Masters Degrees (Ux)

The designers in demand today innovate by explicitly linking business disciplines with communication design, grounded in empathic understanding of the user context. In order to create valuable courses of action, they generate thick descriptions, structured plans, compelling deliverables and persuasive arguments. In the User Experience (UX) Design graduate certificate program, learning is situated to simulate the pace and pressures of business environments and responds to the imperative for orderly, meaningful and accessible communication. You will employ the work-practice of prototyping concepts in order to describe ways to effectively integrate digital services with materials-based products and environments. You will conduct field research and make significant discoveries to create value for corporate clients and their customers. You will convert your prior academic achievements into a portfolio of design projects preparing you to launch a career as a UX design professional. The program fosters the practical discipline, relevance and currency essential in today’s growing UX job market.

Course detail

Upon successful completion of the program, a graduate will:

• Facilitate team processes towards effective completion of user experience design projects.
• Represent a linked sequence of observed evidence, collected data, qualitative research findings, interpretations and proposed design solutions to stakeholders to solicit support and commitment.
• Assess requirements of a user experience design project, in order to increase corporate acceptance, usability and effectiveness.
• Present persuasive arguments in support of user experience projects which balance user needs with business objectives.
• Design a complex user experience project which considers a business uncertainty and plans for multiple outcomes.
• Manage projects using current and proven methodologies to coordinate the work of a multi-disciplinary user experience design team.
• Adapt recommendations and courses of action in accordance with explicit and implicit cultural, professional and ethical constructs involved in solving user experience design problems.
• Factor and refactor research methods and insight-generating frameworks in order to facilitate, inform and guide team problem-solving.
• Resolve uncertainties and create shared purpose with stakeholders using iterative prototyping.
• Evaluate, adjust and communicate design decisions in alignment with financial, technical, and usability factors.

Modules

Semester 1
• UXD 5000: Human-Centred Rhetoric
• UXD 5001: Empathic Research Frameworks
• UXD 5002: Human-Centred Design Methods
• UXD 5003: Organizational Sociology
• UXD 5004: Quality Assurance for Interactive Systems
• UXD 5005: Deliverables for UX Researchers
• UXD 5050: Work Placement A

Semester 2
• UXD 5501: Capstone Project 1 - Agile Practice
• UXD 5502: User Experience Architecture
• UXD 5503: Prototyping Design for Experience
• UXD 5504: Design for Change
• UXD 5505: Capstone Project 2 - Continuous Delivery in User Experience Design
• UXD 5550: Work Placement B

Work Placement

The work placement is a total of six weeks – three in Semester 1 and three in Semester 2.

Your Career

Typical careers for graduates include user experience architect, user experience researcher, user experience designer, information architect, content strategist, communication designer and information designer.

How to apply

Click here to apply: http://humber.ca/admissions/how-apply.html

Funding

For information on funding, please use the following link: http://humber.ca/admissions/financial-aid.html

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This course provides students with advanced knowledge, industry-valued skills and new design perspectives, empowering them to succeed in a User Experience (UX) career.

Who is it for?

This course is for people who share our ethos of wanting to design technology that meets user needs - interactive systems that are useful, easy-to-use and engaging. It is for people who get frustrated when they interact with unnecessarily complicated Websites, mobile apps or other interactive systems and think 'I want to be able to improve this.' It is for people that want to design technology based on an understanding of users' needs and to ensure that the products they and others design meet those needs. We welcome students who share this user-centred ethos.

Objectives

This course will equip you with the latest academic research, theories and techniques in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), User Experience (UX), usability and Interaction Design and encourages you to think about design in new ways - recognising that there are many 'right' ways to design interactive systems.

You will gain a mix of theoretical and practical knowledge, along with the necessary skills and experience to create engaging user experiences. You will study modules that cover the entire user-centred design and evaluation process; from understanding user needs, to designing interactive systems that meet those needs, to evaluating the usability of those (and existing systems) through user research.

Placements

You will have the option to undertake a six month UX internship, after the taught part of the course has finished.

All internships are paid and provide valuable work experience, enhancing employability. As an internship student you can apply the HCI/UX knowledge and skills you have developed on the course in real-world projects and build a UX work portfolio. This supports you in standing out in the job market. You will also get the opportunity to conduct your independent research project on a topic of interest to both you and the internship company. This helps ensure the practical importance of the research.

Previous internships include positions at:
-London UX agencies (e.g Webcredible, Foolproof, Bunnyfoot)
-The BBC
-The Telegraph
-Nature.com

Academic facilities

You will benefit from the use of the City Interaction Lab - a combined commercial and research lab, where we have undertaken UX consultancy for prestigious companies including Virgin Atlantic. The lab is fitted with the latest technologies including a usability testing suite, mobile testing station, eye-tracker, interactive tabletop, brain interaction technology, 3D printer and more. We employ student consultants on some projects, providing the opportunity to work on real client projects.

Teaching and learning

The course is delivered by distinguished academics from City University London's Centre for HCI Design, who all have a passion for user-centred design. Industry professionals also participate in teaching and learning - by giving guest lectures, running practitioner tutorials and even by providing feedback on students' design outputs and input into module content, ensuring that students learn the knowledge and skills most valued by industry.

Assessment

The course is delivered through a combination of lectures, online activities and interactive workshops and tutorials. It is assessed in a variety of ways, including:
-Examinations (which focus on applying HCI theory in realistic situations).
-Coursework (which range from written reports and essays, to posters, presentations and design documentation - e.g. wireframe prototypes). A range of both group and individual courseworks are set during the course. Group courseworks are often centred around realistic design projects.
-Independent research project (dissertation). The independent project allows students to conduct original research on an HCI topic of their choice.
-Each of these account for around one-third of the total course assessment. However, the exact balance varies according to the chosen elective module.

Modules

You will study seven core modules and one elective module that cover the entire user-centred design and evaluation process. Modules are delivered through a combination of lectures, online activities and interactive workshops and tutorials. These include sessions delivered by guest lecturers from industry. Full-time students spend eight hours/week in lectures and four hours/week in seminars/tutorials. Part-time students spend half this time in classes. Overall workload is around 36 hours/week for full-time and 18 hours/week for part-time students.

