USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
ONLINE SHORT COURSE
Study user experience design fundamentals like wireframing and prototyping, and expand your knowledge of the aesthetics that affect UX design.
10 weeks, excluding orientation.
7–10 hours of self-paced learning per week, entirely online.
Email: uctonline@getsmarter.com
Call: +27 87 551 8063
ABOUT THIS COURSE
Whether you’re a start-up or an established e-commerce outfit, you need a firm grasp of the science behind technological communication. Poor user experience (UX) has the ability to directly impact the performance of a website, and ultimately, e-commerce business. An intrinsic understanding of how users interact with content affords designers the opportunity to improve their products.
The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) User Experience Design online short course is designed to help you increase the efficiency of your website’s practical or visual design. You’ll gain in-depth insights into how users think and act on online platforms and be equipped with the tools to design environments that meet your customers’ evolving needs.
WHAT THIS COURSE COVERS
This course is designed to equip you with the tools to anticipate user needs and suggest aesthetic and functional design changes to improve website usability. Over the course of 10 weeks you’ll gain highly transferable and practical UX skills by exploring elements at the centre of the discipline including wireframing, prototyping, and the aesthetics of your design. Discover the origins and practices of UX design and learn how to analyse the role of common interface elements in the user journey. The course will culminate in the development of a personalised UX roadmap, outlining your entry into the field of UX design.
A POWERFUL COLLABORATION
Since 2007, the University of Cape Town (UCT) has partnered with digital learning experts GetSmarter to take its renowned education online. This move is driven by UCT’s goal to broaden access to the research and information developed at Africa’s leading university, and make it available to those previously excluded due to geographical constraints. UCT’s scope extends to all areas of sub-Saharan Africa, providing both the institution and its future students with opportunities for further growth.
ABOUT UCT
Founded in 1829, UCT has a proud tradition of academic excellence and effecting social change and development through its pioneering scholarship, faculty, and students. UCT’s reputation for excellence is underpinned by its distinctive research, led by its distinguished faculty, many of whom are leaders in their field.
ABOUT GETSMARTER
GetSmarter, part of edX, helps working professionals gain verifiable skills from leading global universities and institutions to thrive in an ever-changing work environment.
Technology meets academic rigour in GetSmarter’s people-mediated model, which enables lifelong learners across the globe to obtain industry-relevant skills that are certified by the world’s most reputable academic institutions.
As a student of this course, you will also gain unlimited access to edX’s Career Engagement Network at no extra cost. This platform will provide you with valuable career resources and events to support your professional journey. You can look forward to benefits including rich content, career templates, webinars, workshops, career fairs, networking events, panel discussions, and exclusive recruitment opportunities to connect you with potential employers.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
You’ll be welcomed to the course and begin connecting with fellow students, while exploring the navigation and tools of your Online Campus. Be alerted to key milestones in the learning path, and review how your results will be calculated and distributed.
You’ll be required to complete your student profile, confirm your email address for the delivery of your digital certificate, and submit a digital copy of your passport/identity document.
Please note that module titles and their contents are subject to change during course development.
Discover the origins and practices of user experience design.
- Recognise the need for designing human-oriented interactive experiences
- Review digital user experience design as a discipline in relation to its historical context and current trends
- Describe the role of the web designer in relation to that of the UX designer
- Identify the tools that a UX designer needs to master
Learn about your users and their styles of usage.
- Recognise the relationship between the user, the usage context, and UX design
- Investigate the course product context, namely a webmail client
- Articulate what a product-use context is and how to develop one
- Complete a list of requirements for a product that is ranked according to product priority
- Choose aspects of personas, the usage hypothesis, and functional requirements that are applicable to given statements or scenarios
- Evaluate a user path to identify potential assumptions that could be remedied by an alternate usage
- Create a usage hypothesis based on a list of requirements
- Describe audience archetypes and a user persona
- Differentiate between IA and UXD
Learn to navigate the complex relationship you have with project stakeholders.
- Identify who the stakeholders are in a user study
- Recognise the importance of trust and mutual respect during the user study to the stakeholders
- Recognise the need for designing human-oriented interactive experiences
- Articulate the motives and objectives, open and hidden, of the listed stakeholders
- Analyse the importance of objectives in the Product Use Context
Find out how to recruit users and perform user tests.
- Investigate the role of user-based evidence in a user study
- Decide on the selection criteria for a subset of users that will be studied
- Evaluate the reliability of statements made by users during user testing
- Practice how to use evidence-gathering methods
- Create a non-biased survey
- Test the users to discover real usage
Using the evidence to inform decisions.
- Complete a Hypothesis Evaluation Matrix
- Analyse evidence gathered, discard what is not relevant, and justify these decisions
- Describe how to manage conflicts between stakeholder goals and the evidence gathered
- Apply methods used to diffuse tension while requiring stakeholders to adjust their expectations
How we make sense of visual information.
- Identify the role of UX in a visual or aesthetic design
- Use textual and visual cues to encourage planned usage of products
- Interpret several influential design principles and how they relate to UXD
- Analyse a practical website brief
- Recommend both aesthetic and functional suggestions for a well-rounded user experience
Discover the tools and techniques behind wireframing.
