Catalog
First Semester = 15-16 Credit Hours
Elective – Studio or Lecture course from the Graduate (or Undergraduate) level. Must be approved prior to registration by the Graduate Department Chair. Additional permission may be required for confirmed UG credits.
Students enrolled in Graduate Level Programs must maintain the required 3.0 cumulative GPA.
First Semester = 15-16 Credit Hours
Elective – Studio or Lecture course from the Graduate (or Undergraduate) level. Must be approved prior to registration by the Graduate Department Chair. Additional permission may be required for confirmed UG credits.
Students enrolled in Graduate Level Programs must maintain the required 3.0 cumulative GPA.
Students learn the principles of UX (user experience) design, enabling them to conduct comprehensive research, analyze user behavior, and apply their findings to create user-centric designs in various digital contexts. Students learn how to map user journeys and prototype meaningful scenarios informed by research and iterative modeling and testing. Students utilize and apply user-centered research and co-design methods. They learn various research methods, such as user interviews, surveys, usability testing, and data analysis. They also explore techniques for collecting and interpreting user data. Furthermore, the course will cover prototyping techniques to translate research findings into tangible designs, allowing students to work on projects where they can apply their acquired skills in real-world scenarios. By the end of this course, students will have a solid grasp of UX research principles, be able to conduct research independently, and make design decisions based on user insights.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Designing excellent user experiences requires an understanding of the human factors that underlie a user’s comprehension of the world. This course looks at the science that formulates the way humans make sense of the world around them and how to leverage that innate human experience to design successful human-compute experiences. Particularly relevant to designers working on human-centered interactions with new technologies, this course helps students to craft experiences compatible with the strengths and weaknesses of the human’s embodied mind. Students will learn how to leverage human perception, ergonomics, and information systems to generate intuitive interactions with new technologies.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
This class explores the benefits of working with sound to enhance interactions and/or various interfaces. Students explore ways of creating new sounds, study techniques for sound design as it applies to UI and Interaction Design, and generates a final project that will exemplify the techniques studied and learned in class.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
As humankind shifts from the era of the Personal Computer (PC) to that of machine learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming ubiquitous, radically changing the relationship between humans and computing. This course explores the symbiotic relationship between User Experience (UX) design and artificial intelligence (AI), enhancing students’ understanding the core AI methodologies and their relevance in shaping user experiences and their diverse applications in contemporary UX design practices. Students learn about fundamental AI methods and examine how they intersect with and enhance the user-centered design process. Through practical exercises and projects, students learn various machine learning approaches and their application to create next-generation human-AI interfaces to unlock new human capabilities. Furthermore, they will explore practical examples of AI applications in multiple UX design disciplines, such as UI design, gaming, simulations, and robotics, and understand their impact on user engagement and interaction.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: IXD 621
The Special Project course is offered on an occasional basis, with course content specific to the area being explored.
FALL 2023
SOUND DESIGN FOR INTERACTION
This class explores the benefits of working with sound to enhance interactions and/or various interfaces. We will explore ways of creating new sounds, study techniques for sound design as it applies to UI and Interaction Design and generate a final project that will exemplify the techniques we study and learn in class. Open to Undergraduate students with permission.
WINTER 2024
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
The course will cover the principles and practices of how to construct a digital story, including writing and editing for digital media, gathering and editing images, audio and video for online use. Students will experiment with storytelling in a variety of forms including multimedia, transmedia, locative media, hypertext and video games.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
The Graduate Studio I, II, III, and IV courses are designed to address projects of increasing complexity and progressively strengthen your problem-solving skills in UX Design. Students will solve a design problem rooted in a creative industries-related context, requiring substantive research and concept development phases, refinement, and execution phases. Research methodologies, design approaches, and techniques students learned in the UX-centered courses will be applied to develop and evaluate their solutions. These courses are structured to simulate the professional studio environment with formally scheduled milestones and defined deliverables and will be reviewed by faculty and industry professionals through formal presentations.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: IXD 601, IXD 602
The Graduate Studio I, II, III, and IV courses are designed to address projects of increasing complexity and progressively strengthen your problem-solving skills in UX Design. Students solve a design problem rooted in a creative industries-related context, requiring substantive research and concept development phases, refinement, and execution phases. Research methodologies, design approaches, and techniques students learned in the UX-centered courses will be applied to develop and evaluate their solutions. These courses are structured to simulate the professional studio environment with formally scheduled milestones and defined deliverables and will be reviewed by faculty and industry professionals through formal presentations.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: IXD 701
In this course, students study the conceptual and related UX design approaches to metaverse creation. Metaverse is a broader term encompassing technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual 3D environments where interaction will take place. Students explore various platforms, technical aspects, and design approaches applicable in a non-physical environment. The virtual worlds today are more than just technology. They have become humans’ alternative habitat to the physical one. Such tendencies require full attention from the new generation of UX designers and a profound understanding of the media phenomena from different perspectives. This is a hands-on course where priority is given to engagement on real-industry projects and searches for design solutions that include using metaverse and 3D virtual environments for video games, virtual classrooms, augmented chat platforms, artificial intelligence-generated content, and many other emerging applications.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: IXD 621