You will also undertake an independent Research Project, for which our module on Research Methods and Professional Issues will prepare you.

A series of optional, but recommended, practitioner tutorials supplement the taught modules. These include talks, workshops and field trips. Previous tutorials have featured HCI/UX practitioners from prestigious companies including Foolproof, Futureheads and eBay.

Taught Core Modules
-Interaction design (15 credits)
-Creativity in design (15 credits)
-Information architecture (15 credits)
.-Evaluating interactive systems (15 credits)
-Inclusive design (15 credits)
-Cognition and technologies (15 credits)
-Research, methods and professional issues (15 credits)

Taught Elective modules
-Web applications development (15 credits)
-Data visualisation (15 credits)
-Telemedicine (15 credits)

Career prospects

This course empowers students to succeed in a variety of User Experience (UX) roles in leading digital agencies, business consultancies, IT companies and commercial/government organisations.

Roles include:
-UX Designer/Consultant
-User Researcher
-Information Architect
-Accessibility Specialist.

There is an increasing need for specialists with a deep knowledge of Human-Computer Interaction design. As the industry continues to expand, there is no better time to become a Master in this field. The course is also an excellent starting point for those wanting to pursue a PhD in HCI.

Our course is highly respected by industry, with exceptional employability; Over 90% of students are employed within six months of graduating (City Graduate Destinations), in prestigious companies including Samsung, Tesco, Thomson Reuters and Google.

The median annual salary for our recent graduates is £34,000 per year (City Graduate Destinations).

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This exciting new multidisciplinary master's programme is fully designed to reflect the needs of contemporary interactive media industries, bringing together creative technologies, interactivity and design practices within digital cultures with the user in mind.

Interactive Media Practice combines a wide range of digital creative technologies primarily combining digital literacies design, technology and interaction, through user centred design for commercial outputs to an industry standard.

Interactive Media Practice places the user at the centre of the experience and focuses on design and content creation in areas such as: mobile app development, wearables, games, rich media websites, interactive guides and installations, immersive VR, next generation advertising and virtual and augmented reality systems, through to social media powerful eMarketing and entrepreneurship through innovation protocol.

According to the late CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, the app industry "is worth several billion pounds annually and employs around 40,000 people, representing approximately ten per cent of the total audio-visual workforce. Sectors such as sound-driven games and apps show an even wider growth where providers such as Apple have paid a total of two billion dollars to apps within the US alone".

Adobe Systems (UK) fully support the programme with high recommendation, based on the development and key principles the course offers, which is rare and unique. We embrace excellent contracts within the interactive media and games industries, including regular visits and master classes from industry professionals at the top of their game from Adobe to Sony.

Adobe Systems (UK), said: “This Interactive Media degree offers an ideal grounding for those wishing to work in the digital media industries, which increasingly require people who work with technology from a creative perspective. This is the course that will create the next generation of interactive media stars…! ”

The course embraces a hackathon culture with specialist hack labs boasting newly designed flexible learning spaces for students to work more collaboratively on innovation protocols fostering cross-pollination of new ideas creatively. Many students will be working on live industry briefs as well as their own projects independently within and outside our course clusters. This collaborative approach to learning and research often leads to successful projects, which are commercially viable, and quickly gain industry recognition through our end of year show.

“It’s a really multi-faceted MA, bringing together creativity, technology skills and digital media, with an entrepreneurial thread.” – 2015 Graduate.

Our students learn to examine the communication of ideas in a networked world through our entrepreneurship incubator programme and consider the many impacts of digital media in everyday life, for commercial trajectories through practiced based projects.

As one of the top 100 international universities in the world, the University of Westminster's School of Media, Arts and Design currently boasts a series of professional recording studios, a new teaching recording studio, professional technology labs and access to an array of post-production, and multimedia facilities built and equipped to the highest standards.

Using the leading industry software, you will be involved in designing and making interactive digital media content for delivery over the Internet, on tablets and mobile devices and for installations to designing compelling user interfaces creating a great user experience, this also extends to the development towards creating content for the ‘internet of things’.

The MA in Interactive Media Practice course will prepare you for this sector, by leveraging and integrating the fine blend between creativity and technical capacities. You will also benefit from having access to a range of highly regarded industry practitioners who will offer you exceptional insight and working knowledge within the field, both challenging and encouraging your technical and creative fair. On this master's degree you will develop commercial-level interactive media and digital content production skills.

Course content

This multidisciplinary course prepares you to work in a wide range of industry combining theory, practice, and bringing together technical, creative perspective on new media systems, interactive technologies and digital culture as well as exploring new emerging creative technologies, producing an industry professional who can produce as well as explore future creative technologies.

Students are encouraged to work with technology experimentally in a creative way, collaboratively, and to apply emerging and existing technology in new and innovative ways, research and the experimental application. You will also have hands-on experience creating content for, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Playstation , Xbox, Oculus Rift and content rich media websites, advanced web production and design, design for interface all of this with the user in mind. The course will provide skills in the relevant multimedia software, media rich web production, Unity, UdK, website design and development to mobile app development. You will be taught creative coding, interfaces and the course encourages the use a wide range of programming languages delivered by industry practitioners. We also have accreditation opportunities within Adobe and Apple for those students wanting to develop their skills more prolifically within select software.

These include mobile apps, mainstream games, interactive installation, sonic media and eMarketing, with an emphasis on core creative skills. The course also prepares and enhances your ability in producing interactive media, methodologies and production workflows, supported by a robust understanding of the technologies and theories involved.

The Interactive Media Practice degree offers an ideal underpinning for those seeking employment in the digital media industries, which increasingly require people who work with technology form a creative perspective. This is the course that will create the next generation of interactive media talent who are both enterprising and creative.

Our approach on the course is implemented through hackathon culture as seen in technology start up sectors, where cross collaboration through interdisciplinary approach is very welcomed. Students are encouraged to apply from design, non-programming or non-technical backgrounds as well as technical backgrounds.

