User experience (UX) research is an applied discipline that employs a wide variety of methods from psychology and other social sciences to better understand the individuals who engage, or may engage, with a product or service. This understanding is often used to support the end-to-end design process, from early, strategic investigation of context, wants, and needs, to later, tactical testing of usability and examination of competitive sets. Increasingly UX research is interacting with other applied disciplines such as organizational psychology and market research and stretching beyond the design process, impacting decision making in human resources, facilities management, customer support, and even the C-suite. This course will provide a broad introduction to the social science methods UX researchers most commonly use, including qualitative approaches, such in-depth interviews, usability tests, heuristic reviews, ethnographic in-context interviews and observation, and quantitative approaches, such as surveys, benchmarking, card sorting, and tree testing, with an emphasis on experiential learning. Additionally, students will learn about current debates and emerging questions in the field, with diverse perspectives provided by guest presenters from industry and academia. |