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  6. User Experience Design

User Experience Design

User experience (UX) design focuses on producers’ and end users’ interaction with virtual or physical systems. People in the field use the art and science of design to ensure systems meet users’ needs and goals, including the importance of physical and emotional reactions in the process.

Preparing You For Success

UX encompasses research, analysis, graphic design with insights from psychology, business and new media. As a user experience design major, you learn how to develop user-and-human-centered designs. These professional approaches require empathy, collaboration, curiosity and iteration to move system designs through the development process with current methods. Courses also introduce you to psychology, behavior performance and physical and cognitive abilities that are especially relevant to design research and thinking. Along the way, you’re mentored by faculty with industry experiences completing client projects.

By the time you graduate, your experiences may include:

  • An internship at an organization like NASA, Country Companies, Caterpillar Inc., Microsoft or OSF Health Care
  • Designing for innovative products such as wearables, AR/VR, mobile, websites and physical interactives
  • Research projects in traditional and nontraditional human-computer interaction design
  • Studio practice in visual design, interaction design and user interfaces

Making Your Mark

UX design professionals are in high demand for their technical and creative skills. Using industry best practices, they create products that promote and inspire human activity. They’re valuable as visual graphic designers, user researchers, usability analysts, information architects, interaction designers and other related careers.

Sample Program Plan
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Major Requirements

Required Courses - 51 hrs.

  • PSY 101 Principles of Psychology - 3 hrs
  • IM 101 User Experience Design Orientation - 1 hrs.
  • IM 140 Animation and Storytelling - 3 hrs.
  • IM 150 Fundamentals of Interactive Design - 3 hrs.
  • IM 161 Intro to Web Design - 3 hrs.
  • IM 226 Interactive Media Practicum I - 4 hrs.
  • IM 260 User Interface Design and Development - 3 hrs.
  • IM 261 User Research and Usability - 3 hrs.
  • IM 355 Interactive Media, Theory, and Practices - 3 hrs.
  • IM 361 Advanced User Experience Design - 3 hrs.
  • IM 363 Topics in User Experience Design - 3 hrs.
  • IM 366 - Advanced Web Design - 3 hrs.
  • IM 426 Interactive Media Practicum II – 4 hrs.
  • IM 450 Critical Issues in Interactive Media - 3 hrs
  • IM 460 User Experience Design Capstone I - 3 hrs.
  • IM 461 User Experience Design Capstone II - 6 hrs.

“The design is very clear and focuses on the needs of the user. The visuals are really good and I love the design.”

Microsoft and NASA Employees feedback on the Student’s AR User Experience NASA Suits Project

Learn practices, technologies, and critical thinking around trending, future, and innovative user experience topics.

Focus on the innovative and pioneering tools, techniques, and methods used in designing user experiences.

Food for the Hungry Design

Students worked with Food for the Hungry to create a User-Centered Design solution for their website. They worked collaboratively on the information architecture, analysis, UI/UX designs, client interviews, and research on the current platform.

Through studio practices, focus on fundamental principles and practices of visual design and user interfaces.