Modules

-Applied Innovation and Interactive Design
-Mobile Apps and Wearable Devices
-Entrepreneurship and Project Management for Creative Industries
-Social Media and E-Marketing
-Hack Lab and Creative Technologies
-UX Design and Development
-Major Project

Associated careers

There are many highly desirable careers that students from this course can go on into such as: interactive media, app development, new media production, interactive development, advanced web producer, content manager, UX designer, project management, media, digital marketing, media design, online branding, interactive game design, web production, game designer, media advertising, information design, digital production, strategic development, online advertising, UX architect, digital SAM, mobile UX, front end development, wen development, email marketing executive, ecommerce digital marketing manager, .net developer, UX designer academic publisher, UX researcher, social media executive, digital designer, digital advertising, SEO consultant, content marketing specialist, interaction designer, digital project manger, optimisation manager and digital content production. Digital marker, creative technologist, rich media website developer, games producer, social media manger, museum installation, VR gaming, VR advertising.

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The heart of Centennial College's Interactive Media Management program is user experience (UX). Your ability to design and create meaningful interactive digital experiences will position you to succeed as an interactive media professional.

This Interactive Media Management program, facilitated through the School of Communications, Media and Design, is ideal for you if you have completed a post-secondary program and wish to apply your skills to a career in interactive media management. If you're passionate about making interactive experiences that "just work", this program is for you.

Your courses teach you how to plan all elements of an effective interactive digital experience, starting from assessing what your audience needs then accommodating their needs through the interface, its design and the words it contains. You also have the opportunity to work on your own project, from concept to prototype.

The interactive digital media industry is changing as mobile and immersion computing becomes more important and prevalent. As such, this collaborative and project-driven program emphasizes:
-Digital strategy
-UX design
-Content strategy and planning
-Interactive storytelling
-Analytics
-Digital project management (grant charts, budgets, project planning, agile methodology)
-Researching and surveying the interactive media landscape

You learn about the industry and available career options in the early stages of the Interactive Media Management program and you complete your learning with a nine-week industry field placement.

Career Opportunities

Future Alumni
Where do program graduates go? With a combination of creative and practical skills, alumni are well-positioned as the interactive media professionals of the future. Alumni work in all aspects of the interactive media industry both in Canada and internationally.

Some of the Interactive Media Management program's alumni include:
-Angelique Abranches, Interface Architect, Shaw Media
-Christine Hanson, User Experience Architect, Critical Mass
-Guilherme Chee, Interactive Designer at Electrolux (Brazil)
-Jaimie Lerner, Digital Content Producer, Indie88
-Danielle Williams, Web Content Coordinator, The Shopping Channel
-Matthew Flanagan, Digital Content Coordinator, Movie Services at Bell Media
-Miguel Martinez, Pipeline Technical Director, Atomic Cartoons
-Laura James, Digital Content Producer & Strategist; CEO at Mulberry Media Interactive
-Rebecca Milner, Community Manager, OneMethod
-Andrew Rajaram, UX Architect, OneMethod

Program Highlights
-In the first semester, you gain fundamental skills in analyzing, designing, and creating interactive user experiences. As a result, you acquire a solid understanding of elements of UX, with an emphasis on content and audience analysis, UX strategy, wire framing, practical coding, A/V production and management skills.
-The second semester is spent working on your own senior project, while you apply advanced learning in business, analytics, technology and planning documentation.
-In your third and final semester you learn how to pitch and present an interactive media project and polish your entrepreneurial skills before heading out to work in the industry on your field placement.

Career Outlook
-Interactive producer
-Digital strategist
-Content strategist
-Social media manager
-Information architect
-Web development
-User experience (UX) designer
-Digital content producer
-Technical director
-Games producer

Areas of Employment
-Interactive and game studios
-Advertising agencies
-Marketing companies
-PR agencies
-TV broadcasters
-Radio stations
-Content production companies (video, animation)
-Government, financial and tetail sectors
-High-tech industries
-Freelance production/strategy

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For most companies, understanding the complex web of relationships between people, technology and design the 'user experience' is vital in acquiring the competitive edge. Especially when considering the development and production of technology based devices and services. MSc User Experience Engineering brings together knowledge and skill sets into a single programme focused on the user experience where computing technology is the heart of the devices and services.

Why study MSc User Experience Engineering at Dundee?

The importance of human computer interaction and good interface design is increasingly recognised as the key to the future of successful software development.

At the University of Dundee we provide students with the knowledge skills and support necessary to become move into a career in user experience engineering. The University of Dundee is at the forefront of computing and as such you will have the opportunity to learn from leading researchers.

What's great about User Experience Engineering at Dundee?

This course is designed to:
Give you a Masters-level postgraduate education in the knowledge, skills and understanding of user experience research and implementation in the domain of computing and technology.

Enable you to acquire advanced knowledge and skills in the professional procedures necessary to ensure that user experience research and requirements-gathering is both valid and actionable in technology implementation contexts.

Enable you to understand and engage with contemporary debate about the role, ethics and utility of user experience research in commercial and other settings.

An additional aim for overseas students is to provide you with educational and cultural experiences which are unique to the UK.

Our facilities:
You will have 24-hour access to our award winning and purpose-built Queen Mother Building. It has an unusual mixture of lab space and breakout areas, with a range of conventional and special equipment for you to use. It's also easy to work on your own laptop as there is wireless access throughout the building. Our close ties to industry allows us access to facilities such as Windows Azure and Teradata, and university and industry standard software such as Tableau for you to evaluate and use.

The start date is September each year. The MSc course lasts for 12 months and the PGDip lasts for 9 months.

How you will be taught

The programme will be delivered principally by a mix of traditional lectures, study of academic background texts, lab and studio based practice sessions, and field and project based learning. These will be supplemented by seminars and workshops on key areas of practice

What you will study

The course will be taught in 20 credit modules plus a 60 credit dissertation. Students will be required to complete 180 credits for the award of the MSc (including 60 credits for the dissertation). Students completing 120 credits (without the dissertation) will be eligible for a Postgraduate Diploma.

