Designing Social Networks module (DJ21013)

Designing and making a social user experience is an essential part of an Interaction Designer's toolkit.

In this module, you will design interactions between people through digital platforms.

This typically involves:

• applying user research
• developing a design proposal
• testing ideas using low-fidelity materials, such as:
  • sketching
  • storyboarding
  • paper mock-ups
• making a screen-based digital prototype

By learning how to design social networks that support the well-being of individuals and communities will help develop your understanding of interactions around shared digital content.

What you will learn

In this module, you will:

• work in the field to gain insights into real people and real environments
• grow your understanding of the Design Thinking process to communicate your ideas through rapid sketching and concept visualization
• explore and design UX screen prototyping with technologies such as Figma, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript
• develop awareness of professional design practice to understand career pathways in Interaction Design

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• craft an interface design for a user experience, using appropriate visual language and interactions
• engage with people at each stage of your design process from generating ideas to testing prototypes
• think critically about the relationship between technology and society

Assignments / assessment

• Insight cards (15%)
• Professional practice presentation (10%)
• Design proposal (15%)
• Paper prototypes (15%)
• Digital prototype and user testing video (30%)
• 1500-word critical essay (15%)

This module does not have a final exam

Teaching methods / timetable

• lectures with demonstrations of design practice and prototyping techniques
• workshops
• talks by invited speakers
• tutorials
• project work combining individual and teamwork