BA (Hons) User Experience Design online Open Day
Hello everyone, um welcome to. Um, the open, day, virtual open day for, ba, oms user experience design. Um. This is me in the bottom left hand corner here, um slightly, unconventional. Um. Webcam. Um. Um. Method we're using here because, there was a bit of an issue with the. Webinar, software we're using. Um i'm going to pop this, little video of me uh in and out. So as to not cover the slides every now and then, um but first of all i'm gareth foots. Course leader for va user experience design. Um. And that will be the next slide. That isn't me this is me, um. They're um i can't hear any of you at the moment nor see any of you which is a little disconcerting. Um, but i know you're out there. Um. And. Um, i'm gonna run you through. Um. Everything, that you need to know about the course. A little bit about lcc, and ual. And. Um, how to apply. Um. And. At the end there'll be, a, period for questions but also, i'm really happy for you to to throw a question, into, the question. Panel. Um at any point, and i'm keeping a just a casual eye on the um. On the questions, as we go through so i'm really happy for you to interrupt me it will perhaps, prevent me waffling, for too long, um, and it's much nicer to have an actual dialogue, with people than it is to just be talking into nothing so feel free to just throw some questions if you wish. Okay. Um. So. So first of all why, london college of communication. Um. So i presume that you you know you will have done some, research, yourself, and know a little bit about the college. Um. But in, terms, of its history. Um, lcc, has a very long tradition, of training, designers, and media, practitioners. Um. For industry. Um. And elsewhere, um but they are in particular well known for their graph their. Output, of graphic design pioneers. Um and practitioners, in experimental. Um, and innovative, photography. And filmmaking. And the lcc, today, is um. Pushing, quite, a lot towards. A range of courses. Including, our own, that have an increasing emphasis, on. Helping people become more confident. Uh, creative, practitioners. And makers, in the digital digital, realm. So, i proudly. Consider, the, user experience design course as one of the, for one at the forefront of that as well, and we'll talk a little bit, more about that. As i go through. So. Um. Ual. Um, is the overarching. University. And london college of communication. Is, one of the colleges. As part of that university. Um, it has a diverse, body of students of, 18, 000 students. From 130. Countries, as it says there. Okay. And, within london, college of communication, we have three schools, we have the, media school, the screen school and the design, school. User experience design, is no surprise, part of the design school. And the design school itself. Um, has a, really interesting broad range of courses which i'll show you in a moment. We have, a really phenomenal, output of. Of design work, and design graduates. Um, we are regularly contributing. To. Um for example, the london design festival, and as part of that recently, we created this design school manifesto. Which i'd encourage you to take a look at because it's really sets out, um. What the. Design school itself. Is about. Um and it really gives you a lot of in. Inspiration, really to think about your practice. And where you want to be as a designer. So as i said here are some of the um other courses. In the design school to get to get an idea of the. Landscape, of the of the design, call, design school and your. Brother and sister courses. So, as you can see on the left-hand, side, user experience, design. Is um under this umbrella term of interact, interaction, design and visual communication. So, it's not hugely, important to you at this stage but just just so that you're aware the other courses, listed, under, the. Under that title. Um. In terms of undergraduate. Courses. Are, essentially, the. Kind of closest. Closest, courses, to user experience design, have some relationship. With us in terms of collaboration. In terms of some disciplinary. Aspects. In particular. Baeon's, interaction, design arts, is, a course that we work with closely. And then we have the mas, in our program. Of um. Illustration, and visual media interaction design communication. Service, design and user experience, design so those are all, destinations. If, for you, if you wanted to carry on after user experience designed towards, a, towards postgraduate, study.
