UX for Technical Communicators

UX for Technical Communicators
6 Weeks |  Online

User Experience (or UX) is a new communication design discipline that emerged in the years following the birth of the internet. It is focused on creating digital media that is both highly functional and highly informative – whether in the form of software applications or websites – with the intent of influencing the perceptions and behaviors of users. Practitioners of UX must possess a unique combination of advanced communication skills along with expertise in usability and human-computer interaction. Consequently, UX is also a field in which all of the aptitudes and skills traditionally possessed by technical communicators – from audience analysis and project planning to written communication and information design – come together and assume a prominent role in today’s digital world. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to UX from the perspective of professional communicators and the value they potentially bring to a UX project team in the 21^st century. Students will learn about the overarching content strategies that exist on the web and how to implement them through various interaction, navigation, and visual design tools and techniques. They will also explore ways to analyze, evaluate, and test the design and content of digital media. The series of writing and design assignments in the course provide students with practice in producing some of the project deliverables relevant to most UX projects.

What you will learn:

• An understanding of the purposes and principles of user experience (UX) – a discipline that extends beyond usability
• The ability to identify different types of digital texts that exist for different types of users/readers – all part of a content strategy
• An understanding of, and practice in, applying visual design principles to digital media based on user/reader research and content strategy
• How to employ usability testing, a powerful (though certainly not the only) tool for evaluating the quality of digital media

Quarters Offered: Spring, Fall | Online
Contact: For more information about this course, please email ahl@ucsd.edu.
Note: Fulfills 2 units toward electives for the Technical Communication Certificate.