Semester 1 (Sept-Dec)
Computing the User Experience (20 Credits)
Elective Module- one from:
Internet and Computer Systems
Software Development
Software Engineering
Agile Engineering
Technology Innovation Management
Secure e-Commerce
Computer Graphics
Computer Vision
Multimedia Audio
International Marketing
Eye Movements & Cognition (10 Credits)
Quantitative Methods (10 Credits)

Semester 2 (Jan-Mar)
Research Methods (20 Credits)- experimental design requires researchers to understand the context of the research being undertaken and being able to apply appropriate methods to measure and compare data. This module aims to provide students with an understanding and knowledge of research methods relevant in the context of computing.
Research Frontiers(20 Credits) - Students select a total of four units from available units which currently include:
Accessibility & Computing (AC)
Applied Computational Intelligence (ACI)
Constraint Programming (CP)
Games (G)
Intelligent Agents (IA)
Aspects of Assistive Technology (AT) and Augmentative and Alternate Communication (AAC)
Interactive Systems Design (ISD)
Space Systems (SS)
What Computer Eyes Can Do (CE)
Eye Gaze Tracking
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) (20 Credits) - the aim of this module is to provide you with a broad introduction to human-computer interaction through study of the components, both human and machine, which make up interfaces and the ways in which they interact, illustrating this with examples of good and bad practice.

Semester 3 (Apr-Sept)
Research Project or Field Project (60 Credits) - this module will provide you with a professional level experience of specifying, conducting and presenting a substantial piece of user experience research.
Please note that some of the modules in the programme are shared with other masters programmes and some of the teaching and resources may be shared with our BSc programme.

How you will be assessed

Assessment will be a mix of continuous or coursework assessments and exams, with group and individual projects assessed by set deliverables and final presentation.

Careers

This programme is intended to enhance the employability of graduates in the following ways:

For technologists and computing professionals, this programme should build their skills in implementing technology that are appropriate to the needs and wishes of users in the relevant usage context

For human factors specialists, this programme should build their understanding of the fit between users and technology and should enhance their methodology skill set when exploring beyind the understanding of the human factors towards the deployment of appropriate or enhanced user experiences.

For design specialists, this programme should build their skills in marrying technologies and materials to the requirements of users and in blending this within appropriate aesthetics.

For UX team managers this programme should enhance their insights and give them practical experience of the skill sets of all members of their teams in order to direct their work so as to optimize the user experience within real business and technical constraints.

For all professionals, this programme should enhance their ability to communicate the impact of the user experience investigations on their work and the impact of their work on the user experience, not only within the UX team but also to other business functions such as senior management and marketing.

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The User Experience Design MSc is a flexible course that you can tailor to your own professional interests. It will help to train you for roles that range from usability, interaction and interface design through to general project management and consulting.

The course is for designers and software developers wishing to enhance their knowledge of user-centred design and usability evaluation of software-enabled products.

Course content has been designed for maximum relevancy to the marketplace.

Upon completion, you'll be able to apply your knowledge and interaction design skills to novel interaction paradigms; make effective use of a broad range of design methods; obtain in-depth knowledge of developments in mobile, ubiquitous or wearable systems and understand the commercial contexts of interaction design.

Course structure

The course can be studied full-time or part-time.

For full-time students the academic year is divided into three 15-week semesters.

The taught element of the course is delivered during the first two semesters. Modules involve approximately 20 per cent classroom teaching and 80 per cent individual or group work. The third semester focuses on your major project.

Part-time students study alongside full-time students with a minimum attendance of one half day per week, depending on the number of modules taken.

Syllabus

On the course, you will study four core modules, two of which will require you to complete individual design projects.

You will also choose from a range of optional modules. These will allow you to specialise in the areas of the discipline that interest you the most.

Modules:

Interaction Design and Evaluation Process
Interface and Information Design
Research Methods
Major Project

Options (subject to change):

Marketing for Interactive Technologies
Interactive Technologies Business Context
Intellectual Property Law
Web Development
Creative Design Lab
Project Management
Independent portfolio project
Independent research project

Employability

Graduates have gone on to work as commercial interaction designers on both software and software-enabled physical products, as well as using this as a starting point for a research career in human-centred interaction design.

Our graduates are working in roles that include:

• digital consultant
• senior developer
• UX designer
• web designer
• digital marketer.

At the end of the taught element there is the possibility of a placement with a digital media company for the major project module. This puts real experience on your CV as you consolidate your expertise.

Brighton is acknowledged as a major digital media cluster.

There are plenty of opportunities to network with companies and organisations in the sector both through the course through external speakers and taking your own initiative. The course cohort has regularly attended the annual conference UX Brighton and students can attend the many digital media events organised in the city.

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Why take this course?

As a Data Visualisation Designer you can contribute innovative solutions with the potential to transform societal challenges, by designing the human interface to increasingly complex problems.

On this course, you will learn how to create rich and meaningful stories with data. We will study digital content in any mode, whether it is in alphanumeric form, binary, vector, pixel, video, or others. The designer provides an important interface, that allows us to explore data and generates meaningful communication. This communication is predominantly visual, but with developments in Wearables and the Internet of Things, is also becoming increasingly physical, affective, networked and interactive. Data Visualisation Design spans traditional graphic and information design, interaction design, information architecture, computational design, design thinking and user-centred and user experience design.

What will I experience?

On this course you can:

Learn the theory and practice of data visualisation, data, interface/interaction design and user experience, and apply this to your own design
Critically question the role of data related to the social, political, economic and cultural through contextual research
Explore live data sets from real world scenarios, such as industry or charities like the digital humanitarian network
Develop independent research and project ideas to create innovative, forward thinking design solutions and experiences for a digital and data driven world

What opportunities might it lead to?

The course will prepare you to work in the design disciplines of the creative industries, with a focus on data visualisation, information design, computational design, digital content, interactivity and user experience. Data Visualisation designers are in demand in sectors including business, research, health, education, government/public service, the arts.

