, write, and present research reports and design proposals in a range of professional settings

• Acquire and enhance professional competence in UI/UX design
• Develop professional communication skills presenting research, analysis, and design proposal
• Be introduced to the most popular UI/UX apps

This course is fully online, you require internet access and an email account. The course duration is 6 weeks, followed by a 2-week period to complete the final exam (online, open book). Lessons are released on Wednesdays and Fridays of each week, for a total of 12. You are not required to be online at any specific time. In addition to the specific lesson content, there is a discussion board with each lesson and often there is an optional assignment to apply the learning. Following each lesson, there is a short multiple choice quiz. Your score on these quizzes does not count towards the final mark but completing these helps solidify your learning as well as prepare you for the final exam. The final exam is an open-book, multiple choice exam and you need to achieve a minimum of 65% on the final exam to pass the course. There is only one opportunity to pass the exam. A certificate of completion from WatSPEED is available within four weeks of successful completion of each course and can be accessed in your student portal. Many of the Ed2Go courses are eligible towards the various online certificates offered by WatSPEED.

• This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.

• PC: Windows 10 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.10 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Lesson 1 - Understanding the Nature and Role of User Experience Design in Today's World. This lesson provides a basic understanding of user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. After going through it, you will be able to describe who uses UI/UX design and what specific hard and soft skills are required of the users. You'll also learn how UI/UX design actually takes place in a professional communication design workflow and be introduced to key terms of the field starting with information architecture and user profiles.

Lesson 2 - Understanding How User Interface (UI) Design Fits into Developing User Experience (UX). This lesson takes a closer look at the differences and relationship between UI and UX. You'll see why and how basic rules for communication design are applied in designing user interfaces for websites, apps, and communication devices (like watches). Finally, the lesson shows you how to identify the role of key user interface design elements: logos, color schemes, typography, iconography, and imagery.

Lesson 3 - Conducting a Competitive Analysis. This lesson explores the important role of competitive analysis, also referred to as comparative analysis or just comp analysis. You'll learn why competitive analysis is one of the most cost-effective ways to begin a UI/UX design (or redesign) process. The content of this lesson presents ways to apply creativity and critical thinking to plan and carry out competitive analysis. You will learn to sift through the data gathered through this analytical process, identify what positive features can be applied to your project, and what negative features you can avoid. Finally, you will be shown how to present the findings of competitive analysis to stakeholders who will define the objectives of the UI/UX design.

Lesson 4 - Identifying User and Stakeholder Needs. This lesson will dig deeper into the UI/UX design process and presents the rule of user profiles, also referred to as personas. These are profiles of fictional people who embody and concentrate the composite needs and preferences of people who will visit a website, app, or other web-based interactive site. You'll learn how to conduct demographic and other research to create the basis for assembling accurate user profiles, and also to integrate user and stakeholder interviews into those profiles.

Lesson 5 - Create a Journey Map and User Matrix. This lesson illustrates how journey maps envision and chart out the way that different users will navigate through a website or app. User matrices perform that function as well. Such matrices are more complex charts which present multiple pathways that different kinds of users will follow to successfully engage with the objectives of a site. Beyond that, you will learn to test user matrices to see if they accurately represent how users will engage with a site, and if users and stakeholders will find their needs reflected in the journey maps and matrices.

Lesson 6 - Prototyping with Sitemaps. You may have experienced sitemaps, which are essentially flowcharts that define how users will navigate from the landing page of a site to a successful event based on the site's objectives. Examples of such an event might include a sale, an inquiry, or watching a video. In this lesson, you'll learn how sitemaps relate to wireframes, which are rough sketches of individual pages. You'll also see how sitemaps are used as a pivot from research into actual site design and learn how UI/UX designers test sitemaps for their usability and usefulness.

Lesson 7 - Designing UI with Style Tiles. This lesson discusses why UI/UX designers use style tiles to create a coherent look and feel that can be applied across dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or more pages. You will learn about the design elements that make up the core of a style tile and why those particular elements are used. Finally, the lesson presents how designers go about creating, sharing, and applying design features through style tiles.

Lesson 8 - Applying Accessibility Standards. Accessibility, or making online content available to fully or partially blind, deaf, or disabled people, is rapidly emerging as a critical component of successful UI/UX design. Changes in technology, work environment, culture, attitudes, and laws are driving that change. This lesson presents the kinds of users who need special features to access site content and how to test a site for accessibility. In addition, the lesson shows you how to research and address the legal requirements for accessibility, and proper techniques to ensure that a site is accessible.

Lesson 9 - Key UI/UX Tools and Apps. This lesson helps you become conversant with the primary software applications used in UI/UX design: Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD. You'll examine how these applications provide similar tools for designing high-resolution prototypes that can be tested with users, reviewed by stakeholders, and handed off to coders who turn prototypes into websites and apps.

Lesson 10 - Creating a High-Def Prototype. This lesson takes you on a deeper dive into building prototype applications. It will focus on using key features in Adobe XD, which is available in a free version for students. You will learn the difference between a low-resolution prototype used in early stages of UI/UX design and a developer-ready, high-resolution prototype that embeds the dimensions, color codes, fonts, and other details coders need to build a website or app. This lesson also shows how design teams use shared prototypes to solicit input from colleagues and stakeholders.

Lesson 11 - Understanding and Applying Agile Development. The fast pace of web and app development requires teamwork, constant iteration (changes) in plans, and flexible deployment of resources. This lesson shows how UI/UX designers have articulated and adopted methods for design and development that address those needs using a process known as Agile development. The lesson explains how and why the Agile development process varies from older models of product development and illustrates how different flavors of Agile, like Scrum and Kanban, differ and overlap. Finally, you will learn how to apply problem-solving techniques common to all Agile development modes, including prioritizing tasks and objectives.

Lesson 12 - Presenting a UI/UX Design. UI/UX designers share their research findings, their plans, and the basis for them in reports. This lesson presents techniques for preparing, organizing, and presenting reports that convey substance and credibility. In addition, you'll learn how to craft reports that are appropriate to audiences that require different kinds of reports. These reports could range from simple memos to presentations to the substantial and formal written reports.