In this course, we’ll take an iterative approach to design. No one “process” fits all projects. However, we’ll find it useful to alternate between divergent (exploratory) and convergent (decisive) thinking, and to find ways to test ideas efficiently to gain confidence in our decisions.

Prototyping is often best done in cheap and fast ways, so that we can work out the kinks in design concepts quickly and deliver a better final product.

In order to build better products, it’s useful to test prototypes with potential users to identify opportunities to improve our designs before investing in full production.

At 3:30pm Gemma and Carla will make a short presentation of the Career Services department.

When planning new design work, interviewing potential users helps us understand behaviors and contexts to narrow down the problem(s) we should address.

Affinity diagramming will help us look for patterns in our raw data, and we will distill our findings into problem statements.

Visual design aims to improve the user experience through the use of layouts, colors, typography and other visual elements. It’s important to start thinking about how to approach this process and the tools we can use. In this class, we will use Sketch as our primary tool for visual design.

Surveys can also help us form a better picture of our users, their behaviors, and preferences.