ZHdK’s CAS Digital Typography – UI/UX Design course is the only one of its kind in Europe, offering designers an introduction to the digital domain.
UI/UX Design: conceptualizing, designing and prototyping websites, applications and other digital publications.
This one-year part-time continuing education course explores contemporary methods, tools and technologies. In the first semester, we look at the basic principles of concept development, design and technology. In the second semester, this fundamental knowledge is applied to a project and developed further, supplemented with extra tuition and guest lectures.
Concept development
Based on the user-centred design approach, the main focus here is on the question of what users need. Who are they? What do they want? How do they achieve their objectives? With this in mind, we develop the specifications for a website or a similar publication – this forms the basis for all design-related decisions.
Design
We examine modern design techniques and tools, such as freehand sketching, wireframing and click dummies. The emphasis here is twofold, with responsive web design, web fonts and interactive/animated elements on the one hand and information architecture and structures on the other.
Technology
Workshops on HTML, CSS and JavaScript provide an insight into the world of programming and help generate a better understanding of what is technically feasible.
Projects
While most of the work in the first semester is group-based, in the second semester the course participants are tasked with working on individual projects. The participants present and discuss the status of their projects at regular intervals, which gives them an opportunity to provide one another with objective feedback.
Other topics and core subjects
- UX Research
- User testing
- Navigation
- Standards and trends
- Accessibility
- Presentation/pitching
- Project management
- Hand-offs
- Creative coding
Software used
The tools used include Figma, Visual Studio Code, Keynote and DrawBot. As a rule, no software purchases are necessary.