User Experience and Interaction Design
Certificate of Achievement Level 2 Digital Media Arts · San Jose City College · 2026-2027 Catalog
Description
The Certificate of Achievement in User Experience and Interaction Design Program approaches UX and other forms of product design through a human-centered approach, placing users and their needs as the focus of the work. This includes everything from creating effective and enjoyable user experiences to ethical and safe interactions between the user research and the product. The program begins with the foundational concepts of good design: human-computer interaction, usability, user experience, and user research.
Students will conduct user research to gain insights into real users; their backgrounds, goals, and behaviors. Customer insights will be used to develop scenarios and storyboards to formulate early visuals of the design concept. Students will have the opportunity to use leading software tools to bring the design concept to fruition, gaining applied design skills in real-world UX, UI, and product design. At the end of the certificate program, students will have a high-fidelity prototype which can be incorporated into their design portfolio to demonstrate an advanced representation of their UX design skills.
A grade of "C" or better is required for each course in the major or area of emphasis. A "P" (Pass) grade is an acceptable grade for courses in the major or area of emphasis if the course is taken on a Pass/No Pass basis.
Program Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:
- Understand and apply principles of human centered design into effective design solutions.
- Examine user behavior and transcribe its impact on the product design.
- Experience the effectiveness of storytelling and be able to envision the problem of the product and its solution in a visually interesting storyboard.
- Learn numerous techniques to improve wireframe sketching skills in order to more clearly convey design ideas.
- Conceptualize and develop a user interface design concept to better envision how your users will actually interact with your design.
- Create interactive prototypes for their design concept: a paper prototype, and a high-fidelity software prototype. They will also make iterative improvements to their prototypes using rapid evaluation methods, relying on different design principles and heuristics.