The skills gained on this course can also be applied to employment in UI (user interface) design, or focus on interaction as a UX (User experience) designer. The critical and contextual outlook allows you to position yourself as a strategist and operate in a consultative manner. The research aspect of the course would also suit a career in compulsory, further and higher education.

Careers include:

Data Visualisation Design
Information Design
Digital Graphic Design
UI (user interface) / UX (user experience) design
Interaction design

Module Details

The course is offered over one year (full-time) or two years (part-time).

You will study five units, one of which is shared with other MA courses in the School of Art and Design. There will be preparatory units delivering a grounding in practical skills, theoretical context and academic research (competencies and skills). You will also study units that allow more thematic engagement with interactive and data driven design in terms of theory such as critical design, affordances, experience and complexity. It will also provide a unit oriented towards employability, and incorporate live briefs and group work. These units work to catalyse your own ideas and research direction for the Major Project unit.

Core units currently comprise:

A Question of Research
Fundamentals of Data and Interaction Design
Digital Futures – Themes and Issues in Practice
Design Solutions for Enterprise, Society and Culture
Major Project

Programme Details

The teaching combines interactive lectures and group seminar discussions with support through one-to-one tutorials. You also receive feedback on your work through friendly but critical peer review in group sessions with other students, members of faculty and other experts as appropriate. One of the units includes working as a team. Your project work emphasises self-initiated learning which gives you the freedom to explore the specialist area of your interest, while being helpfully guided by your supervisor. The curriculum is very closely related to the research areas in the department, so the staff have cutting edge knowledge of the field and its potential for innovation.

Your learning is mostly assessed through the submission of practical course work, such as digital prototypes, and the documentation of the learning journey in sketchbooks, diaries, blogs or journals.

This will be documenting contextual research as well as stages in practical experimentation and annotation of reflection. There are some written elements to be submitted as well, mostly accompanying proposals/reports to contextualise your practice. The assessment also includes individual and group presentations, this mode is also used to give you formative feedback on your work throughout.

Here's how we assess your work:

Digital artefacts / prototypes
Learning journals
Proposals
Reports
Oral presentation

Student Destinations

This course is an opportunity to focus your creative design practice on the interactive, data driven, user centred and culturally contextualised. It also enhances your design career by upgrading your skills and widening your knowledge and thinking in the digital arena, allowing you to stay one step ahead of the rest. The independent research aspect of the course prepares you for further education in terms of a research degree and employment in R&D and/or education.

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The Master has a complete and articulate program thanks to a balanced didactic structure, organized in three main areas: Cultural, Tools and Techniques and Project.

The Cultural area's main objectives include the acquisition of notions and an effective method of communication of several types of projects. This area includes lectures, classes, workshops and individual studies.

The second area of Tools and Techniques aims at the application of graphic design in diverse contexts with particular attention to developing areas (video, social communication, mobile UI/UX, interface design and digital publishing).

The Project area is mainly practical and strategic and aims at the complete management of a communication project in all of its phases in collaboration with companies or other external partners.

Lessons and classes are all structured as working briefs and workshops. Participants will work on the basis of real briefs which are inserted from the start in a context that reconstructs the dynamics of working companies and studio in multiple contexts such as communication studios, companies or visual departments within institutions. Professors are selected from experts and professionals in the respective fields of teaching.

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Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is concerned with the design and use of computer and mobile technology, focusing on the interfaces between people and systems. This interdisciplinary degree programme sits at the intersection of engineering, behavioural sciences, and design. It combines academic rigour with practical and professional skills highly valued by employers.

Degree information

Students develop an understanding of the relevance and application of human physical, cognitive, social and affective knowledge to the design of interactive systems. They learn to analyse and test user performance, preferences and experience in relation to human-centred interactive systems. Students will be able to characterise and apply range of human-computer interaction and user-centred design styles.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of two compulsory 30 credit core modules, four 15 credit optional modules and a 60 credit research project.

A Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits, full-time nine months or flexible up to three years is offered) consisting of two compulsory 30 credit core modules and four 15 credit optional modules. A Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits), full-time three months or flexible up to two years is offered. This consists of one 30 credit core module and 30 credits of optional modules.

Core modules
-Interaction Science
-Interaction Design

Optional modules
-Accessibility and Assistive Technologies
-Affective Interaction
-Future Interfaces
-Human Factors for Digital Health
-Persuasive Games
-Physical Computing and Prototyping
-Socio-technical Systems

Dissertation/report
The MSc project gives you the opportunity to conduct research in the area of human-computer interaction under the supervision of a member of UCLIC staff. A broad range of topics and questions are offered and you will work closely with your supervisor in selecting and carrying out your project. Many former projects have contributed to publications at leading international conferences, such as the ACM SIGCHI conference.

Teaching and learning
Our modules use a combination of lectures and practical activities. Activities are often structured around individual or group projects, such as the evaluation of a system or the creation of a prototype. Modules are assessed through a mixture of coursework and exams. Coursework is varied and includes design portfolios, presentations, videos, reflective reports, and online peer learning tasks as well as more traditional academic essays.

Careers

Our graduates are employed by technology multinationals, start-ups, government agencies, consultancies and in academia. They take up roles such as User Experience (UX) Researchers, Interaction Designers, Usability Specialists and Information Architects. Many progress to senior roles within a few years of graduation.

Employability
This degree is highly regarded by our colleagues in industry. Along with developing HCI research skills, the programme allows students to demonstrate skills in presenting, writing and collaboration that are valued by employers. We have a large network of alumni working in London and across the world. Many of them are involved with our industry speaker series and careers events, and they regularly send opportunities to our jobs mailing list for recent graduates.

Why study this degree at UCL?

This programme is taught by the UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC), a world leading Centre of Excellence in Human-Computer Interaction, working collaboratively with industry and the research community. UCLIC, and before it the UCL Ergonomics Unit, have provided training in this field for over thirty years. We have excellent links with industry partners, offer students a weekly indsutry speaker series and run visits to consultancies and field sites.

