Coursework Assignment Brief

The coursework for Media Specialist Practice is an individual endeavour… You will be required to research your specialist topic and then to use your new understanding to complete a small project. The project deliverables, such as UX prototypes, game designs, video clips, evaluation reports, will be defined in association with your supervisor. You will present your project in class and publish the findings and the answers to the assignment in the form of a web site.

THE UX DESIGN PROGRAMME

The UX specialism would be focussing upon important UX niches embedded in a broader IT-related context. You will be researching and exercising, in your projects, various roles typical of a specialist UX professional – such as i. evaluator (e.g. research specialist evaluation methods and tools – for mobile interaction, web site analytics, face readers, eye-trackers, video analysis etc. – apply to a case study problem and discuss the effectiveness of the method or tool,); ii. methodologist (e.g. research, trial for an example project and recommend a set of methods and tools – for Contextual Analysis, agile development, systems procurement, or say, tools for wireframing, discussion of designs); iii. designer/prototyper (e.g. research , analyse, design, prototype and get feedback on a specialist kind of Ux/ software – data visualisation on the desktop, google glass apps, in-car Ux, universal usability/accessibility); iv. Information architect/content strategist (e.g. research methods and principles, and then use them to create, select and organise material for a media-rich website); v) researcher (extensively review the research literature and select, and organise this material to create a useful community resource, such as a template library for checkout pages, guidelines for data-table design, a survey design checklist.

The general inspiration for the coursework comes from the sites such as darkpatterns.org – a kind of web site that is small and focussed but nevertheless educational and it creates a valuable resource for the community. Naturally, it is not restricted to this type – it is just an example.

You are expected to:

Demonstrate an ability to research a specialist ux field (identify specialist knowledge)
demonstrate an understanding of this knowledge ( UX design principles, methods, models, templates etc)
demonstrate an understanding of relevant technology apply this knowledge to improve Ux of this technology
critically reflect upon the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats encountered through your specialist practice