What I Learned from Georgia Tech’s Intro to User Experience Design
Note: I am not affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology or Coursera. This is not a sponsored post. This article is written based on my experience and learning from the aforementioned course.
I came across Georgia Tech’s Introduction to User Experience Design early in my search for UX design resources. I was brand-new to the topic and wanted to find a credible and affordable intro course that would familiarize me with the basics and help me decide if I wanted to commit more time to pursuing the field.
The course is available online through Coursera and is broken down into a 5 week curriculum. Learning is self-paced so you have the flexibility to go through the material as fast or as slow as you’d like. It’s easy to sign-up and you can audit the course for free (you will not receive a certificate) or choose to purchase the certificate ($62CAD) at any point before, during or after you’ve gone through the content.
Here is a summary by week of the main topics that were covered:
Week 1
→ Course overview
→ Introduction to the 4 Step Design Process
1. Requirements Gathering
2. Design Alternatives
3. Prototyping
4. Evaluation
Week 2
→ Elements of Requirements Gathering
- Types of users & types of data
- Naturalistic observation
- Survey
- Focus group
- Interview
Week 3
→ Design Alternatives
- Novel design
- Functional and non-functional requirements
- Generating ideas
Week 4
→ Prototyping
- Low-fidelity prototypes
- High-fidelity prototypes
Week 5
→ Evaluation
- Qualitative and quantitative data collection
- User feedback
- Evaluating if the design is useful and usable
My Takeaways
Introduction to User Experience Design did a great job at providing exactly what the name suggests; it explains what UX design is and goes over basic concepts on the subject. The material is easy to digest and I was able to complete multiple lessons in a single sitting. Throughout the course, there are links to online resources and readings to supplement the lectures. I found this to be helpful in building background knowledge and context.
I have to bring up that while taking the course was a good way to familiarize with what UX design generally is, it has an old-school lecture feel. What I mean by this is that the lecture slides are plain and there aren’t many interactive activities throughout. There also isn’t much reference to current industry best-practices, standards and tools. Despite this, the course makes the core objectives of UX design apparent and primes you for further learning on the topic. Not to mention, as a beginner in UX design, having access to the material from a reliable platform at an affordable price (when comparing to say a bootcamp, which would cost thousands of $), you can’t really go wrong.
Overall, I appreciate that a course such as this one is available online for people like me who are new to UX design. It gave me a clearer idea of what UX design entails so that I was able to decide that I wanted to continue learning and dedicating more resources to pursuing this space. I would recommend this course to anyone who is unfamiliar with and wanting a crash course on the topic or trying to determine if UX design is right for them.