They're All fantastic, courses. So. First of all um. Just a little bit about. The course itself. So ba user experience, design. Is formerly known as information. And interface, design, so. It's a quite a young. Course, and a young subject. And previously, user experience design. Seven years ago i think it wasn't a course originally started wasn't really. A term that was very familiar to people. But what we really, engaged, in was, a design practice around, information. And also. Creating, interfaces, that people could use to access digital. Services. Um, and products. But more broadly, what i would say user experience design about is is, helping. Students develop a creative practice with a focus, on, uh digital, interfaces. And experiences. Now these are the things that mediate, our our lives, everybody's, lives, and. Uh therefore. A subject. That is specifically, oriented, around those, from a design, and our perspective. Is is absolutely, necessary, in this kind of this this moment, of um that we're all living in. And the course gives you an opportunity to learn um, learn, both the skills to, to create, and design, these interfaces. Um but also, um the experience, and understanding. Of. Um, how those interfaces, work. Behind the scenes in terms of the technicalities. In terms of the way that they are put together by people. By data. So that you can critique, and understand. Understand the culture, of these. Of these interfaces. And also be able to go into, an industry. With a, wide, spectrum, of knowledge. Um, about the inner workings, of. Interfaces, and also to be able to, have a dialogue, with people about them because they're, things that are. You know they're part of the, public dialogue, right now, all the time. Um. You will as you, um, progress, through user experience design, um, you would have opportunities. To specialize, in various techniques, and methods and materials. And, each of those would give you a slightly different balance, of. Understanding. And skills to be able to orient yourself. To. Various different positions. In, the design. Industry. So, um. What is user experience, design. So i put this slide up with these images which are actually. One of our students. Projects. Because, user experience design is quite an ambiguous, and slightly, um, ill-defined. Term. Um. It's, uh it's it's very very many different things than many different people. Um, and i feel like the chaos of these images is somewhat representative. These are images that were, an output from a student's work, um. As part of his third year project. That, created, image created an interface, to generate. Um these, uh these images based on um, based on. Um contemporary. Common. News imagery. Um, and kind of animated, graphics. Um. So. I'm going to go into what user experience design is in a very very broad way now. So. Bear with me as we go through. So, to answer the question of what is user experience, design we really need to understand. What is a user. Um. Also just as a note as we go through the slides, you will, sometimes, see, a. Annotation. To the bottom right of the image which indicates, that you're looking at a piece of student work if you don't see. A name, associated, with it then assume it's not student work. So what what is a user. Um, so, mostly, those are users, of computers. Um. As well as obviously. A really really important part of, our digital landscape, which is the internet. Which is really just, computers, connected to even more computers.
So. What are computers. To users. This is the question. That is. Needed to be answered. Um. Are they complex, machines, and interfaces. Are they machines, for work. Are they machines, for play. Are they communication, devices. Are they creative, tools. Are they for creating, processing, and visualizing, data. Are they a companion. Or an assistant. Are they for total immersion. That's meant to be, an animated, gif i, apologize. Um. Are they for augmenting, our environment. Do they look at us. Or, or do we look at. Them. So. The point i'm making is that the um. The computer, the interface. Software. They are. Many different things to many different. People. So. Perhaps we should consider, how, design. Has approached. That user. That user could be considered, as a simple set of measurements. As an information, processor. So. To for a little context, this was. A moment in design. In human computer, interaction, where. People considered, the best way to design. Software. Interfaces. Computers. Um. Was to consider their users. As, computers, themselves. To think about them as. Uh simple, simple devices, where you push something in a little bit of input. The human would process it and then they create an output which would be an action, or a. Outcome. And design has considered. The user as, kind of incapable. Or thoughtless. This is a very popular, book from. I think the early 2000s. Um, that suggested, the, the way that we should design, our interfaces, for users, was to make sure they never had to think for themselves. So it's my, conceit, that. The. User is everyone, and no one individual. That's. From, from a design perspective, from a designer's, perspective, we have to address people as diverse, and complex, individuals. None of these ideas of how design is considered a user is, is is enough to encompass. The broad, range, of people's. Needs and desires. And. As a, user experience, designer and as a designer, in general. You are a representative. For that user. And for those, groups of users. Um. And it is the role of the user experience designer to understand. Those complex, individuals, their needs their desires, and their goals. And also to, be on that to consider, the impact, of our discipline. Um, on. Society, as a whole. And on the non-human, ecological, world. So although we speak about interfaces, and we speak about, computers, and software. Um. There, these these interfaces, as i'm sure you all already know, have a very tangible, impact on the world, in terms of the way that people communicate, with each other. Um, and the behaviors, that they can. Elicit. In people. So it's not an insignificant. Um, responsibility. Um. And i think it's a responsibility. That we need to. Consider. Um, from. A, um, from a social perspective and also from a creative and artistic perspective. Hence why this discipline, of user experience design in a design and art school. Is is a very important. Um. Very important, overlapping, of these different. Disciplines. Who