Course Description

Designing Mobile Experiences

Mobile phones are now part of our everyday lives and have become the most important way to deliver information and craft unique social and individual experiences. This course centers around the most effective ways to create mobile experiences. Participants will explore the strategies, technology, methods, conventions and prototyping techniques of designing mobile applications.

The course material will include exercises in information architecture, user flows, wireframing, interface design and mobile prototypes. There will be discussion around the merits of using native app or web technologies to build application as well as an introduction to programming for iOS & Android platforms using Adobe’s PhoneGap.

Participants will learn to:

• identify goals for various Mobile design challenges
• Evaluate and leverage the capabilities of mobile platforms
• Capture data that will enable in-depth understanding of the users and their ecosystems
• Correlate design research, market understanding and strategic goals to define design goals which form the foundation of the application development
• Translate design goals into the development of structure and design of the application or website
• Validate and test the design to minimize risks and determine criteria that are important for success

Course Content

Introduction

• What are mobile devices and apps?
• How did we get here? Evolution of Mobile Design
• Mobile platforms: Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad
• Why would you create mobile experiences?
• What kind of skills are needed for mobile design?

Mobile UX Principles

• Designing for mobile screens
• Responsive Design
• Keyboards and touch input
• Navigation, Menus
• Best practises in mobile design

Mobile Design Elements

• Information Design, Structures
• Creating Mobile Design Patterns
• Responsive Mobile design
• Design for Platforms: iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Android & Windows
• Search on Mobile devices
• Mobile Design Patterns
• Browsing and Navigation
• Mobile Web vs. Mobile apps
• Group Design Exercise

Mobile Design Research and Testing

• Competitive Analysis
• Observation and Interviews
• Contextual research approaches
• Mobile User Personas and Mobile Scenarios
• Concept Designs and Prototyping
• Mobile Usability Testing
• Mobile Design and software design processes