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2010/2011  KAN-CMIT_VMUE  Management of User Experience Design

English Title
Management of User Experience Design

Course Information

Language English
Point 7,5 ECTS (225 SAT)
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Course Period Autumn
Pending schedule: Tues.:13.30-15.10, week:35-49
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study Board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems
Course Coordinator
Torkil Clemmensen - tc.inf@cbs.dkSecretary Anne Birkebæk - ab.inf@cbs.dk
Main Category of the Course
  • Marketing
  • Innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Management of Information and Knowledge Management
  • Experience economy and service management

Taught under Open University-Taught under open university.
Last updated on 29 maj 2012
Learning Objectives
The aim of this course is that the student at the end can:
• Describe the key principles and theory of User Experience, persuasion, product-added value and user behaviour
• Demonstrate methods and practices for gathering user information
• Describe the components that contribute to mature User Experience practices in an organization or enterprise
• Identify where an organization or enterprise fails in terms of User Experience maturity models
• Explain the role of the User Experience project manager and how to manage effectively in an agile environment, e.g. avoiding crunch periods, developing the User Experience components of business plans, making financial decisions, etc.
• Explain how to influence development and business teams to incorporate a User Experience approach to product or application development, and how to communicate User Experience findings to the relevant stakeholders
The course’s development of personal competences:
The course will give students the knowledge and skills to understand why User Experience is integral to the design and development of products and systems.
The course gives each student a deeper understanding and appreciation of User Experience design in today’s world, and how to manage user-oriented design- and evaluation processes in a corporate-, research- or organizational environment.
The students will be able to evaluate and work with User Experience in these varied contexts and understand the role of User Experience in product- and systems development; as well as implementing market- and behavioural factors in the development and management of User Experience design strategies.
Prerequisite
The course takes a management perspective on issues related to the design and development of any kind of interactive and IT-related product. It is a MSc.-level course that can be followed by students from across CBS, as well as e.g. students from the relevant MSc.-lines at e.g. the IT University.
Examination
Oral individual exam based on a mini-project (individual or group).
Exam Period Winter Term
Examination
Oral individual exam based on a mini-project (individual or group). The project will be based on a semester-spanning case, allowing students to get in-depth with the specifics of the case´s problems.
The project will consist of investigating a specific User Experience development case in the industry, and focus on developing an User Experience -management strategy for the company in question, based on available literature and sheer innovative thinking.
The re-take takes place according to the same rules ad the regular examination.
Prerequisites for Attending the Exam
Course Content

Modern IT-product and systems development as well as marketing strategies consider User Experience a core component. This because users are not purely logical beasts, but prone to making decisions based on how a product or system makes them feel, think or act.

User Experience focuses on how users (people) perceive a product or system, what they feel about using it, and how they are affected by it, including also the user´s perceptions of the practical aspects of the system (e.g. efficiency, practicality). Solid User Experience design ensures that users have a positive experience using something – and are thus encouraged to come back for more.

User Experience is unfortunately highly subjective in nature and difficult to work with in practical design- and development contexts, because it relates to individual feeling and thoughts about a product or system. Furthermore, it is dynamic, and responds to the context of use and practice.

User Experience is therefore something that many companies would like to ignore. However, designing for User Experience has proven devastatingly effective, for example in the entertainment and online marketing sectors.

Without considerations about User Experience, the experiential, meaningful and valuable aspects of the interaction between user and product are not considered - imposing a high risk on user product uptake. Therefore, the IT industry has in recent years turned 180 degrees: User Experience is the new paradigm.

As the ICT sector is increasingly focused on user experience, the role of User Experience manager is of vital importance — it means leading a productive team, influencing businesses to adopt user-centred design, and delivering valuable products to customers.

Course objectives:

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of usability and user experience, as well as leading-edge related concepts in design practice, notably persuasion (how to persuade customers to behave in particular ways) and perceived product value (how to convince customers that a produce has value – especially in comparison with competing products).

The course takes a management perspective of how User Experience and processes for the design of user experience are integrated in different environments - and how business can be influenced by user-centered design.

Teaching Methods
The course has a standard semester-spanning duration of 15 weeks (ex. exam) and has one weekly lecture of 2 hours, plus 2 hours of exercises or group work. The teaching alternates between lectures, exercises and student presentations.
The course will use tools for technology-enhanced learning including interactive whiteboards and instant voting systems. Additionally, a part of the course will focus on using commercial digital games massively multi-user environments for running exercises and as a test-bed for gathering user feedback.
Literature

The field of User Experience design and User Experience management is currently developing rapidly, and research-based literature is gradually becoming available:

· “User Experience Management”, Arnie Lund, Morgan Kaufman Publishers (2010) (industry).

· “Experience Management: Foundations, Development Methodology, and Internet-Based Applications”, Ralph Bergman, Springer LNCS (2002) (research).

· Selected papers from “Persuasive Technology”, Springer LNCS - conference series from 2008-2010 (research).

· “Observing the User Experience: A practitioners guide to user research” Mike Kuniavsky (2003) (industry/research).

“Motivating, influencing, and persuading users” Brian J. Fogg, in: The Human Computer Interaction Handbook, L. Erlbaum Associates Inc. (2003)(research).