studies. The aeons, user experience design. And. So. The students who are interested in our course are very, very diverse. I'm proud to say. They come from a variety of backgrounds we've had. Refugees, from computer, science. Architecture, and product design. We also, have plenty of students who come through foundation, art and design. Or do things like a levels in product design, or. Design and technology. Type subjects. But mostly they are students who have a passion, for. Uh digital, for digital culture. For understanding, that in a deeper way. Um. The students are very diverse, they're from all around the world. Um. And, they uh they then become part of a, single cohort, of user experience design students. Um. It's. There is no specific background that we expect. Um. Necessarily, for you to have. We. We what we do expect, is that you, um. You show up, and, you show us your passion, for the subject. So. Studying, at the university. Um. This is you know this jump between, um. Your. Secondary, education. Um, whether that be a levels foundation. Or something else from abroad. This change in, education. Between, that and. Higher education. Will be you know one of the biggest changes you'll experience. The most important, change for me is really that it's all about how much, you invest, of yourself, in the course. So this is an, opportunity, aspect. Particularly. For a. Design. And art course to. To determine. Your own creative, practice within it. So, it's very important, that you, are uh you know both invested. In terms of what you want to give but also, that you want to bring your own identity, to it. With that in mind. There is um there is a great deal of opportunity. Um, amongst, all of the time we spend with you for for independent. Study. With your peers. With, other tutors, other courses. Technicians. Support staff. All with a mind to giving you this holistic, experience, of a university.
There's Not just, the tutors that you'll see on a. Very regular basis but also of all of the other people that you'll see. And, um. Will be part of your experience. In a more more practical, um sense the, your um. The contact, time you'll have. Um, with your tutors, themselves. Um, as an example. Our current first year, are um. Seeing, tutors. Four times a week for three hour sessions, each time. So, that would be a. As it currently, stands, a. Monday morning, and these will will almost certainly, change but just to give you an idea, of the. Texture of your week. It's um. Monday mornings. Tuesday, mornings. Wednesday, afternoons. Friday mornings. With additional, sessions, on. Short sessions on monday, afternoon, and then self-directed. Learning. Which is your own time for development, on tuesday afternoon, and friday afternoon. Um. So that'd be like a typical week of, a first year students, at the moment, um. And um the hours of contact you have with the stu with the universe, sorry with the tutors, themselves. Uh reduce, slightly, as you go into the second and third year as you become, more of an independent, practitioner. Um, one of the questions we've been asked quite quite often is that is it is it possible to work alongside. Studying. And, it, it is very possible, and it's quite common for our students to do that, yeah. Um. Okay so blended learning. What so, this is a. Relatively, new phenomena, for in terms of the lcc. And the course. Uh approach, to, teaching. Um, it's something that we've done. For a long long time in very small. In a much smaller, way. But basically, blended learning is is somewhat, a response, to the, um to the pandemic. Um. But it's also, a. Not just a, plaster, over, over a wound it's not it's not a resolution, to a problem it's an opportunity. That we, are, really excited to take advantage, of. Because essentially it represents, a mixture, of on campus, and online, activities. So when, when you have access to the building you still have access to all of the same facilities, as you would do in a pre-pandemic. Year. Um. Hopefully we'll be able to say that by the time you join us we'll be post pandemic, as well, um but these, studios, the workshops, the libraries, and the other specialist, facilities. Will all be open and available, to you. The online learning. Which can include. Lectures and tutorials. But also. They can also include various, types of workshop, sessions. And, group work. Those, happen in real time and then they're also. Often recorded, so that you can play them back at your own pace. We basically have a. System of, synchronous, and asynchronous. Learning. Which can, um, it can. Open up the opportunities, for people to. Um. Engage, in real time, and also to engage in in an asynchronous. Manner as well. Um, and. It's, a, it's a method that is, we're quite fortunate. To, uh suit, quite well in our course. Because we are, students, of, interfaces. And, we. Essentially. Are. You know, the most of the students, and the staff, are if that's all the students and the staff. All, have, a, plenty of experience. Working out how they, um. How they get by day to day in an online environment, and tailor those environments, to their. To their uh to their needs. And, to be creative, with those, environments. Um and that's that's essentially what's happening, at the moment with um, ba user experience design it's an interesting moment of creating. A. Vibrant, online community. So as it stands, the um, the what i've described to you is. Essentially, how things are working as at the moment and as i said, we don't know exactly, what the teaching will be like in september, october 2021. But, um. Uh. But the the way that we are managing things at the moment, we can only, um we can only, we can only foresee, there being. This plus more opportunities. For, exciting, online learning. So. Very. Very briefly, this is the. Course. Outline. So to give you an idea, of how you would progress, through the three years. Um. The top line, in purple and yellow is year one green and blue is year two. And then. Green and orange at the bottom is year three. So it's the. Year is split into two semesters. Um. And, you would be studying a kind of approximately, 13, week, unit. In each of the semesters, so in each half of the year, and within those. Two semesters. And in those units. You would have, opportunities, to, work on multiple, project briefs. Um so that's the kind of russian. Doll of nested. Nested structures. We have these big catch-all, units, called for example, information, visualization, and typography.
