UX Design for Beginners Short Course
Course description
Course overview
User Experience (UX) Design short course is a professionally focused, design-led course that will equip you with the fundamental skills to conceive, prototype and produce human-centered user journeys in an interactive digital context.
There's an increasingly high demand for experienced designers who can combine their creative skills with profound insight into human behaviours and contexts. You'll learn some of the standard methods of UX design but also an awareness of the wider social, ethical and political contexts in which UX work is done.
This course will consider any materials and technologies appropriate for the development of practical skills and design thinking. You'll learn the advanced studio skills of user experience design, the methods and practices of user research and the critical-theoretical background to the field.
This course is available both on campus or online.
Who this course is for
This course is ideal for designers looking for a way to develop new skills. You may be a designer wishing to change careers and disciplines or a UX practitioner wishing to deepen their theoretical and conceptual understanding of the field.
If you are a digital designer, it will teach you how to transcend the confines of the computer screen and the constrained production cycles of software development. It is also suitable for non-designers who may have a background in psychology, engineering or anthropology who wish to implement their ideas more tangibly.
Key information
Topics covered
- Field research
- Paper prototyping
- Digital prototyping
- Context mapping
- Information Architecture
- Scenario development
- Technical implementation
- The physical, personal and social contexts for UX
- Structuring an experience
- Relationship between digital and physical artefacts
Learning outcomes
- Gather, analyse and structure qualitative research data about how people behave with technologies and spaces to inform the development of a UX design project
- Conceive, plan and prototype in low fidelity resolution your chosen design solution taking account of the social and political dimensions of your idea
- Show how your design would play out in a narrative scenario involving people and situations from your chosen concept area
- Present a high-resolution digital prototype of your design and demonstrate how it intersects with existing systems, behaviours, services and contexts
- Digital badge and certificate of attendance
Materials
Materials not needed for the first day of the course.
If you are taking this course online, please see our Guide to taking online short courses.
Tutor
Marjan Angoshtari
Harry is a design teacher who specialises in UX Design, User Research, and Urban Design. A former software developer, Harry has an MA in UX Design from UAL, with his work focusing on innovative research and narrative methods for public space design. He is currently a visiting lecturer in Digital Design and Digital Media at Roehampton University.
Luisa Charles
Marjan is an experienced Innovation Designer, User Experience Designer, Design Strategist and Product Development Lead, particularly interested in creating cutting-edge products, services and experiences that can make a real difference in people's lives. Marjan specialises in Innovation Design Engineering and User Experience Design and has worked on various projects with multidisciplinary teams over the last two decades, including Vodafone, Airbus, Guzzini, Unilever, Brother Industries Ltd., ArjoHuntleigh, the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre, Brunel University London and Roche Pharmaceuticals.
Previously, Marjan worked as a Lead User Experience Designer at Roche Pharmaceuticals and a Senior Consultant in User Experience Design with global companies. She has extensive experience and expertise in New Product Development and building, leading and nurturing multidisciplinary Design Teams and complex projects. In recent years, she has successfully integrated User-Centred Design Practices within an Agile Software development framework, ensuring that all features are grounded in evidence prior to implementation.
Apart from her industry experience, Marjan worked as a Lecturer and later as Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, User Experience Design and Design Innovation at Brunel University London. As a professional Designer with years of experience, she brings a wealth of knowledge into her academic practice. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning from the Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow University.
TBC
Luisa Charles is a multi-award winning design engineer with a background in interactive and experiential design, film, and installation artwork.
She specialises in creating playful interactions to tackle serious issues such as climate change, social justice, and AI, and works closely with communities.
She has worked with science museums around the world, including multiple projects with the Science Museum in London, the National Science Museum of Thailand, and Science Gallery London. She has also had a presence exhibiting in four years of London Design Festival, and in smaller exhibitions from New York to Dubai.
With experience ranging from running a successful climate-tech start up, developing robotics with indigenous communities, and working in engineering for special effects on feature films, she takes a multidisciplinary approach to design communication and brings in a range of problem solving skills, finding unconventional solutions to abstract problems.
Heidi Smith
Heidi Smith is an Experience Designer with an extensive user research and design practice background. She's been helping businesses to improve their offering to create a better customer digital experience and raise awareness of user experience within companies. She's worked in Publishing, Media, Retails, Non-Profit and Financial industry, currently she's senior UX designer in Aviva Digital Garage.
While working with News UK, she helped develop Times and Sunday Time's website, ran user research on the DreamTeam App; at British Council, she led UX on Venice Biennial website and IELTS's application journey. Heidi was UK Liaison for UXPA (User Experience Professional Association) from 2014 to 2016, built relationships with UX organisations, supported events promotion and sponsorship.
With over 20 years' experience behind her as a designer, Heidi is passionate to share knowledge and help develop the field of user experience design.
Book a course
Loading