# UX Design Foundations Course

Canonical URL: <https://www.graduateschool.edu/courses/ux-design-foundations>

## Overview

User experience (UX) design is often mistaken for just interface design, but it involves many elements beyond visuals—a strong user experience also takes into account how the user feels.Whether you’re considering a new career or want to better understand the role of UX Designers on your team, the User Experience Foundations course is an ideal introduction to the UX design process.

This class combines lectures, discussions, real-world examples, and hands-on activities. You’ll finish with a broad understanding of how UX Designers collaborate with other team members, the fundamentals of the field, and how they transform research insights into design concepts.

## What you'll learn

- What user experience design is
- How UX Designers work
- The overall UX design process
- UX research methods: user interviews, observations, heuristics, etc.
- UXD terminology and deliverables: personas, journey maps, scenarios, etc.
- Sketching and the iterative design process
- How to document and present your work

## Curriculum

### **What is UX Design?**

- UX Design vs. UI Design
- UX Design Principles

### **Disciplines in UX Design**

### **Common UX Design Tools**

### **What is UX Research?**

- Iterative Design Process
- Research Methods

### **Product Requirements & Problem Definition**

- User Needs vs. Business Needs
- Business Constraints
- What is an MVP?

### **What are UX Deliverables/Artifacts?**

- Market Research
- Competitive Analysis
- Analytics
- Stakeholder Interviews
- User Interviews
- Surveys

### **Product Requirements**

- What do users need to accomplish and what features support these goals?
- How do time, budget, and resources affect what we are building?

### **Information Architecture + Navigation**

#### Organizing Content

- Sitemap
- Taxonomy
- Content Inventory
- User Flows

### **Wireframing & Prototyping**

#### Sketching

- How do we turn ideas into designs?
- Focus on testing assumptions before moving to high-fidelity deliverables
- If the ideas don't work on paper, they won't work in high-fidelity digital

#### Wireframing

- Define the structure, hierarchy, and scale of the interface
- What level of fidelity is appropriate?
- Creating an interface language or methodology
- What are some common programs used to create wireframes?

#### Prototyping

- What are the different types of prototypes and when is each used?
- What does a prototype accomplish?
- How do we test our prototypes

### **Usability Testing**

- What are the different types of usability testing and when is each used?
- What does user feedback tell us and how does we incorporate it?

### **UX Design Documentation**

### **Presenting UX Design Research**

## Schedule
- Aug 5, 2026 – Aug 17, 2026 — Live Online
- Aug 6, 2026 – Aug 10, 2026 — Live Online
- Nov 5, 2026 – Nov 6, 2026 — Live Online

## Pricing

**Tuition:** $695