And Within that there is, a lot of a lot of scope for you to try different, materials. And experiment. And. Work on multiple projects. On individually. And collaboratively. With. Other. Members of the course. Um. In terms of facilities. Here's a long list of the facilities, we have um. Lcc. 3d workshop, creative technology, lab, obviously canteen, et cetera. A very very well sourced, kit room. For, cameras projectors, lighting etc. Studios. For. Processing, images, and studio for taking images. And. An amazing printmaking, facility. In particular. The course. The course. Has its own studio spaces which we are able to do with what we wish, um the students have ownership, over those spaces, they you know with um with help and guidance from us, um are able to do, uh do what they want with those spaces to make them into, um. Productive. Making environments. And to make them feel like a space you want to be in when you make things collaboratively, with your peers. Um, we have within the course. Certain specialist, technical equipment, such. As. Computing, and prototyping. Equipment. And then for even more. Substantial. Access, to equipment. We have a very strong relationship, with, the creative, technology, lab which is one of the technical, areas in lcc. And in that space. You have access, first and foremost to some phenomenal, technicians. With really a wonderful. Array, of. Knowledge and experience, and things like. From vr, all the way through to. Coding, and projection, mapping. And. That is a space that our students tend to spend a lot of time in and the, technicians, are people that they get to know quite. Well. Um. Now in the in the course itself. Um, there are, a. We have. Six. Members of staff. There are two full-time members of staff, four, associate, lecturers. And a an array of other guest lecturers, who will come in at individual, moments throughout the term. So in terms of expertise, myself i'm a designer, and programmer. As a background. Oliver smith is our other, um. Uh permanent member of staff who's um, a, artist designer and programmer. Uh christine, wirth who's um, whose background. Is in, a variety of areas including service design and. Architecture. Is a multi-disciplinary. Creative. Um and she has a particular interest in emerging, technologies. Um and is currently running, a, um. Part of a project, on, machine learning for our third, years. And. Then we have, data visualization. Specialists. We have people who are focused on the. Ux and critical digital design. And. Others who. Are also. Very very specialist, in user research. And service design. So. Um. Collaboration. It's worth having an entire, slide dedicated, to this just to have a moment to. Reflect on the fact that this is this is such an important part of our course. It's very much at the core of what we do. Um the community. Is extremely, important, and as i said towards the beginning, of the presentation. The people that you meet through your course will become, a. Substantial, influence, on the type of creative, individual, you become, they will become your network, your support. And, it's, a it's a joy to see that happen over the course of three years. In in the course itself we all share a passion for our subject but we also enjoy. The social, nature of the university, and so you know the community.
