圣. 爱德华的 degree in 用户 Experience Design equips you with the creative, technical and 沟通 skills to enter a career in a fast-growing industry.
St. 爱德华的 is one of a handful of universities to offer a four-year undergraduate degree in the emerging field of 用户 Experience Design and takes advantage of its location in Austin to offer career-building internships and professional connections.
用户 Experience Design, often referred to as UX, sits at the intersection of design, technology and innovation. UX seeks to understand how people search for information and interact with digital tools to design more intuitive, easy-to-use products — both digital products, 像应用程序, websites and 软件, and other processes and systems.
You should consider a career in UX if you have both an artistic and technical mindset and enjoy working in teams to build new digital products that improve people’s lives.
Key UX Program Courses
Key courses in the St. 爱德华的 UX program are taught online, giving you useful experience in the digital space where you’ll be working. This format also prepares you to communicate and carry out teamwork in an industry where remote teams are common and in a post-pandemic world where virtual collaboration is the norm.
Your classes will teach you to design prototypes, conduct user 研究, carry out usability tests and learn basic coding. You’ll also build strong 沟通 skills through liberal arts courses in 心理学, 沟通, business and sociology. You’ll learn how to listen, negotiate compromise, understand different cultural expectations, and develop deep empathy — all skills that are essential to being a good designer. This combination of relational abilities and practical experience will prepare you to enter a career in a field that’s in demand in Central Texas.
For more information about the 用户 Experience Design major or 小, please 联系金正日加尔萨, area coordinator of 用户 Experience Design.
Earn Two Degrees in Five Years
Complete your BA in 用户 Experience Design and Master's Degree (MSDGMA) with our pathway to receive two degrees in five years.
成功的教练 and Academic Advisors guide students through undergraduate and graduate courses to maximize benefits. 了解更多.
What do our graduates do?
As a UX designer or 研究er, you’ll be ready to join any size of team, from a startup to a small boutique design studio to a large, multinational company. All industries hire UX professionals, especially information technology, 软件, 金融, insurance and consulting. You may work on websites, 软件产品, mobile applications or artificial intelligence products — or you could help any organization seeking to improve its process and better serve its clients.
- Senior experience designer at Accomplice in Austin
- UX/UI designer at USAA
- UX designer and 研究er at Visa
- Digital creative designer at James Avery 艺术isan Jewelry
- Interactive production designer at Houndstooth Studio
50 校友 Who Inspire
St. 爱德华的 University counts more than 25,000 alumni around the globe. Some are making their mark in the job they started right after graduation. Others have excelled in multiple careers. Read about how they’re all building on the education they received at St. 爱德华的.
教室里 & 除了
Your courses will incorporate plenty of hands-on experiments and application. In your studio classes, you’ll work in collaborative teams structured like real-world, professional teams. The UX program was developed with significant input from partners in the industry — so you’ll graduate with the specific training employers want in their new hires. And, like all majors at St. 爱德华的, the UX major will teach you to consider how diverse social identities influence your work, as people’s cultural backgrounds and physical abilities shape their expectations for the user experience.
Experiential Education
- UX for Social Good teaches you to partner with a community organization and apply UX processes to address a social issue. You’ll learn how to 研究 the issue and formulate a user-focused solution to an identified community need.
- UX Studio: Digital Spaces will give you hands-on experience creating digital products such as websites and app prototypes.
- UX高级工作室 challenges you to apply your skills and knowledge to design a self-initiated UX project. You’ll develop expertise in project management, 研究, 解决问题, and prototyping and present your project outcomes as part of a professional online portfolio.
Student Organizations
- Topper Studios is the digital media club. Members are involved in creating podcasts, YouTube频道, 短片, music videos and comedy sketches, and helping their fellow students produce digital content. Students in Topper Studios also frequently make promotional videos for other clubs at St. 爱德华的.
- The Digital Media Center in the Munday 图书馆 is a resource for creating your own content and learning new skills. 在这里, you can produce and edit videos, podcasts and visual design projects with the help of your fellow students. The lab is equipped with top-of-the-line computers running the latest 软件 including the Adobe Creative Suite. It also has a group editing/podcasting room, a green screen room and a “whisper room” used for voiceovers. If you are skilled at 软件, 硬件维修, graphic design or video editing, you can apply to work in the lab as a digital media specialist.
- The 计算机科学 Club helps students build their skills through events like Capture the Flag, a cybersecurity-focused programming competition.
- 圣. 爱德华的 Maker Club attracts tinkerers and programmers who have worked on projects involving 3-D printing, 焊接, programming LED strips, and creating art through programming.
- The Command G graphic design group furthers skills through studio tours, 博物馆参观, 系列讲座, 研讨会, and bi-annual screenprinting sales.
- The Video Game Association hosts game nights – with a mix of console games, PC games, MTG, D&D and handheld games – as well as LAN parties and tournaments.
实习
You’ll work with your faculty mentors to connect with internships at companies ranging from tech startups to large, multinational corporations.
Degree Requirements
The UX program is especially designed to serve two groups of students. The first is traditional undergraduates who want to double-major, 小, or double-小 in a related or complementary field such as 计算机科学, 平面设计, Digital Media 管理, 创业, 心理学 or Writing and Rhetoric. The second group is transfer students; if you have an associate’s degree, you’ll be able to graduate in two years. If you’ve taken the Texas Common Core, you’ll be able to finish in three. The UX courses’ cutting-edge online format allows you greater flexibility in how you balance academic, work and family responsibilities.
View and download the full degree plan for the 用户 Experience Design major (PDF).
我们的教师
You’ll learn from professors with expertise in graphic design, 计算机科学, 电子游戏设计, 心理学, 沟通 and art. In addition to being caring, thoughtful teachers, they have years of experience in the industry and understand the skills employers are seeking in entry-level hires.
To keep her students on the forefront of the ever-changing design profession, Professor Garza frequently pilots leading-edge technologies and pedagogical approaches, such as creating a mobile scavenger hunt to immerse students in new content, using cloud collaboration tools for a digital history project, running a Hackathon to create mobile websites, and experimenting with 3D printing.
– 金正日加尔萨, Associate Professor of 平面设计