Our modules use a combination of lectures and practical activities. Activities are often structured around individual or group projects, such as the evaluation of a system or the creation of a prototype. Assessments are varied and include design portfolios, presentations, videos and reflective reports as well as academic essays and exams.

The MSc research project allows students to undertake cutting-edge research in human-computer interaction. Many former projects have been published and presented at leading international conferences.

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Digital Strategy is a first level university Specializing Master of the Politecnico di Milano, an evolution of "Specializing Master SNID - Social Network Influence Design", which was created with the objective of training professionals to plan, coordinate, and monitor digital marketing and communication strategies.

The training program focuses on the transmission of a single method of design and technical expertise, that enables candidates to interpret the changes taking place in the current communication landscape and the opportunities offered by new technology scenarios, and to assist companies in the transition from traditional to integrated forms of communication.

Listening, Strategy, and Monitoring are the pillars of the educational process in a mix of disciplines that allows you to design and implement digital communications ecosystems in line with the conversion lenses of the brand and consistent with the latest methodologies UX Design, according to a markedly user-centred approach, the indisputable mark of the School of Design at the Politecnico di Milano.

Start date: October 6, 2017

http://www.polidesign.net/en/digitalstrategy

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The aim of this course to equip you with the behavioural theory, design practice and technology know-how that is necessary for a career as interaction designer, usability engineer, user researcher, or head of user experience. It focuses upon the analysis, design, prototyping and evaluation of multimedia, multi-modal, and multi-platform user interfaces that are easy to use and support a great user experience.

Key features
-This course was developed in consultation with our industry panel, which includes Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, DreamWorks and Samsung Design Europe. We are also an active member of TIGA, the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) and support the User Experience Professionals' Association (UXPA UK).
-Technical facilities include a Tobii eye tracker, Noldus FaceReader and Morae usability testing software, editing suites, moving-image studios and 3D workshops.
-This course is accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS), The Chartered Institute for IT.

What will you study?

You will have the opportunity to:
-Take the role of a user experience (UX) designer/analyst in an interdisciplinary team of students from across the Digital Media Kingston programme, and use industry-standard techniques to deliver on time
-Learn about fundamental User Experience activities – analysis, design, prototyping and evaluation – in the context of practical projects. Projects are selected in consultation with students (and mostly individually), so that you can tailor your degree towards the industry sector, technology or job role that suits your interests and ambitions
-Consider user experience in relation to cutting-edge technologies (big screens, tablets, smart phones, context-aware embedded devices and multi-modal games console), current industry trends (big data, multi-channel services, digital lifestyles), and contemporary theory (cognition ‘in the wild', usability vs experience)
-Explore at least one kind of specialist practice in depth, to further distinguish and focus your learning, and practice track record
-Learn how to present yourself to potential employers through your online professional presence and portfolio
-Work with industrial hosts, and research-active academics to produce excellent, professional pieces of work that push the boundaries of current understanding and achieve design innovation

Assessment

Mock-ups, functional prototypes, demos, videos, presentations, design documents, essays.

Work placement scheme

Kingston University has set up a scheme that allows postgraduate students in the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing to include a work placement element in their course starting from September 2017. The placement scheme is available for both international and home/EU students.

-The work placement, up to 12 months; is optional.
-The work placement takes place after postgraduate students have successfully completed the taught portion of their degree.
-The responsibility for finding the placement is with the student. We cannot guarantee the placement, just the opportunity to undertake it.
-As the work placement is an assessed part of the course for international students, this is covered by a student's tier 4 visa.

Details on how to apply will be confirmed shortly.

Course structure

The course comprises four taught modules and a final project:

Semester 1
-User Experience Design (Systems)
-Digital Studio Practice

Semester 2
-User Experience Design (Content)
-Media Specialist Practice

Final project (June to September)
-Digital Media Final Project

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Our lives, now more than ever, inhabit the digital world. Most day-to-day activities are mediated through online platforms and processes, whether through dealing with big data through new modes of visualisation, having new user-digital-experiences, or encountering digital visual effects in animation, photography, motion design and online advertising. Digital media represents an embedded set of practices within the creative and cultural industries and looks set to evolve and expand in innovative ways in the future.

Our MA in Digital Media offers continuing or recent graduates from creative design subjects with an opportunity to enhance their knowledge, creative skills and employment prospects. We encourage our students to explore the growth potential of digital media platforms and processes with the development of innovative and imaginative concepts and ideas. The course guides you in your development of core specialist themes which may include data visualisation, app design, motion design, animation, visual effects (VFX), advertising, commercial and/or artist-led photographic practices or user experience design (UXD). Our practice-led modules facilitate opportunities for you to produce high quality portfolios often underpinned by industry focused trends and competition briefs.

The expectation is that you will be seeking to enter the cultural and creative industries into roles such as data visualisers, motion designers, animators, editors, visual effects artists and user experience designers (UX). You may also be seeking to develop proposals for further postgraduate research.

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Wearable Futures is a cross-disciplinary umbrella programme for designers who are interested in the cluster of technologies and experiences that have the human body and its covering as their centre of focus.

The course offers a holistic environment based on the integration of creative computing, digital craftsmanship and material cultures, while also incorporating the technologies and advances in hardware that are impacting on manufacturing techniques and associated applications. Wearable futures has come about as part of Ravensbourne’s current commitment to become creative leader in the field of wearable applications and body-centric design. Ravensbourne's digital research culture is contributing significantly in this context.

The main conceptual framework for the course will be provided by theories of digital craftsmanship, body-centric technologies and phenomenological readings and speculative philosophy. These will form an important research foundation for building Ravensbourne’s critical reach and will assist in helping you to sift and prioritise the current trends and thought relating to fashion and discussion around the body within data informed spaces. An interdisciplinary field of study will include interaction and experience design (UX), “making” and open source culture, design innovation and applied philosophy. You will be introduced to philosophical trends and these will tie in with your practice and help you to develop a critical view incorporating design fiction and other emerging theories. You will engage with research methods such as participatory, user study and user-centered design.

