Syllabus

This course provides an introduction to the exciting and growing field of UX Research and Design. You will gain an understanding of what is involved in UX Research, including conducting interviews, evaluating systems, and analyzing systems using principles of good design. You will also learn about the work involved in UX Design, including the generation of promising design solutions and the creation of prototypes at multiple levels of fidelity. By interleaving successive phases of UX Research and Design, you will see how to learn from inevitable mistakes and improve towards a product with a great UX.

What you’ll learn Learn about the skills needed for UX research and design

Understand how UX researchers discover and assess user needs and assess possible designs

Learn how to conduct a micro-usability test

Understand how UX designers use sketching and prototyping to develop design concepts

Understand how to incorporate a user-centered focus into the design process
 Identify key features of human behavior and describe their impact on the design of interactive systems

Critique and design interactive systems based on human capabilities and behavior
 Describe themes from social sciences and human computer interaction and how they relate to interactive system design

Effort

The course consists of 6 modules, and you should expect to commit 3 – 4 hours per module in order to fully engage with the course materials and fellow learners in the discussion forums.

You should expect to spend 2-3 hours on the course in Weeks 1 & 2, but more like 3-4 hours in Weeks 3-5.

Course schedule and grading policy

Course materials and assignments will be released weekly and will then remain open and available for self-paced learning. The course consists of 6 modules:

What is UX? What are UX Research and Design?

UX Design Overview

How Do People Perceive Information?

How Do People Act in the World?

Design Heuristics

Heuristic Evaluation and Course Wrap-Up

Bonus videos are included at the end of Module 6. While the content is not necessary to pass the course, the interviews are intended to provide learners an understanding of what UX Research and Design practitioners do in a professional setting.

Honor code and discussion forum etiquette

While learning from each other is very important we all recognize the difference between collaboration and simply copying and pasting work done by others. You are strongly encouraged to work collaboratively using good judgment. Similarly, please respect all copyright rules of all materials, including books, articles, etc. While we ultimately cannot monitor everything, FutureLearn and the course team will monitor the forums for any activity that violates such codes of conduct and basic civility to each other. Participation in the discussion forum is not required, though it is strongly encouraged.

Contact with Instructor

Given the large number of students in this course the teaching assistants or instructor(s) should not be contacted directly with any questions. While we appreciate the time and effort you put into the course, responding to questions is virtually impossible. Instead, please direct your questions to the discussion post. The course team will monitor the forums and participate on a regular basis.

Would you like to take part in an optional learner background survey to improve the online educational offerings at the University of Michigan?

The University of Michigan is carrying out learner background survey research.

We’d like to invite all Learners on this course to take part in this optional pre-course survey. By taking part in this survey, you’ll support the University’s efforts to provide a quality online learning experience to a diverse population of participants. We may use the findings to evaluate the efficacy and impact of this educational content, as well as to identify opportunities to create new content.

The University of Michigan may share anonymous data collected during the survey with its platform partners, including Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn, with the goal of improving learning experiences and outcomes.

To take part in the learner background survey, please click the link below. If you choose to participate, you will be asked to provide personal information, including information about your gender, race, location country, employment status, and educational attainment. Your responses will be kept confidential, and the results from this survey will only be presented in aggregate form. It should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.

<a href="https://umich.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_735AxMay2FSApSZ?platform_id=futurelearn&course_id=”>Take part in the pre-course learner background survey.

Your responses will be linked to your course activity, but you will not be identifiable in any data that we publish or share. Summarised findings may be published in online and print publications and in University of Michigan promotional materials and may be included in presentations at professional development events, academic and professional conferences, and in various private settings. All the information collected during this survey, will be stored and handled according to the Center for Academic Innovation at the University of Michigan’s privacy policy.

The survey link will open in this same window for the purposes of making it accessible to screen readers and other assistive devices. You may need to manually navigate back to the course afterwards.

Thank you for helping to make the University of Michigan online courses better!

Please note that this is an independent research survey carried out by the University of Michigan and your participation is subject to the University’s own policies and terms. FutureLearn takes no responsibility for the contents or the consequences of your participation in this study. Your participation in the research has no effect on your course progress, marks or FutureLearn profile.