Of Students, enjoy, spending time together. And, they, um you know they become very close friends and it's it's, important to see the growth, of you as individuals. Outside, of the learning, aspects of the studio as well. Um there's also, a lot of collaboration, that happens, across the course. Sorry across courses. So with other courses. In particular as i mentioned there is our, sister course interaction, design arts who. We often collaborate, with, and then there's opportunities, to work across the different schools as well. We also have collaborations, with industry, partners. Including. Design, agencies, and individual, artists and designers. Startups. Cultural institutions. And also, working with. Specialists. From other universities. In a variety, of areas. For example. A project, that we. Worked on with. Imperial, university, where we had experts, in, air pollution, come in and. Be, the. The, subject-specific. Knowledge, experts. To, inform, our design practice. So. Uh, it's worth mentioning that between the second and the third year, there's an opportunity. For you to, um, take part in a diploma, for profession for professional, studies which, is a, a year in industry. Um however it's not, just a year uh where we allow you to go off and. Um, just disappear, and do what you want i leave you to your own devices, we we are there as a, university to support you through that, um, the. Uh dps, course leaders. And course team. Have uh first of all before you go on dps, a great deal of connections. Um, and opportunities, for projects. That they um they have been nurturing, over the years so you'll have opportunities, to go and work. At a, large variety, of different places. Um. And your europa, it's open, to, um. To your decision, as to whether you'd want to do two. Six-month-ish. Um. Um, placements, or whether you want to do one large one it can be in the uk or it can be abroad, you also it's you're free to try and to find your own, placements, as well. Um it's a really good experience, i've had, many students go on it and, have come back um, having. Really appreciated, a year to reflect, on their discipline, and to. Start to build, a community. In the industry, as well. Right. So. Um i mean finally just a very practical. Element if you if you are interested, in user experience design. Then. You know the way to apply would be to show. Show your interests, and show, your. How your creativity, has developed. Through a portfolio. So. You can use your portfolio to show different themes and as i said interests. Techniques. Um, it's in it's important, that in your portfolio. That you. Focus. On. Both your, material. And. Technical capacities. As a creative person but also, how you research, and develop. Your ideas, what is what are the subject matters that interest you and why, and then how do you approach them. Um. So try to try to show those things in your, portfolio. And then also, in your personal statement where you have an opportunity, to write, in a bit more broadly. About yourself. And why you want to study, user experience, design. Okay. Um, so. Now that is, my part of the presentation. Finished, um i'd be really happy to answer any questions, that you have. Um. We can probably start with a few of the questions, that are already there but i think maybe daniel is going to. Um, field those questions for me. Yeah hi gareth thanks for the session, um. So. Yeah i've been monitoring the chat box and the questions boxes they come in so i just start i'll read you about what we've got in as far and. If anyone does have any more questions do write them down, um. So there's a few questions here about coding. And how much coding do they need to know before they start the course. Okay, that's, that's a good question, um. You don't need to know any coding, at all before starting the course. Um. I'd say 95. Of our students. Don't. Know any, um have or haven't had any experience, with, programming, at all. Um. We tend to treat programming, as. In the same way as we. Treat, any, other. Design, material. Which is that we introduce, it to you as something that you can play with. Which sounds quite alien, for um. Something as technical, as. Programming. However. The things that we um the methods we use. And, the, um. The. Frameworks, we use. Are. Really. Designed, for our they are explicitly, designed for, artists. Designers. And, hobbyists, people who haven't done any programming, before. And so they're treated, like, um, they're treated like art materials, and so you so you'll have an opportunity to to. Gain your confidence. Um. Without, having to be concerned, about some of the really.
Really Significant, technicalities. We do a project within the first three weeks. Four weeks. Um. Where all of our students produce. Really. Phenomenal. Visual outcomes. From, um. From only a couple of weeks of. Ex, of um training, in, in coding principles. Um. So any follow-up complete if you have any follow-up questions about that please let me know it's one of the things that people, really. Regularly, ask us. Because i know that there's an element of fear around it. I think there's one last one last thing that's worth noting, is. That. Some students, don't. End up. Programming. Um and coding, a lot in their entire, three years. Which is is an indication, of this, the breadth of the course itself. People some people, code and there will be points in each of the three years where we ask you to, experiment. And, to. At least become familiar, with the, processes, behind, the designs, of these interfaces, etc. But. It's not a it doesn't detriment, any of our students, if they choose to, follow a slightly different path that takes them further away from, um programming, and prototyping. In um with, very high technical. Materials. And say go towards. What's, another area, say information, design or data visualization. Cool thank you gareth, um. So a couple yeah there's. A couple more questions here. On, on code that people have asked separately. Um okay, because people can't see the other questions that have come in, i think you've kind of already touched on that so, someone has been is, the course, more code. Than design. Um. So i don't know. If. Yeah it's probably worthwhile, saying. That. It's not more code than design. It's more. It's more design than code. Basically. As i said design is this sorry code is another material, for us. Um, but it's also a, it's also a um. It's part of our. Um. Dialogue. And, conversation. Not not we don't talk code we don't talk about code explicitly. On its own but we talk about. What does code. Enable. In, um. In the interfaces, and world we live in you know what does. Data collection, do. That is enabled, via code. Um, to our. Democracy. For example. Um. It's. If if you're not um. We won't be uh continuously. Um, asking you to build things in code and to learn this next language, and blah blah blah blah.
