User Experience Research

About this course:

Today's designers must satisfy the needs of multiple constituents, including clients, colleagues, and especially end-users. The ultimate goal of experience research is to inform design decisions that meet the critical needs of constituents. User research helps assess gaps in an existing experience, discover design opportunities, refine concepts and strategy, and test the creative/design execution. This course covers the key concepts of evaluation and evaluation methods, and students develop both quantitative and qualitative measures, such as contextual observation, heuristic analysis, surveying, interviewing, focus groups, persona development, evaluation during the design/iteration cycle, usability testing, and analysis of systems in use. Designers leave the course with an understanding of which methods to use, given constraints, and how to design, field, and report on findings.