MSc User Experience Design (Professional Placement)

Overview

This conversion course in User Experience Design will provide graduates from any undergraduate degree with the digital skills to design unique experiences and journeys across a range of channels and platforms. You will learn various skills like front-end development, visual design, accessibility, usability testing and have the opportunity to gain industry insights from experienced professionals.

What's covered in this course?

The course has been designed to support graduates from a wide range of disciplines (including those with technical and non-technical backgrounds) who wish to specialise in the area of user experience (UX) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The key topics taught on the course include interaction design (techniques for user-centred design), front-end development (using industry standard development environments), visual design (creating interfaces with strong aesthetics), accessibility (methods for supporting inclusive design), and usability testing (collecting and analysing data via user evaluations). You will also have the opportunity to consider and create user experiences for technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, eye gaze tracking, speech interfaces, mid-air gesturing, haptic systems, and brain-computer interfaces.

The course philosophy is focused around industry and research-led activities, supported with assignments that are closely aligned to the development of essential knowledge and technical skills used in practice. You will therefore have the opportunity to work closely with academics, researchers, and industry partners on real-world project briefs thus supporting you in developing a strong portfolio of work (which is essential for gaining employment in this field). The course will also provide opportunities to collaborate with academics based in our Mixed Reality and Human-Computer Interaction research group to work on cutting-edge research projects.

Enhancing your employability skills

The primary aim of the MSc User Experience Design course is to provide you with the skills and experience required to work professionally in the User Experience (UX) sector. This field has grown substantially over the past decade as organisations have increasingly recognised the necessity and importance of optimising digital user experiences to meet their target audiences key requirements.

This, in turn, has led to increasing demand for practitioners who are skilled in working collaboratively within multi-disciplinary teams to design, develop, and evaluate digital products and services (across a range of platforms and technologies). This demand for UX expertise is also strong within major global sectors and markets (media, finance, education, health, etc.), as well as across larger established organisations, start-ups, SMEs, and the third sector.

The MSc User Experience Design course has therefore been designed and tailored to support you in developing key skills that are in strong demand within industry, thus enabling you to be competitive in the UX jobs market. In particular, through the course you will study modules (informed by industry experts) that will enable you to develop highly sought-after skills using industry standard platforms and technologies.

Applicants are normally expected to have a minimum of a 2:2 honours degree, or equivalent. We will consider applicants from a wide range of backgrounds broadly related to User Experience Design (including but not limited to Computing, Gaming, Engineering, Business, Marketing, Psychology, Law, Art and Design). Applicants will need to be interested in the technological and scientific approaches to User Experience Design, and all applications require a personal statement to demonstrate interest in the subject.