But There is there is often. Conversation, debate about the intersection, of design. Code, interfaces. Data. Cool so um someone has asked what design, tools. Are you taught, on the course, or would you be expected, as a student to learn, sort of design tools in your free time. Um. That's, another, good question. We, we don't have a um, we don't specify, a particular, design, tool that you have to use. We run. Introductory, workshops. In, um. In certain, certain tools. And, we, kind of recommend, certain tools. But people, will. We don't want to force anyone down the route of using something that isn't their particular. Good good for their particular workflow. So, for example. There is a wealth of of prototyping. Tools such as sketch and figma. And framer, etc. These, these we don't really, um, specify, what you should use but we um. And we recommend, certain. Um. Um. Like courses, through the online. Um. Linkedin learning. Um. Um what are they called online learning courses, that you you can use, and then within, within lcc, themselves, they run a substantial, amount of, courses, on the, in the digital space which allows you to decide where you want to go so the digital space would also do courses, on um. For example. Um, after effects, and, uh 3d, 3d. Um. Modeling, software. Um, working with audio software. And, within, within the digital space, um, you can take these courses online as well, you would have the opportunity to choose which of these things you want to use. And as much as as much as a particular, um. Prototyping, tool. Um. Might be the the vogue at that moment. Um, there there is there is still still, not a particular. Particular, one that the course will make you use, so there isn't there is an element of expecting you to, to do, um, to do the. Groundwork. Of understanding, what works for you. Um, as a design tool. Cool so there's a couple of questions in here about portfolio. And. What kind of work you're expecting, to see. What kind of projects, might you want. Okay, yeah the the. In a portfolio. It's, it is. Since we get such a wide variety, of, student applicants, from various, areas. Um. We are. Interested in seeing portfolios. That do come from. A broad spectrum of backgrounds. Um, as i said earlier it's really important for us to to see. What your process, has been. In creating, some outcomes. Um. As much as, as is it's wonderful, to see. Incredibly, talented. Um, people, um producing, wonderful beautiful, images. Um in reality, we we, we know that you know you've gone through a couple of years of your a levels or some kind of, similar education. Um. And, you know that's that's that's actually quite a short period of time the grand scheme of becoming a practitioner.
And, Therefore, what we're really interested in is how you how you uh how you develop those skills. How you work through a project. What you, um. How you approached. Research. And translating, research, into design outcomes. Um. We're interested in a broad, in, in your interests, as well your broad interests. So. So. As much as the projects that you've been asked to create. For, um. Whatever subjects you've been studying. We're also interested in seeing where your personal passions, are as. Well. I hope that answers the question. Yeah thank you if anyone has any follow-ups, just drop them in the box and i will um. I will ask gareth on your behalf. Someone's asked about, the types of student work that are created on the course, could you give some examples of projects that people have done. Um whether they're apps or videos, or. All digital, outputs. Sure, um. So. In terms of, format. The students produce work that. That, is sometimes. Designing. Web interfaces. Or, apps. But. More often than not. It would be. A combination, of things, so it might be, that you, that there is. A both a physical and a digital component, to it sometimes, the students produce. Um. Like artifacts. That become part of installations. Create interactive, installations. Sometimes they produce. Printed, outcomes. Sound pieces. There is a wide gamut of things that are produced, in the course. But the main the main outputs, are usually. Um, digital, digital outcomes, so they're, usually things that will end up going on to a screen. Um so we know we're it's relatively, screen. Heavy as a course. Um, and, so it's usually it's usually. Um interface, designs, of some sort. But it's very rarely just that there's usually an additional component. That is in some way supporting. That. Um, someone has asked what the difference between, the. Ba, and the m.a, ux, design courses. Um. So. The. The ba, is, a three-year undergraduate, design course, the ema is a 15-month. Post-grad. And, the um. Vma. Um assumes, a slightly, higher level of independence, when it comes to producing. Um outcomes. Um the ma, will focus, more um. More from the very beginning, on, um kind of. Concept. Development. Um, whereas the um. The ba. From the beginning will, give you, time to experiment. To explore. The materials. And become. A. Practitioner, of a design practitioner, in in, broad, general, terms. Beyond being a user experience designer just just to just to acclimatize. To the environment, of creative production, and being a um being a creative practitioner. So. The, m.a to a certain extent. Expects, you to, to. To have a bit more independence, because you've had you've had a number of years experience, in, an undergrad degree and possibly an industry. Um and so that's that's kind of the main, substance. Of the main difference, really. Cool thank you i'd also just add to that to say that we will have, specific, open days like this for our ma courses. And maux, will certainly be included in that so keep an eye on the website and you can sign up for that specific. Um, that specific, session. Um. Someone has asked are work placements, guaranteed. Do you mean, this might be difficult, if we can. Um, follow up this um. Um. I mentioned the the diploma, for professional, studies which is the year, in between, your second and third year which essentially is a kind of industry, placement, year. Um, and. Um. If that's the, placements you're asking about, then um i don't i don't think anything, is. Fully. Guaranteed, as such but i've not known. A situation, where people have not been able to find the placement. Um. So, um, one of the things that i i've had a conversation, with the person who runs the.
