User-Centred Design - Module 1
How This Course Will Help Your Career
Welcome!
Welcome to the first module of three from the course 'User-Centred Design'!
What's special about Guerrilla UCD
Usability and good user experience need to be built into products and services. They're not something you can add afterwards. Giving sole responsibility for user experience to specialists, with little support or understanding from the rest of the team is all too common, with considerable frustration and wasted effort on both sides. This series of lessons aims to redress the imbalance by bringing user-centred design to the whole team and putting the case for a critical focus on users when we're building interactive systems. We're not trying to turn software developers into usability specialists, but approaches like Agile need everyone on the team to be aware of issues like quality and usability. And that's where Guerrilla UCD comes in.
Whether you're a lone voice in your corporate wilderness or a whole team trying to improve usability and user experience, our Guerrilla UCD lessons have a lot to offer. They're designed for a broad audience, not just usability and user experience experts (although some lessons, such as 'Making the Case for UCD in Agile' do lean more in that direction).
The lessons are run by William Hudson, a leading expert in user-centred design who consults and teaches internationally. They will have a practical focus but with enough background and theory to help you understand more complex issues. To allow you to fill in some of the gaps and to take things further yourself, each lesson has (optional) related reading consisting of over 40 titles across a broad array of subjects.
Guerrilla UCD Module 1 of 3 - Strategy
The five strategy lessons present the basics of designing for usability. They include
- Visual Design for Usability
- Navigation & Menu Design
- SEO & Accessibility
- Human Error, Messages & Feedback
- Usability Evaluation
These topics address some of the most basic issues in building a wide range of interactive systems including desktop applications and web sites. They will be relevant to anyone involved in the design and development process.
Each of the 3 modules can be taken independently although module 1 is recommended as a precursor to the others for those with little or no knowledge of usability, user experience, or user-centred design.
Guerrilla UCD Module 2 of 3 - Tactics
These are more in-depth than the strategy lessons, addressing specific topics and techniques:
- Card Sorting
- Dynamic Web Pages
- Web & Intranet Content
- Advanced Users
- Persuasive/Seductive Design
Like the strategy lessons, they are intended for a broad audience although Web & Intranet Content will be of particular interest to content authors (or those responsible for managing content).
Each of the 3 modules can be taken independently although module 1 is recommended as a precursor to the others for those with little or no knowledge of usability, user experience, or user-centred design.
Guerrilla UCD Module 3 of 3 - Lean and Agile
The lean and Agile lessons are more about process and how to make users the focal point of design. They include
- Making the Case for UCD (aimed primarily at usability and UX specialists)
- Integrating UCD & Agile
- Agile UX (1): Users, Personas & Design Maps
- Agile UX (2): Use Cases, Stories & Scenarios
- Agile UX (3): Conceptual Models
These lessons tackle the difficult issues of how to persuade colleagues, teams and organizations that users should be central to the design and development of interactive systems. The three Agile UX lessons address practical techniques such as personas, design maps and conceptual models that help the focus to stay on real users and their needs throughout development.
Each of the 3 modules can be taken independently although module 1 is recommended as a precursor to the others for those with little or no knowledge of usability, user experience, or user-centred design.
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Lessons in This Course
- Each week, one lesson becomes available.
- There’s no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
- Estimated learning time: 20 hours 28 mins spread over 8 weeks .
Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 40 mins.
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0.1: User-Centred Design (7 mins)
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0.2: An introduction to courses from the Interaction Design Foundation (37 mins)
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0.3: Let our community help you (1 min)
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0.4: Meet your peers online in our discussion forums (6 mins)
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0.5: Meet and learn from design professionals at an upcoming meet-up (1 min)
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0.6: Gain Timeless Skills Through Courses From the Interaction Design Foundation (21 mins)
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0.7: Your path towards earning your Course Certificate (16 mins)
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0.8: Mandatory lessons vs. Optional lessons (8 mins)
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0.9: A mix between video-based and text-based lesson content (7 mins)
Lesson 1: User-Centered Design Boot Camp
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 57 mins.
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1.1: User-Centered Design Boot Camp (2 hours 53 mins)
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1.2: Community-based learning and networking (6 mins)
Lesson 2: Visual Design for Usability
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 22 mins.
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2.1: Visual Design for Usability (3 hours 18 mins)
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2.2: Community-based learning and networking (6 mins)
Lesson 3: Navigation & Menu Design
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 10 mins.
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3.1: Navigation & Menu Design (3 hours 6 mins)
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3.2: Community-based learning and networking (6 mins)
Lesson 4: Designing for SEO & Accessibility
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 22 mins.
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4.1: Designing for SEO & Accessibility (3 hours 18 mins)
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4.2: Community-based learning and networking (6 mins)
Lesson 5: Human Error, Messages & Feedback
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 11 mins.
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5.1: Human Error, Messages & Feedback (3 hours 7 mins)
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5.2: Community-based learning and networking (6 mins)
Lesson 6: Usability Evaluation
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 45 mins.
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6.1: Usability Evaluation (2 hours 40 mins)
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6.2: Community-based learning and networking (6 mins)
Lesson 7: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up
To be scheduled.
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7.1: Course Evaluation (1 min)
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