"One of the exciting things about the design industries today is that boundaries of former categories such as fashion, product or experience design have been broken down" - Alexa Pollman, Subject leader, MA Wearable Futures.

The course is a platform for investigation, dissemination and analysis around contemporary theory and practice in the wearable industries. The course’s core role will be to foster your understanding of this market and to identify latent demand within the commercial sphere and to highlight future applications and directions. The aim will be to help you to influence the decision makers so that wearable solutions will be accepted and meet the cultural and ethical expectations when designing for the human body and the garment-industry. You are expected to consider the cultural and social role inherent to fashion as a part of wearable futures.

Wearable futures students will focus their investigations on the key flashpoints of the body as an interface for what is a symbiotic, physical and digital exchange. As part of the design methodology of the course, you will be asked to develop future scenarios and narratives in order to help you and your clientele to understand the concomitant social, environmental or cultural challenges of designing for a matter as delicate as the human body.

"At the moment we’re still very much in the “task” piece of wearable computing, not in the symbolic “how do we make sense of it” piece. I think in the wearable space we are still bringing all the old metaphors of computation with us and still interpreting them in a somewhat literal way—that they are a smaller smartphone, or a little computer. It will become much more interesting when we let go of that and work out the promise that wearable computing will make to us." Genevieve Bell, Anthropologist at Intel

Get to know the subject leader: Alexa Pollman

- Tell us about yourself

For me, garments are social reactors and I like to challenge the current notion of ‘wear’. I have experienced the industry from different angles: my original profession was in fashion design, but I have also worked as a creative consultant and spent my fair share of time in showrooms, for both – big and small brands.

I completed the Design Interactions Programme at the Royal College of Art, and collaborating with various disciplines has enriched my perspective as a designer.

Luckily, I have been awarded different grants that have allowed me to pursue my own work - Peut-Porter is my design consultancy agency and platform which researches and provides forecasts on wear and fashion. Currently, I am Designer in Residence at the Design Museum London and will have new work on show from September 2015.

- What's your opinion on the current state of wearable futures?

We currently find a variety of opinions on wearables and truthfully spoken, I see a lot of problems occurring with their application. This is why it is important to train specialists who can engage with the topic in a much broader sense than is currently being done by the industry. Our wearable futures students will be asked to be highly innovative but at the same time engage with the cultural and social impacts of body-centric design. We need them to bridge the gap between artisans and material or textile specialists and the tech world.

The fashion system successfully uses technology in many experience-based ways and this seems like a very natural process to me as the narrative, experience-based aspect seems inherent to fashion. Wearable futures will not only produce gadgets and devices, it will help to define our relationship to technology when it enters our personal spheres, it will look at the moral and ethical side of data-capturing as well as its technological possibilities and ask students to research and design future aspects and needs of wear.

- Is this course right for me?

This course will focus on body-centric design – a topic which is currently being explored in a massive range of disciplines. We will ask for an extremely flexible mind, someone who is eager to work with various media and collaborate with science, engineers and artists to create their own definition of wearables.

Studying an MA should allow a student to find his or her very own position, strength and reason to design. Whether their work will have a technological, experiential , future or fashion focus will in the end be very much up to what they have decided to explore in the process. We want students to become ambassadors who understand not only the technological aspects and applications of wear but the medium that they will most closely be working with – the human body.

- Why are you so passionate about this course subject?

I think the course has potential to become a wake-up call – what are we doing to ourselves and our bodies? How much more obsessed with data capturing and monitoring will we become? We can’t ignore the trends and tendencies but we need to discuss and open up the field, get some creative minds together and talk about the cultural meaning of ‘wear’ and how that can work intriguingly when paired with technology.

For me, one of the big pluses of Ravensbourne is the fact that it doesn’t have a ‘traditional’ fashion orientation but instead is very interested in the digital and technological aspects of education. I especially feel that our MA courses have a lot to offer in terms of a general interdisciplinary approach, more so because they take in a small amount of people. Designers need one another to work and explore their role and as the MA’s share the same space, we will surely see a lot of cross overs with the other courses. Also, we have had quite some interest from big industries and I think we will see some exciting collaborations happening here in the future.

Course structure

1. Technology Issues – will ask you to engage and experiment with technologies used in the body-centric design sector. The three provided project briefs will explore such fields as data-capturing, 3D Printing and alternative production methods or sensory technology. You will work with fellow students and develop quick mock-ups to understand the mediums at hand and create wear with a focus on experiences.

2. Business and Innovation – will help you understand the business and innovative practices used in the creative industries. Could your idea become a successful product and how can you find a niche to place yourself in? Wearable Technology is one of the quickest growing markets of the industry and your contribution to the field could have manifold impacts.

3. Concept & Prototyping – will allow you to develop your personal design method and introduce you to an holistic design-strategy. You will be asked to present your concepts employing various media and design speculative, narrative and plausible futures in order to challenge and understand the needs, hopes and dreams related to wearables.

4. The Research Process – will help you to investigate and strengthen your concepts and ideas by teaching you the skills and methods needed to ground you personal project in an academic context.

5. The Major Project – represents the culmination of the design work and the research you conducted in your studies. In this unit, you will forge a specialist project and work self-managed and practice-based, seek advise from specialists outside the college and present your personal take on the future of wearables.

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This programme is designed to help you develop your critical awareness of major issues in interaction and user experience design.

This programme was formerly named Interaction Design and has been renamed User Experience Design to better represent its content.

It aims to improve your effectiveness as a designer within industry and is beneficial to both recent graduates and those currently working within industry, advancing your knowledge and specialist skills to a higher level.

Loughborough Design School offers a unique combination of design and specialist human factors teaching which equips students with core Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and User Experience (UX) design skills. The content of the programme therefore enables you to develop your skills and competencies in both the creative and/or analytical aspects of User Experience whilst working on a diverse range of projects.