Runs The diploma, professional, professional, studies. About, is that. They have, quite a lot of. Demand, for. Students. Who have a background, in digital production, so, in. You know they have a lot of opportunities, for user experience, designers. They they have a lot of contacts. Who are looking for graduates. Um, or sorry not even graduates, in this instance. For placements. Placement students, who come from, a user experience background. So no guarantees, about anything really, um. As we've seen in this this year in particular. Um. But but ultimately, you know you stand a good, a very very good chance of finding placements. Through, through starting this course and then taking dpsu. Thanks caroth and this is sort of related to the idea of placement so what kind of industry. Or job roles might you expect graduates to go on to after, after the degree. Okay so. Um. There's. There's a wide. Wide variety, of of destinations. That the students. Previous students have gone into i mean the most common and obvious one would be a. User experience designer but as i've mentioned that's quite a broad term, and. For those of you who, are. Perhaps googling around for job roles as well to just add out of curiosity, you might notice that you know often there is a, variety of ways of describing. What that, role is including. Now. Quite often it's called a product designer. Interestingly. Traditional products for chairs, now, products are more often to be websites. But the the students students, who, complete a course in user experience design. Could potentially go into an agency, as a designer, as a junior designer. Um. Uh they some of some of our students have a bit more of an emphasis on um kind of the. The, interface, graphics, illustration, illustrative, side of things and so they might be, um at the end of the, um. Ux, pipeline. That actually produces, the interfaces. Um. Some of them are. Have a slightly. Greater. Um, balance, or leaning, towards. The actual coding side of things and so they might be, this hybrid, role of a, designer. Designer coder, sometimes also called a creative, technologist. Sometimes, people move into areas of service design. And, sometimes, people become producers. In the kind of design, management, type role. And. Other people, focus a bit more in in areas of data visualization. So i mean all of the job roles and titles, are really fluid. Um in design, and technology. Um. But. So those aren't particularly. Useful in some ways, you know that the one place might expect someone to be both. Wonderful at ui and also illustration, but another place might expect. You know somebody to work with data and to, code and design. And and so. There's this kind of like very um. Very fluid as i said the definition. But the sorts of places you might end up working, are you know you could be in, a design, agency, you could be in, startups, you could be, in-house, there's an increasing amount of. Businesses. And. Institutions. That require, user experience, to be in their. Team itself. Um. As an example, an article, i, was reading recently. Was about, how. In science. Life sciences. Um. Often they have tools, that they need, to be made for, the. For the application, of science itself, and they actually have to make these interfaces.
