Academic excellence for business and the professions

Designing a Masters Curriculum

Dr Simone Stumpf MSc Human-Centred Systems Course Director @DrSimoneStumpf Simone.Stumpf.1@city.ac.uk

The current UX market

•  Need for specialists in HCI / UX / usability •  Agency- and client-side but also increasingly start-ups •  Some industrial and academic research

UX Consultant Information Architect

User Researcher Interaction Designer Usability Analyst

Learning landscape

•  Undergraduate Computing degrees (BSc, BA) •  MOOCs e.g. HCI on Coursera •  Private companies •  MSc or MA programmes

MSc HCI MSc Computing Interaction Design

MA User Experience Design

MA Digital Media

MSc Human-Centred Interactive Technologies

MA Interaction Design

MSc User Experience Engineering

MSc Human-Centred Systems

MSc HCI with Ergonomics

MSc User Experience Design

Example Programme Content

•  Ergonomics for Design –  Task analysis, posture, anthropometry, ergonomics standards

and techniques •  Design Experience 1 + 2

–  Ergonomic design process and techniques, UCD •  Applied Cognitive Science

–  Theory of human cognition and behaviour, experimental studies •  Design practice

–  Requirements elicitation and specification, design techniques •  User-Centred Evaluation Methods

–  Analytical and empirical techniques (inspection techniques, interviews, observations)

•  Options: Affective Interaction, Socio-technical systems: IT and the future of Work, Interfaces and Interactivity

Example Programme Content

•  Digital Interdisciplinary Practice –  Iterative/agile design process

•  Digital Content Production Processes –  Digital media production deliverables

•  User Factors –  Behavioural theory, analysis techniques

•  Experience Design 1 + 2 –  Design research including design of solution, experience design

methodologies •  Usability Engineering

–  Usability requirements, analysis and design

•  Options: Design Research Project, Games Design, Live Project, Creative Research Methods, Digital Audio

Knowledge and skills

Interfaces/systems technical

understanding

User cognition and behaviour

HCI/UX techniques and practice

Analytical/research skills/professional issues/soft skills

Web

Mobile NUIs

Analysis

Design

Evaluation

Specialist Topics

Specialist Topics

Desktop

MSc Human-Centred Systems

•  Practices and Theories in Interaction Design –  Cognitive theory, UCD, analysis, design, evaluation activities

•  Requirements Engineering –  Requirements acquisition, modelling and analysis techniques

•  Information Architecture –  Information organisation, navigation/search, design techniques, analytics

•  Evaluating Interactive Systems –  Evaluation techniques (expert, user testing, etc.)

•  Inclusive Design –  Accessibility, designing for diverse users

•  Cognition and Technologies –  Cognitive frameworks in relation to novel interfaces

•  Research, Methods and Professional Issues –  Research methodologies, legal, ethical and professional issues

•  Options: Creativity in Design, Multimedia Design and Development, Data Visualisation, Telemedicine

Striking the right balance

Theory – Practice

Tools – Techniques

Specialists – “All-rounders”

Developers – Designers – Researchers