Web Design for Usability at Platt College
Platt College Web Design teacher, Melissa Cabral, discusses the Bachelor Degree class Web Design for Usability. In this class web students step away from the world of code to focus on another important aspect of the web design process, the user experience. When it comes to web design, it may be easy to create something that looks nice, but the ultimate goal should be to create a website or app that users love. How often do you find yourself pulling up Instagram or Facebook throughout your day on your phone? These applications are great examples of keeping users engaged and active through smart design and ease of usability.
Platt College Web Design student Patricia Totemeier shows us the functionality of her User Experience Design project.
For the final project in Melissa’s class students are asked to come up with a compelling reason and purpose for people to use their site. Platt College students Patricia Totemeier and Brooke Hartwell had a great idea to create a website for girls who love fashion but may not have the budget to spend money on new clothes every week. Brooke, who is also a fashion model, came up with the concept for their site called Model to Model, where girls can create profiles to either rent out clothes from their closet for profit, or rent designer clothes without emptying their wallets.
Model to Model is an excellent example of a creative User Experience Design project. Created by Platt College Web Design students Brooke Hartwell and Patricia Totemeier.
By using a free software called Invision , students are able to create a prototype of their website. This allows them to get instant feedback from real users and test their concept on people who are not web designers which helps them problem solve and come up with creative solutions for their design.
Another way the students learn to get helpful feedback for free is through the website Usabilityhub.com that will also give you analytics and feedback using a karma system. By reviewing other designers projects and work, you are able to receive reviews as well.
A great aspect of our User Experience Design class is that students who may enjoy the idea of studying web design but are not too code savvy may enjoy learning more about user experience design.
“Studying UX is a critical skill because it doesn’t have a shelf-life as short as individual coding techniques or design trends. Humans change more slowly than the technology!” -Melissa Cabral
Melissa does a great job of helping students discover what aspect of web may be the best fit for them when they start looking for jobs. Whether they have a passion for WordPress, User Experience, HTML or Javascript our staff is always willing to help students discover their talents.
To learn more about our web design program you can visit the Website Design section of our site, where we also showcase student projects.