Intersection of Design, Technology, & Business
- Through critical analysis understand how user experience as a field sits in the intersection of different areas of the product.
- What is the difference between User Experience Design and User Interface Design?
- Learn about heuristics and apply heuristic evaluation to websites.
- Competitive Research
Knowing Your User
- Learn how to structure and conduct user interviews to better identify the needs and current behaviors of the user.
- Understand how to engage the user to work through assumptions and preconceived notions that arise during the process.
- Write down assumptions for your class project.
User Research Through Interviews
- Refine user interview questions.
- Interview classmates for your project.
Refining User Research and Creating Personas
- Create user personas from the interviews to represent the goals and behaviors of the users within the system.
- Develop user scenarios to show when and how the user engages with the system.
Synthesis of User Research, Journey Maps, and User Flows
- Continue to synthesize results of user research to find patterns.
- Create a journey map for your project.
- Think through the different features of the system by building user flows.
- Take the written narrative to the next level through sketching and improvising using techniques such as storyboarding and bodystorming.
Wireframing, Sketching, Prototyping
- Practice a sketching session for an existing website or mobile application of your choice. Start with sketching on a whiteboard or your notebook.
- Sketch wireframes for your class project.
- Learn the power of prototyping and testing an idea. Understand different methods of prototyping and their levels of fidelity.
- Discuss the motivation behind the prototyping, such as newly discovered user goals, business needs and improved functionality.
Prototyping & User Testing
- User testing methods and strategies.
- Do’s and don’ts of user testing.
- Do a user test on your project with a classmate.
- Clearly list the assumptions and test your concepts. Work on multiple iterations of the prototype based on the test results.
Iterating the Prototype and Further User Testing
- Report conclusions based on user testing.
- User testing reports.
- Rework the prototype based on user testing conclusions