- Describe the classes and principles of wireframes
- Review functional software to create wireframes
- Analyse common user interface elements and their role in the user journey
- Design a set of wireframes
- Develop an interaction design
- Compile an information architecture
- Operate functional software to create wireframes
- Evaluate how to address the problems identified in the Hypothesis Evaluation Matrix
Discover the art of prototyping your design.
- Identify what constitutes the different kinds of prototypes
- Investigate the most appropriate prototypes for specific processes
- Analyse the prototype process
- Create a clickthrough prototype
- Test prototypes with the user sample to evaluate prototyping decisions and rationales
- Show the prototype to the initial group of users and request feedback
Find out how to present your work to stakeholders.
- Compile all the necessary components for a UX study
- Analyse a UX mini-study
- Review good PowerPoint practices when presenting work
- Formulate your own UX study presentation
- Evaluate the success of various UXD presentations
Discover what the future of UXD holds.
- Recall the theories and skills learned throughout the course
- Discuss anti-patterns and historical trends in UX
- Identify anti-patterns, UX, and design trends
- Identify future UX and design trends
- Articulate the importance of context when designing for UX
- Evaluate current trends and their applicability to UX design
- Formulate a personal development roadmap for the next 12 months as a UX practitioner
WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE
This course is suitable for any digital marketer or web developer interested in understanding how users think, behave and engage to improve conversion. Small business owners looking to improve the way online users interact with their offerings will benefit from the UX design principles offered in this course. If you’re already in a design, digital marketing, or web development position, you’ll get the chance to further expand your knowledge and validate your existing expertise with a digital certificate from the University of Cape Town. No prior technical knowledge of coding is required for this course.
THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU IF YOU WANT TO:
APPLY NEW SKILLS
Learn to analyse a website brief and recommend aesthetic and functional design changes.
TEST PERFORMANCE
Design paper and click-through prototypes, and run tests with user analysis samples.
IMPROVE PROJECTS
Work effectively with project stakeholders to achieve design goals.
ABOUT THE CERTIFICATE
Earn a certificate of completion from the University of Cape Town, Africa’s leading university, as recognition of your newly developed skills.
Assessment is continuous and based on a series of practical assignments completed online. In order to be issued with a digital certificate, you’ll need to meet the requirements outlined in the course handbook. The handbook will be made available to you as soon as you begin the course.
Your digital certificate will be issued in your legal name and sent to you upon successful completion of the course, as per the stipulated requirements. Please note, due to additional administrative requirements, at times UCT course certificate delivery may be delayed by several weeks/months.
WHO YOU’LL LEARN FROM
This subject matter expert from UCT guides the course design and appears in a number of course videos, along with a variety of industry professionals.
YOUR COURSE CONVENOR
Dr Adheesh Budree
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Commerce, UCT
Specialising in e-commerce, the economics of technology, disruptive innovation, and information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D), Dr Budree holds a PhD from the University of the Western Cape, a Master of Science in financial economics from the University of London, and a Postgraduate Certificate in environmental economics from Rhodes University. He also has a Diploma in business analysis from the Faculty Training Institute (FTI), an honours in information systems from Unisa, and a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and business information systems from the then-University of Natal.
HOW YOU’LL LEARN
Every course is broken down into manageable, weekly modules, designed to accelerate your learning process through diverse learning activities:
- Work through your downloadable and online instructional material
- Interact with your peers and learning facilitators through weekly class-wide forums and reviewed small group discussions
- Enjoy a wide range of interactive content, including video lectures, infographics, live polls, and more
- Investigate rich, real-world case studies
- Apply what you learn each week to quizzes and ongoing project submissions, culminating in a UX road map of your own design, ensuring you’re prepared to take the first steps to becoming a competitive UX practitioner
YOUR SUCCESS TEAM
GetSmarter, with whom UCT is collaborating to deliver this online course, provides a personalised approach to online education that ensures you’re supported throughout your learning journey.
HEAD TUTOR
A subject expert who’ll guide you through content-related challenges.
SUCCESS ADVISOR
Your one-on-one support available during university hours (8am–5pm SAST) to resolve technical and administrative challenges.
GLOBAL SUCCESS TEAM
Available 24/7 to solve your tech-related and administrative queries and concerns.
Three out of five people have stated that a bad user experience would prevent them from making a purchase.*
* Adobe (2019).
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
BASIC REQUIREMENTS
In order to complete this course, you’ll need a current email account and access to a computer and the internet, as well as a PDF Reader. You may need to view Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, and read and create documents in Microsoft Word or Excel.
BROWSER REQUIREMENTS
We recommend that you use Google Chrome as your internet browser when accessing the Online Campus. Although this is not a requirement, we have found that this browser performs best for ease of access to course material. This browser can be downloaded here.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Certain courses may require additional software and resources. These additional software and resource requirements will be communicated to you upon registration and/or at the beginning of the course. Please note that Google, Vimeo, and YouTube may be used in our course delivery, and if these services are blocked in your jurisdiction, you may have difficulty in accessing course content. Please check with an Enrolment Advisor before registering for this course if you have any concerns about this affecting your experience with the Online Campus.
