This is a condensed, honest version of a real postgraduate university module in human factors, the discipline behind UX and UI design. It exists to answer one question: would you enjoy studying this?
Eight short chapters follow the same arc as the real eight-week module. Each takes five to ten minutes to read and comes with a small activity you can do with a phone, some paper and one recruitable family member. The capstone is a working miniature of the actual university assessment, and the final page is the honest talk about the degree itself.
Read in order, the chapters build. Do the activities, they are where the answer to the big question actually lives.
- 1Design is a process, not a talent
- 2You are not your userA true industry story about a product that died because the team designed for a person who did not exist.
- 3Feelings are dataWhy a working bank app made a customer leave, and the three-level model that explains it.
- 4Asking versus countingTwo research methods, one famous trap, and why well-executed research on the wrong question is worthless.
- 5Cardboard firstWhy marker pens beat code, and a paper-prototype game you can actually play tonight.
- 6Watch someone struggleGive a person a task, stay silent, count the hesitations. The truth hurts and is useful.
- 7The rules of the gameTen rules that explain every annoying app, and what happens when designers use them against you.
- 8Points, streaks and whose side the app is onStreaks and points are neither good nor evil. One question tells you which you are looking at.
- 9Now do the whole loopThe whole loop in one afternoon: idea, persona, paper prototype, real test, honest write-up.
- 10So is this degree for you?The unglamorous truth about the module, the degree, the job titles and the signals worth trusting.