How Husson's UX Design Certificate Program Is Preparing These Students for Success

Published on: May 29, 2023

Chances are user experience (UX) design is something that impacts you just about every day. It's just as likely that despite that daily impact, you don't think much about UX. 

That's by design.

UX design is defined, broadly, as the process of defining the visual and interactive elements a user experiences when interacting with a company or product. In other words, when you visit a website or use an app on your phone, your experience is defined by the UX design. Everything from the colors and fonts used to the placement and functionality of buttons to the overall layout and navigation of the site or app is encompassed in UX design. 

Ideally, when UX design is done right, the experience is a positive one and your focus is on the product or content featured. When it's done poorly, though, the experience for users is often so negative that they never meaningfully interact with the content or product. Indeed, good UX design can be a make-it-or-break-it element of many websites, apps and consumer experiences. 

Given that significance, it's no surprise that there's a great demand for talented UX designers.To help prepare students for jobs in this growing field, Husson University's New England School of Communications offers a special certificate program in UX Design.

We wanted to find out more about this unique program as well as the latest in UX design, so we spoke with two students currently working their way through the program: Vanessa Chasse and Kaylei Robichaud. Here's what they had to say.

A Skill Boosting Opportunity

Kaylei and Vanessa are both seniors in Husson's Graphic/Visual Design program. Both chose to supplement their major with the UX Design certificate to bolster their professional opportunities after graduation and to satisfy a curiosity and interest in this area. 

"I had finished an associate degree previously at a community college, but I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do," Kaylei explains. "When I heard about Husson's UX Design program, I wanted to check it out and get into that area of design."

"I've always heard how good of a program this is," Vanessa says. "And user experience design is a great area to get into. It's a great addition to my skill set. So this program was the perfect opportunity."

Developing a Deeper Understanding of UX Design

For Kaylei and Vanessa, the UX Design program has offered a terrific opportunity to delve into what makes for a good experience. In classes like Design Thinking, they examine common experiences from a design perspective and think through whether or not it's positive and intuitive for the user. 

"There are things I've never thought hard about before, like how buttons on an elevator work and how someone might look at the design of the buttons and be confused," Vanessa says. "Thinking it all through has taught me a lot of problem-solving skills."

"There's a lot of great collaboration in our classes," Kaylei says. "In Design Thinking, we worked together to build a board game and thought through the process of thinking about 'what would be attractive to somebody in a game' and 'what tasks might be something they would want to do.' It's given me a lot of insights into how much there really is to user experience design."

Both Vanessa and Kaylei have also learned that creating a good UX design experience isn't a simple once-and-done effort. Kaylei explains: "It's very iterative. Sometimes, you come up with an idea and think 'this will make things so much simpler.' But then you implement it and find that it actually complicates things. So there's a lot of back and forth and fixing things as you move towards that easy-to-use, intuitive experience."

Designing a Rewarding Future

Their classwork and discussion with their professors have helped Kaylei and Vanessa to be able to quickly identify particularly good examples of UX design. Vanessa points to Apple and their many products – from iPhones to Mac computers to the Apple Watch and more – as having excellent design. "All of the Apple products are very consistent with their user experience design. And it's very simple too, so it just goes to show how simplicity and consistency can go a long way."

More importantly, they're both prepared to put all they've learned in Husson's certificate program to work creating great user experiences. Says Kaylei, "I'm pretty excited to get into the field and explore all of the opportunities that just anything design related has for me."

Would you like to learn more about Husson's UX Design Certificate program? Request more info or apply to Husson today!