Western Washington University students work with Microsoft on User Experience Design Project
Published 1:47 pm Friday, December 5, 2014
Western Washington University students pursuing the new User Experience (UX) Design minor collaborated with Microsoft on a project called “Collaboration + Cloud 2020” for their senior capstone course.
Students took the minor’s capstone course during their senior year, where students formed interdisciplinary teams and work on a UX Design project with an industry partner.
User experience design is a multidisciplinary profession that is still evolving and yet is in high demand. It is a combination of graphic design, industrial design, psychology, computer science and business that requires big picture, strategic design skills, and the ability to design the very detailed interactions in interface.
Through this quarter’s UX Design project, students broke into three teams and all addressed the question “How can we effectively collaborate and share with each other using The Cloud in 2020?”
Each of the three teams addressed different collaboration problems, including how to simplify the application process for low income students applying for financial aid and scholarships; how to coordinate and plan a vacation or wedding with family and friends that are scattered around the world; and how to improve online classes’ community, engagement, and increase passing rates using UX Design collaboration tools.
Students completed five project phases, including research, synthesis, conceptualization, design development and a final prototyping and concept presentation. The student teams presented their projects to Microsoft on Dec. 4 at Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond.
Assistant professor of design Brittany Schade assisted the students on their project.
The UX Design minor consists of industrial design, graphic design, psychology and computer science majors. Each student pursuing the minor takes courses in the other three disciplines to give them a stronger foundation in the areas relevant to UX Design.
Through this project, students will learn an introduction to a UX Design project in the real world, learn project management skills in an interdisciplinary team, practice professional presentations, create a strong portfolio piece and begin to network with professionals in the field.