Um Somehow, and often they're horribly designed and so they're. Talking about how user experience, is an important part of that and how designers, should be part of that process. Previously, that may not have happened. Um. Inside, an institution, like a science institution, but now it may be it would. So. That's that there's there's just a few examples, but there is a there is a wide variety, of places you could end up as a um. In. Industry as a user experience designer. Yeah thank you gareth, um. What advice would you give someone. Who was coming from a couple of years of work. Um. Having not done art or design a level in creating a portfolio. Um. Well i would i would try to find. Where your, um. Where your creative passions, lie. I would have i would. If this is if the question is in relation to what you should do for your portfolio. Then. I would try to lean upon your existing, experience. Um. Because the subject matters that we, um, we find our students address, in the course, are, extremely, wide. And. You know as as part of your development, as a. As a. Student of art and design is also. Your ability to deconstruct, and understand, concepts. Understand people. Um. And. You know experience, in work experience, in life is useful for that. So. If you if you're able to kind of lean on the things that you already know the things you're already passionate, about. Um, and to illustrate. Those. In a creative way, that would be useful in your portfolio. Um. Other than that is is is to try and to you know exercise, the muscles of, like of of um. Of awareness, of creative, creative. Uh output so you know. Familiarize. Yourself with the field. Um. The field. The field in inverted commas is, too vast. To become, entirely familiar with and so you always find your niche. And i think it's good really important to start finding your niche, start looking for the practitioners, and the people that. Inspire, you, the type of work that you like visually, the type of work you like, conceptually. All of those things, are really important. That you'll be doing. From now until the end of your, degree. Okay, thank you, um, so, just a couple more questions because, we're running out of time, um. So we've come back to code. And, what kind of coding languages. Would be useful to know or are sort of required to know as a part course. Um, we do. Nearly everything in javascript. Um. Because it's. Nice, friendly. Um. Forgiving. And also. Native, to the web. So we do most of our we do most of our prototyping, and experimenting. Using a library called p5. Which if you're interested in looking up that's a good place to start. If you're interested in going a little further i would just.
Look On youtube, for a, gentleman, called daniel, schiffman. And his videos. Are really excellent. Um as an introduction. We even. We've even been, looking experimenting. With machine learning. Uh in javascript. And i don't want to make anybody else there kind of like panic, and and. Be terrified, by the the term machine learning. Because, we. We we've been looking at that. As a, area. To. Deconstruct. And critique, in the third years and as part of that. We looked at some incredibly, simple. Coding, examples. In machine learning and all of the third years who. Not done an immense amount of programming. Were, so shocked at how easy, it was to do some very advanced, things. But we don't really care about becoming, practitioners, in machine learning or anything like this we're looking at again understanding, the nuts and bolts of it so that we can, we can design, things for it better. I hope that helps. Yeah thank you, um. So yeah this can be the final question, um people. Are sort of asking about. Um. You've talked about the type of work that's created and it's sort of, screen based sort of, digital, in a sense but what other materials, might students be working with. Okay, um. What other materials. Students be working with, well there's all the way it's all the way down to the. The pen the paper, um. There's, there's, there's an enormous amount of the the low fidelity, prototyping. That we would expect you to become. Kind of comfortable, with, um. Which, which involves, you know sketching, interfaces. Or building, cardboard. Um prototypes. Acting, out. The invite, the environment, of the user. Think about think in the shoes of the user, you might have to inhabit. Those shoes with your with your, peers. Then, then through to, you know various types of digital materials. Including, as i said code but also, kind of. Graphic, design applications. Illustrations. Vectors. You know moving image, 3d modeling. And we don't expect you to learn all of these in some cases, in in a year we might have a project that focuses, around one of those one of those elements or gives you an opportunity, to learn one of those elements. And another year the emphasis might be slightly, elsewhere. One of the common materials, people use is actually filmmaking. And when we say filmmaking, it's quite often. Say an interface film which involves, you know screen recording, and. Creating a context, for your, things you're making to. Show how they might work. And, how they can. How they can address a problem that you've identified. And. Then all the way through to working in the 3d workshop, where you might be producing.
Um. As i said. Before, like physical, things artifacts, people have made. 3d printed sculptures. Of, like data in the past. Some people have created. Um. Created, clocks. For, um a clock that shows you when an asteroid, is likely to, um. Have a near miss of the u of the of our planet. Using some laser cutting and acrylic, et cetera. So those are some of the materials, that you might end up using. Um. There's a there's a wide open. Set of possibilities. Okay, thank you gareth i think we can, leave it there that's sort of, there's been lots of questions coming but i've tried to sort of condense them all, um. So yeah just any other, comments from yourself and then we can finish the session. Um. Real really. No other. Final comments from me other than. Um happy to happy to answer more questions. Um if you have them by. Email. You.
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