Designing Interactions

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor and tutor: Rebekah Cupitt
• Assessment: a 1000-word essay (30%) and 4000-word final project report and hi-fi prototype (70%)

The successful design of websites, applications, services and technologies hinges on a thorough understanding of the future user and the contexts in which technology is used. A focus on user experience is a design approach that considers people, the technology and the end use scenario.

This module develops your skills to analyse and document user requirements, manage and design web applications, and plan a design project from ideation to implementation. Working with a client brief, you will carry out a design project that draws on original research, design and evaluation methods including user research methods, sketching, prototyping and design techniques, evaluation methods and client-facing communications.

Indicative module syllabus

• Design perspectives: waterfall, agile, user-centred, usability, user experience
• User research methods: from data collection and analysis to requirements
• Practical session A: data collection methods and analysis
• Interaction: mental models, cognition and user interfaces
• Accessibility and inclusive design
• Centring the user: personas and participatory design
• Ideation: from requirements to design decisions
• Sketching, prototyping and wireframing (LAB)
• User evaluation methods and iteration
• Practical session B: designing a user evaluation
• Implementation and handoff

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• articulate the language and context of digital media and interaction design
• understand different approaches to user experience design and their viability and sustainability in appropriate contexts
• recognise the range of stakeholders in a design project and the importance of addressing their specific requirements
• understand the relevance of international web development standards relating to digital media design and how these relate to accessibility standards, user-experience goals and design aesthetics
• critically evaluate interactive media such as websites, applications and services from a user-centred point of view
• understand and critique design methods and their underlying theories, formulate a user-centred design project and consider the ethical implications of design with and without the user
• analyse, prioritise and categorise user research data and apply its key findings to an interactive design project
• critically evaluate user-centred design methods and data both in your own projects and other scholarly outputs.