Key skills that you will develop include user experience design principles and practice, qualitative and quantitative design research methods, interactive screen based prototyping, usability testing, principles of sustainable business, enterprise and entrepreneurship, service and social design, team working and project management.

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Overview

Got a love for computing and technology? Hoping to build on the skills you learnt during your undergraduate studies? This essential applied computing masters is well suited to students from a business IT or computing background, helping you to build on existing skills and develop advanced theoretical and practical proficiencies.

- Students study a curriculum developed with input from an industry liaison panel, ensuring that the course content is up to date and meets the needs of employers.
- This curriculum covers a range of relevant computing disciplines including business IT, software development, security, web design, computer networking, big data analytics, user experience and mobile technologies.
- The Southampton Solent University campus hosts regular British Computer Society (BCS) professional development events.
- Graduates will be well prepared to pursue Cisco Certified Networking Professional (CCNP), BCS agile and BCS software testing certifications.
- Learners have access to a range of professional software suites and state-of-the-art IT laboratories.
- Available labs depend on student specialism, but can include eye tracking / UX facilities or dedicated networking security labs.
- The course comes to a close with students conducting their own research projects. This can be an excellent way to specialise knowledge towards desired careers, or act as a springboard for PhD study.
- This course can be delivered flexibly over two years, allowing students to fit studies around their work.

The industry -

The UK’s IT industry is worth £58 billion annually. With employment of IT professionals expected to grow nearly twice as fast as the UK average between now and 2020 (e-skills UK), it looks like demand for well-qualified information technology graduates is set to remain strong.

A postgraduate qualification can put you at the forefront of this demand, demonstrating your commitment to the industry and your ability to carry out in-depth computing research.

The programme -

Southampton Solent University’s applied computing masters programme places a unique focus on graduate employability, focusing on developing the specific skills that industry employers are seeking.

One of the ways that the course team ensure the curriculum is achieving this goal is through regular consultations with an industry liaison panel. This panel advises the course team on the latest industry developments and the course content is changed accordingly.

These strong links with industry have provided previous School of Media Arts and Technology students with access to a range of work experience opportunities, case studies and guest lectures.

Computing students at Southampton Solent have the opportunity to use industry standard facilities throughout their studies. Our EC Council certified security and networking labs feature a wide variety of equipment from Cisco (including Cisco Packet Tracer), Fluke and HP, as well as high-fidelity simulation systems like the market-leading Opnet. Students also have free access to our devices lab, where they can test their web design projects on a variety of different computing devices.

Students are supported to develop a range of transferable skills throughout the course. These include project management, problem solving and analytical skills that empower students to work in a range of different industries after graduation. Students will also develop high-level academic skills, perfect for those who are hoping to pursue a PhD.

Course Content

Programme specification document - http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=6152

Teaching, learning and assessment -

With few formal lectures, most units are taught in small class-based sessions, usually in IT labs.

For the research and development project you will be assigned a project tutor, who will advise and support you.

Assessment -

The course is assessed through a mixture of coursework assignments, group work, videos, presentations, a project research paper and a final poster presentation.

Teaching -

The course’s teaching staff have a wide range of academic, research and professional experience that they bring to their teaching. Research interests include data mining, learning technologies, gamification, wireless systems, computer systems and OpenStreetMap applications.

Our facilities -

During your studies you will learn to build information systems using a variety of professional-grade software packages. You will also have access to our state-of-the-art IT laboratories; depending on your choice of options you may have access to our specialised network security laboratory or usability lab with eye-tracking facilities.

You’ll have access to our devices lab, a special test area integrated with our existing software development spaces. The devices lab consists of a range of the latest mobile devices mounted on flexible tethers, allowing you to test your websites and apps on real equipment.

Web-based learning -

Solent’s virtual learning environment provides quick online access to assignments, lecture notes, suggested reading and other course information.

Why Solent?

What do we offer?

From a vibrant city centre campus to our first class facilities, this is where you can find out why you should choose Solent.

Facilities - http://www.solent.ac.uk/about/facilities/facilities.aspx

City living- http://www.solent.ac.uk/studying/southampton/living-in-southampton.aspx

Accommodation - http://www.solent.ac.uk/studying/accommodation/accommodation.aspx

Career Potential

The option choices within the course structure provides students with the opportunity for in-depth study at postgraduate level in selected areas of specialism in computing and business IT – laying the groundwork for a successful career in management, strategic planning or system development.

Suitable roles for graduates include:

- Business Analyst
- Project manager
- Database manager
- Digital marketer
- Software developer
- Web Developer
- Application development
- Project manager
- Senior database analyst
- Senior user experience analyst
- Software architect
- Network deployment specialist.

Links with industry -

Course content is developed with input from an industrial liaison panel, making sure that your studies include the latest technology and working practice from industry experts.

You’ll also have the chance to work directly with real-world companies on live briefs, events and projects, while regular BCS meetings hosted at the University are your chance to build professional connections and secure valuable work experience opportunities.

Transferable skills -

This course will develop your academic, presentation, IT, analytical and project-management skills.

Further study -

If you are interested in research, the course offers opportunities to continue on to PhD study.

Tuition fees

The tuition fees for the 2016/2017 academic year are:

UK and EU full-time fees: £7,210

International full-time fees: £12,380

UK and EU part-time fees: £3,605 per year

International part-time fees: £6,190 per year

Graduation costs -

Graduation is the ceremony to celebrate the achievements of your studies. For graduates in 2015, there is no charge to attend graduation, but you will be required to pay for the rental of your academic gown (approximately £42 per graduate, depending on your award). You may also wish to purchase official photography packages, which range in price from £15 to £200+. Graduation is not compulsory, so if you prefer to have your award sent to you, there is no cost.
For more details, please visit: http://www.solent.ac.uk/studying/graduation/home.aspx

Next steps

Would you like to build on the skills you developed at undergraduate level? Hoping to boost your career prospects? With first-class facilities, an employer led curriculum and an experienced teaching team, Southampton Solent University’s MSc Applied Computing programme is the perfect way to improve your employability and develop advanced computing skills.

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