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This course is designed to introduce you to the ways and methods that IT designers, developers, and researchers discover who they are designing for. Our focus will be on techniques for collecting and analyzing data so that designers can develop a sense of empathy to not only better understand the people they are designing for, but to also better understand the problem they intend to solve from a human-centered perspective.
Small tech startups, large corporations, and even government organizations are all beginning to recognize that creating solutions for their clients must go beyond simply producing functional and useable products/services. To best support their populations, designing tech solutions to problems must be more than functional. They must be more than usable. Solutions must be designed to maximize the totality of the experience that a person has with the designed solution.
Achieving this goal must begin with a rich understanding of who we are designing for. The better, more complete and holistic understanding of our users as well as anyone that can be directly or indirectly affected by what we design, the more likely we can match the solution with the mental model of our users/stakeholders.
In this course you will learn concepts, tools, and techniques, needed to gather data to better understand who you are designing for so that you can develop information system solutions that will maximize the experiences that users/stakeholders have with those solutions, enabling you to work in a myriad of real-world roles that require designing IT solutions for clients. You will learn concepts like the utility, usability and user experience, why it is important to understand who a system is designed for, and why it is important to deploy a diversity of techniques to truly get as complete a picture of your users and stakeholders as possible.
Who can take this course?
Unfortunately, learners residing in one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.
Who can take this course?
Unfortunately, learners residing in one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.