Study.EU
Your gateway to universities in Europe

Study at the Institute of Technology Sligo

Sligo, Ireland

Study in Europe
Europe by Charles Clegg, CC BY-SA 2.0, modified
  1. Study.eu
  2. Ireland
  3. Institute of Technology Sligo
  4. App Design and User Experience (UX)

App Design and User Experience (UX)

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the Institute of Technology Sligo

Programme details
Degree: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (BA (Hons))
Disciplines: Graphic Design
Software Engineering
Duration: 48 months

Request information about study programmes in Ireland  

Other students were also interested in this programme:
Bachelor of Science (Honours)
Web Development
Falmouth University (United Kingdom)

Learn more now


Description:

Bachelor of Arts in App Design and User Experience (UX)

“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.” - Dr. Ralf Speth. User Experience (or Digital Product Design) is the process of designing digital products that are useful, easy to use, and delightful to interact with. This could be your mobile phone app, or a website but equally a smartwatch, your car entertainment system, or a medical device that you wear.

It focuses on the end user and how a person feels when interacting with a computer system - even when it doesn’t look like a computer. UX/Digital Product designers routinely work within software and digital development teams to maximising user satisfaction through user research, usability testing and iterative design. The programme equally equips you with the tools and skills to bring these ideas to life. You’ll learn rapid coding techniques to let you iterate quickly through your ideas and put them into the hands of users for real-world testing. A combination of artistry and technical wizardry, UX designers are mainly concerned with how a product feels and flows. A given design problem has no single right answer and UX designers explore many different approaches to solving a specific user problem. They ensure that the product logically flows from one step to the next. One way that a UX designer might do this is by conducting in-person user tests to observe behaviour. They refine and tweak apps and software to create the "best" user experience – one that people like and find easy to use. UX designers also look at sub-systems. For example, they might study the checkout process of an ecommerce website to see whether users find the process of buying from the website easy and pleasant. A recent UX student project led to success at the Google HackAccess event at Google’s Dublin offices. Darren and Shane were chosen to participate following a collaboration between the National Learning Network (NLN)/Rehab Group, and IT Sligo which led to the development of a smartphone app called ‘Persav’ to help disabled students to get to and from college. UX has been identified recently in the SOLAS National Skills Bulletin 2017 as a skills shortage area. Large companies in particular see the need for skilled designers who can converse with software engineers to ensure the design is brought to life. Accenture announced plans recently to recruit 300 tech and design professionals, including 100 at The Dock, their “multidisciplinary research and incubation hub, where designers, doctors, visionaries and makers are doing things that matter for people, places and robots”. UX is at the forefront of making technology accessible. We now no longer engage with tech at our desk or home-office - we wear it (FitBit), we play with it (Dell VR Visor - and yes, we have this), we monitor our health and exercise. And its helps with makeup choice and learning. As technology permeates everything we do, we need to know how best to enable us to use it - and to enjoy doing so. This is the essence of the ‘User Experience’.

 

 

 

On the flip side, poor UX can cost lives. For example, all too often we blame disasters on ‘human error’. However, ‘to err is human’ and the role of a good UX designer is to know this and to ensure that the system design compensates for this. On Sept. 25, 2014, Eric Duncan reported to the emergency department of the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas with a low-grade fever, abdominal pain, dizziness, and headaches. When he returned to the hospital on Sept. 30 and was diagnosed with Ebola, the question asked by nearly everyone paying attention was, "How could the doctors and nurses have missed the telltale signs of Ebola presenting in a man just returned from west Africa?". The finger of blame pointed to the complexity of the electronic healthcare system and the pressures placed on staff using it. Jonathan Shariat, in his book Tragic Design tells a story of a young cancer patient he calls ‘Jenny’. She had been struggling with her disease for a long time when she started taking a new medication in a hospital. Her treatment was so aggressive, she required pre- and post-hydration for three days during medication periods. The nurses were responsible for entering all the required data into the medical software and, using this software, they followed up on her status. Although they used the software diligently and cared for Jenny, somehow they missed the critical information about her three-day hydration requirements on the interface. The day after her treatment, she died of toxicity and dehydration. The experienced nurses made this critical error because they were too distracted trying to figure out the software interface. In 2016, the death of Anton Yelchin shook the world. The 27-year-old actor known for playing Commander Chekov in the recent Star Trek movies was killed in an accident in his Los Angeles driveway. He was found crushed between his car, a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and the gate at the end of his driveway. It appears he had exited the car and walked behind it to close the gate, believing the transmission was in “Park”. Instead, it was actually in “Reverse” or “Neutral”, and the car rolled down his steep driveway, killing him. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recalled 1.1 million SUVs in response. The tech industry know the value of good UX and the damage poor UX can do to their brand. Increasingly, products and services are differentiated on the basis of the ‘experience’ - that seemingly intangible chemistry we feel as we engage with an app or product for the first time. They will not get a second chance to make a first impression - UX is key to product success. With this qualification you will work in software, product or process development teams helping to ensure that the form taken by the developers will engage and satisfy the customer. This skill is in high demand and typical graduate salaries: €28K-€38K (source: Sigmar, Brightwater, Morgan-McKinley). Look for any of these keywords on jobs boards: UX, UI, User Experience, Digital designer, interaction design, visual designer. If you like what you’ve read and want to hear more, head to itsligo.ie/cee or contact Adrian Durcan, Programme Chair for a chat.

Find out more about this Programme



Learn more about Bachelors in Graphic Design

You are interested in study programmes like this one? Fill in your details to receive information about studying Graphic Design in Ireland or elsewhere in Europe:

Are you a national of this country? If yes, simply submit the form again to confirm.

Please double-check the form inputs and then submit again.

Working... Submitting request...

Your request has been submitted!


Copyright © 2021 Study.EU



Imprint · About Study.eu · Privacy Policy · Jobs
Press

Advertise on Study.eu
Study in Europe:
Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Recent articles:

Study Biomedicine or Biomedical Sciences: All you need to know

US students: How to use FAFSA for a degree in Europe

Study Human Resource Management: All you need to know

What should you study for a career in Brand Management?

What is the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)?

Study.EU has been mentioned in numerous news publications worldwide, such as:
L'Étudiant (France)
Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany)
The Standard (Hong Kong)
The Independent (UK)
Al-Masry Al-Youm (Egypt)
Le Monde (France)
The Local (Europe)
Forbes (USA)
Cookies & analytics help us deliver our services. Privacy policy