As part of your online graduate program, you’ll participate in a 1-credit-hour Industry Immersive course designed to expose you to industry professionals and prepare you for real-world applications in your field. Offered over 8 weeks in an asynchronous format, this course can be completed at your pace within the timeframe the course is open and provides valuable insights and content created by subject matter experts in your specific field. Through a series of archived workshops and activities, you’ll explore topics which may include: Data Visualization (DAV): Storytelling with data and engaging with the world as a data visualization professional. Business for Creatives (BC): Digital leverage through social media and sponsorship, and strategies for leveraging AI in small businesses. User Experience Design (UXD): Applying psychology to create better products and services and mastering design prompt engineering. Professional Development (All): Career advancement strategies, networking techniques, and industry-specific best practices. This industry immersive course offers a unique opportunity to enhance your expertise, expand your professional network, and gain practical skills directly from leaders in your industry.

To ensure your success in the program, students will meet virtually for a 1-day orientation where they will meet administrative staff, learn more about student services and success initiatives, and engage in community building with their cohort. In addition, students will complete an asynchronous orientation course in Canvas as a means to introduce them to the navigation of MICA’s administrative tools as well as inform them of academic services available through MICA. The content and assignments in the orientation course are designed to be an introduction to the program as well as a resource throughout the students' time at MICA.

Students in this course focus on applied practices from the user research learned in the Foundations of UX Research course. Here, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, and usability are discussed as students explore screen and page layout, organization, navigation, labeling, search, and other core concepts and techniques such as user flows, wireframes, and content modeling. Students will gain practical experience as they design a prototype for further development in the next course.

This course provides an overview and introduction to the nature of human-centered design with a special emphasis on improving UX for all people and perspectives. Students study the nature of human-machine interactions that involve visual, sound, and haptic feedback. Through readings, discussions, and exercises students explore the application of human factors in the design and evaluation of user interfaces. The history of human factors, perception, cognition, error, social factors, and the objectives of evaluating usability are also covered in this course. Additional topics of effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction, along with techniques like heuristic evaluations and usability testing are studied as students learn how to solve design problems.

Students in Prototyping build on their ideas from Foundations of Design to deepen their understanding of the value and importance of prototyping within the design process. Students will learn how to use prototypes to explore, test, and communicate design ideas and they will be introduced to principles of design and usability, with a focus on digital experiences. Through an ongoing assignment, students will gain practical experience while iteratively building & testing prototypes. By the end of this course, students will be prepared to present their prototypes and study them through a more human-centered design lens.

UX design skills require a solid knowledge of practical aspects of a number of digital tools, technologies, and resources. Student success in this program and beyond relies heavily upon students’ ability to successfully deploy the latest industry tools to create elegant and fully realized interfaces. Projects focus on building knowledge related to industry standard tools through a sequence of exercises employing the most relevant UX technology.

A basic understanding of the business of UX is an essential skill for successful UX designers. This course provides a foundation of business knowledge including networking, marketing, budgeting, client and stakeholder relations, and business communications. Essential project management skills are also addressed. Students gain project management skills related to the creation of strategic plans, and the knowledge of professional workflow practices. Topics include project scope, time, cost, quality, and human resource management techniques as applied to the UX industry. Students learn to design a project structure and obtain hands-on experience using project management software. Additional focus is placed on leadership, teamwork, and project risk management.

MICA’s industry partners are engaged throughout this course and present students with challenges faced by professionals in the UX industry. Students work in teams and are provided with access to the professional world they are about to enter. UX professionals provide feedback, insight, encouragement, and critical analysis to students as they execute their projects.

As the final course in the MPS UXD program, Capstone and Reflection requires each student to create a final portfolio containing a Capstone project from concept to a fully realized prototype. Students also provide documentation outlining their process for the design. Using research and materials developed over the course of the program, students work with a faculty advisor for guidance and critique during project development.

This first course is essential to define and develop a properly-formulated problem statement that drives research and the systematic approach to gathering and interpreting collected data to identify the needs of each target user base. UX methods and techniques, including user interviews, contextual inquiries, personas, affinity mapping, and competitive analysis will be covered as students explore research methods and strategies for considering unique, realistic user types to make sound design decisions (in the next course). As a result of this course, students will be able to construct personas/archetypal descriptions of users and write a user research report/plan.