Overview

I teach website usability and design at ASU, helping graduate students develop user-friendly websites in a 15-week online class. They learn various design and research methods to create interfaces that improve user experience, then how to apply these skills to everyday products and services.

For more details, refer to the syllabus.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Recognize ways that users interact with systems with an emphasis on websites and web applications

• Identify the elements of the user experience and the typical activities in the UX design process

• Organize and categorize information on a system to increase flow and usability

• Analyze a system for usability issues using a range of methods

• Introduce the user experience elements.

• Introduce heuristic evaluations.

• Discuss what "good" content is and how to achieve it.

• Evaluate industry-standard heuristics and severity scales.

• Explain the importance of user needs and site objectives.

• Discuss techniques for performing user research.

• Discuss the elements of a successful persona.

• Introduce user stories and acceptance criteria.

• Identify key web design and layout concepts.

• Define high-fidelity and low-fidelity sketching and prototyping.

• Define usability and discuss usability characteristics.

• Identify steps and best practices for preparing usability testing materials.

• Identify steps and best practices for conducting usability tests.

• Demonstrate and discuss ways to analyze quantitative and qualitative data.

• Define elements of usability reports and presentations.

Course Organization

At the start of each semester, students select an existing website they will be redesigning throughout the entirety of the course. Using various research methods, they analyze the site’s usability. Then, based on their findings, they prioritize and propose design changes. Their final project is a redesigned website and a full usability report.

Module 1       Course Introduction
Module 2      UX Process & Strategies
Module 3 Content & User Research
Module 4 Synthesizing User Data
Module 5 Usability Testing Materials
Module 6 Conducting Test & Data Analysis
Module 7 Prototyping Solutions
Module 8 Usability Recommendations   

Module Structure

Each module is organized into lectures, readings, and assignments. Having each module structured this way provides an iterative and predictable cadence of instruction and application.

Assignments

Each assignment is organized into clear instructions and a rubric. Both are designed to provide clear expectations. I’ve found that transparency in the rubric actually helps students focus less on their grades and more on the project. When expectations are clear, students don’t stress about points and instead focus their efforts on learning the material and the quality of their work.

Example Project

While I can’t publicly share students’ work, I am able to provide my own example of the final project.