UI/UX Design Certificate Program
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
All students who finish this program will receive a signed certificate of completion verifying their participation in the program.
In this five-day intensive certificate program (held weekly on Sundays, 9am-5pm for 5 weeks), you will gain real-world skills and knowledge in all the key areas of UI/UX design. This class will focus on the user-centered design process with emphasis on user research, information architecture, interaction design, and usability testing. Students will work on a web or mobile project of their choice and will create artifacts including personas, user/task flows, sketches, and wireframes that can be added to a UX portfolio.
Program Description
Our UI/UX Design certificate program will assist you on your path to becoming a skilled and marketable user experience designer. UX is critical to the success of any website or mobile app and, in today's environment, often the key competitive advantage. As such, people with these skills are in high demand in a rapidly growing industry.
During this five-day course, you'll build your user experience skills through a combination of lectures, hands-on learning, and guided practice time, and apply those skills to the planning, design, and testing of your own in-class project.
Whether you're an aspiring UXer, a graphic designer looking to add UX skills, or a product manager, developer, or entrepreneur who would like to build better products, this course is the perfect introduction to practical, tactical UX.
Prerequisites
A love of design (not just making things pretty - although aesthetics are important - but making them functional). An interest in how people think, understand, and see. An appreciation for collaboration and a willingness to share peer design feedback.
We strongly recommend that you have a "basic" familiarity with Adobe Creative products and a UX prototyping tool (such as such as Sketch, Axure, or Balsamiq) which will be a great help in this class. You don't have to be an expert, but practicing with a prototyping tool ahead of time will allow you to more effectively create and present your design solutions during the course.
We also recommend taking Fundamentals of Web Design to understand the basics of web development and either Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop or Getting Started with Adobe Illustrator if you need more familiarity with a digital design program. We also offer "hands-on" versions of our Adobe courses if you want to get a more personal experience using and actively creating with the programs.
Though there will be ample practice time to begin designing and developing your own project during the course, coming prepared with a concept already in mind and any graphic and content material will really help you make the most of your time with us.
Program Goals
During this course, you will:
- Learn how to think and solve problems like a UX designer.
- Gain practical experience and skills in each phase of the UX design process.
- Apply the UX design process to your own personal project and create project artifacts that can be added to your portfolio.
- Collaborate with other students on projects like a real-world UX team.
- Learn how to design a compelling resume and UX portfolio.
- Learn about the UX profession and receive UX career coaching.
What this course WILL NOT cover:
- Coding for the web or generating an actual website or mobile app.
- Intermediate or advanced techniques in UX prototyping tools or Adobe products.
Equipment and Software Needed
For this class, it is strongly recommended that you bring your own computer with design software already installed.
Essential:
- Axure, Balsamiq, Sketch, or other UX prototyping tool
Also helpful:
- Adobe Photoshop CC
If you don't have a computer, we frequently have Apple iMac computers available for rent starting at $50 per day or $200 for the program. BDA staff will follow up with you after your register to reserve a computer for you if you need one. If you do rent one of our iMacs, please be sure to bring a Mac-compatible external hard drive or flash drive so you can transfer and save your work. All BDA iMacs are cleaned after each course is completed and we are not responsible for lost or deleted files you did not save and take with you.
Please note: If the computer requirement is a hardship for you, please let us know as we have a number of scholarships available for computer rentals.
After You Register
BDA is committed to making this process as smooth and enjoyable as possible so that you can focus on your learning. After you register you will be contacted by our staff who can answer questions and assist you with any logistical and travel concerns you might have.
Agenda
5 consecutive Sundays from 9am to 5pm
(Please note: During winter, we strongly suggest reserving a SIXTH Sunday on your calendar which would be used as a make-up day in case of inclement weather.)
Week 1: Guiding Principles
- Introductions and class project discussion
- Defining "user experience" and the user-centered design process
- UX design principles and best practices
- Activity: Design studio workshop
- Homework: Pick a project to work on and complete your Project Brief
Week 2: Getting to Know the UX Toolkit and Your Users
- Review Project Briefs
- Demystifying UX roles and deliverables
- User Research fundamentals
- Activity: Create 2-3 personas for your project
- Review personas and exchange feedback
Week 3: Ready, Set, Design
- Information Architecture fundamentals
- Activity: Card sort
- Interaction Design fundamentals
- Activity: Collaboratively map user/task flows for each project
- Activity: Sketch design ideas for your project
Week 4: Don't Forget to Test
- Review sketches and exchange feedback
- Wireframing and Prototyping - tools and techniques
- Usability testing 101
- Activity: Wireframe 2-3 key screens for your project*
- Homework: Finish wireframe*
- *Option to work privately at home or offsite for this afternoon - to be determined that afternoon, by class participants.
Week 5: Practice & Prep for the Real World
- Activity: Present final projects
- UX in the workplace
- Collaborating with peers and communicating with stakeholders
- Growing yourself and your UX career
- Activity: Review students' resumes/portfolios and exchange feedback
- Certificate presentation
Instructor
Lisa has been designing websites (and more recently, mobile apps) professionally for 22 years. In 1994, she was on the team that put one of the first newspapers online (The News & Observer, aka Nando.net), and in 1995 she became one of the first corporate webmasters. Lisa has played almost every role on the user experience spectrum and has worked on all types of web and mobile projects, as both a corporate UXer and a consultant for small startups. She has spent the past 15 years as a senior-level interaction designer/information architect specializing in user research and wireframing/prototyping. She enjoys figuring out how to make even the most complicated process seem simple and straightforward to end users. Lisa is the author of The Beginner's Guide to Flyball and lives with her family and 11 dogs in Pine Junction.
Location
This certificate program will be held in the Boulder Digital Arts Boulder location classroom.
BDA Members
Non-Members
Registration:
BDA Members: $1,299.00
Non-Members: $1,399.00
Available Dates
Customer Comments
Lisa's teaching style and structure seemed to make this the most generous, interactive and collaborative experience. During five Sundays, I think (and am sure everyone in the class would agree) that we felt like a mini UI / UX collaborative team. In part, this was because Lisa encouraged us to work on and get feedback on individual projects (such as creating a new App, updating a website, etc). I just loved this class, and highly respect Lisa's organized but warm and generously open teaching style.Jenn PaulRead All Comments
