• UX theory with a focus on user experience
• UX tools and UX technology
• Perspectives and experiences from professional UX designers
• Methods for evaluating experience
• Critical perspectives on UX

After passing the course, the student should be able to:

• give an account of theory, methods and technology for user experience (UX)
• identify and describe challenges in UX associated with emerging technologies and social needs
• critically reflect on the impact of UX technologies on marginalized groups, especially groups defined by gender, race, and disability.
• analyse and compare interactive products with respect to experiential qualities
• apply UX theory, methods, technologies and practice in development of systems
• reflect on how design work is influenced by the aim/starting point
• argue for and criticize design choices in their own work and the work of others from a UX perspective

in order to:

• be able to evaluate and choose theories, concepts, technologies and methods in relation to a problem statement
• independently be able to develop systems with good/wanted experiential qualities
• be able to anticipate probable consequences of design decision for marginalized groups

The course is made up of lectures, reading seminars and practical classes (workshops and group work activities).

Lectures are intended to give students an understanding of the devise ways in which user experience is understood within academia and in industry. These will provide both theorectical perspectives on experience, case studies of user experience design and evaluation, and introductions to tools and methods commonly used in user experience design and research. The course contains several guest lectures from invited speakers in industry, as well as lectures from the teaching team.

Reading seminars are intended to give students deep knowledge on particular topics within user experience. Commonly reading seminars are conducted in groups, where one student reads and presents a paper for other students in their group. Students are expected to dedicate several hours to reading materials and preparing materials in order to share their learning with others.

Practical workshops and group activities will make use of industry standard tools (Miro, Figma, etc). These activities are often led by industry through short challenges that students can respond to. These activities are intended to give students first hand experience of design, and evaluation processes within user experience research and design, as well as provide an opportunity for expanding on students' portfolios.

A detailed plan of activivites can be found both on the course canvas page, and in session by session notes on schema.

We will read a series of academic papers and book chapters throughout the course. Links to the specific chapters and articles can be found in the course Canvas page. These readings will be available from the start of the course.

Key texts that this course draws from include:

Experience-Centred Design by Peter Wright and John McCarthy

Experience Design by Marc Hassenzahl

Humanistic HCI by Jeffery Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell

Race after Technology by Ruha Benjamin

Design Justice by Sasha Constanza Chock

Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein

Each of these books can be found online at the KTH Library

During the course we will undertake practical activities using UX tools and techniques. Much of this work is undertaken in groups. It would be useful to attend practical classes with a laptop, or a tablet PC if possible.

This course will use Figma - a wireframing software commonly used in industry. The course will provide you with a license for this software. We will also use online collaborative tools such as Miro, Google Docs, and Google Drive.

Students at KTH with a permanent disability can get support during studies from Funka:

Funka - compensatory support for students with disabilities

Please contact the course responsible if you require additional support to fully particpate in this course.

P, F

• INL1 - Assignment, reflection, 1.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PRO1 - Project 1, 2.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PRO2 - Project 2, 2.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PRO3 - Project 3, 2.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PRO4 - Project 4, 2.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

Assessment on this course is done in a culminative way based on a mixture of active participation in activities within the classroom, as well as assignments completed outside of teaching time.

Assignment, reflection ( INL1 ) -  Submissions will be made after each reading seminar based on activities completed during reading seminars. These might include annotated PDFs showing how you read and commented on a paper, mind-maps that help to relate concepts from reading to content covered in lectures, design work that illustrates a particular concept covered in the readings.

Project 1 ( PRO1 ) - Design challenge 1 - extend a design challenge of your choice from accross period 1 with an additional 10 hours of UX work. Due end of period 1.

Project 2 ( PRO2 ) - Design challenge 2 - extend a design challenge of your choice from accross period 2 with an additional 10 hours of UX work. Due end of period 2.

Project 3 ( PRO3 ) - An interaction criticism of a UX design using theories and concepts covered so far within the course. This assignment includes both a written component and an oral presentation. Due Period 2.

Project 4 ( PRO4 ) -  Feedback on an interaction critique provided by another student on the course.  Due end of period 2.

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

Overall students gave very positive feedback to the course in HT2023. The biggest changes we have made in relation to feedback from last year (and experience teaching the course last year) is within the assessments included in the course. In particular we have removed the personal project from the course. Students complained they did not have sufficient time for this work, and the teaching team were disappointed in the lack of exploration of content within the course within the design work produced by students. In addition, we noticed that attendance dramatically fell after period 1 - to address this, and encourage better participation by all students we have implemented changes to the assignments to reflect better a desire for students to attend class and actively participate.