Course: Introduction to User Experience Techniques
Information Architecture, Usability Testing, Interaction Design, User Research
Price: $595 Length: 2 days Student or bulk discounts are available.
This is a practical, hands-on course aimed at people who need to use or understand User Experience techniques.
A: Target Audience
Developers, Business Analysts, Visual Designers, Project Managers, Product Owners, Junior Experience Professionals: anyone who wishes to learn basic User Experience skills.
B: Course Description
This two-day course teaches basic skills and techniques for User Experience professionals. Topics covered are: Usability Testing, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, and User Research skills, and a summary of major benefits of User Experience design.
Examples and exercises are drawn from web sites, web, desktop, and mobile applications. However, the skills taught are commonly utilized in design of products for all software platforms, from mobile and phone applications through kiosks and larger interactive spaces.
Upon completion of this course the student should:
- Know the basics of many techniques used by Information Architects, Usability Engineers, and Interaction Designers
- Understand the purpose behind each procedure
- Know when to use those techniques in the software development lifecycle
- Understand both the advantages and the main pitfalls of each technique
- Have completed exercises in wire framing, competitive analyses, heuristic evaluations, card sorting, and other User Experience and Usability procedures
- Have a number of URLs to reference current knowledge and additional information on those techniques
- Know specific methods to find additional research in these areas.
C: Course Objectives
- To introduce students to knowledge-gathering techniques used in the design of user-centered software products.
- To provide students with a toolset of techniques to draw on when creating or evaluating software.
- To give students practice in creating wire frames and other common UX deliverables, as well as an understanding of their benefits and drawbacks.
- To provide students with clear references and the skills to gather additional knowledge on the topics covered.
D: Organization
This is a lecture-lab course in which topics are presented by the instructor. Practice techniques are completed by students during the class.
E: Course Topics
Day 1: Wire Framing, Basic User Research, and Usability Testing
- Benefits of Information Architecture and User Experience
- Communicating Design: Wire Frames
- Purpose.
- How to Create Wire Frames
- Wire Framing exercises 1 and 2
- Shortcomings and alternatives
- Communicating Interactivity: Storyboards and Prototypes
- Requirements and Specifications
- Creating Complex Wire Frames: How does Amazon do it?
- What should we learn about our users? User Research Basics
- Usability Testing:
- Rationale and Examples
- Conducting a Usability Test
- Guidelines and Tips for Effective Testing
- Analyzing Your Results
- Reporting on Usability Tests
- Usability Testing Exercises
- Finding Usability Research
- Conducting Expert Reviews: Heuristic Evaluations
- Competitive Analyses: Design Input from our Competition
- Personas: Creating Convincing Personas from User Research
- Using Card Sorts to build User-Directed Navigation
- Interaction Design: Techniques and Standards
- Interaction Design: What is important and where should I place it?
- Organizing Complex Navigation: Transitional Volatility
- Common Web Issues
- Focus Groups
- Don’t Lead the User: Interview Techniques
- Surveys: Benefits and Pitfalls
- Statistics
- Ethnography: Conducting research where the users are
- Contextual Inquiry: Conducting User Research in the workplace
Day 2: Information Architecture Techniques, Web Issues, Additional User Research Skills