Course contents
- UX theory with a focus on user experience
- UX tools and UX technology
- Perspectives and experiences from professional UX designers
- Methods for evaluating experience
- Critical perspectives on UX
Course memo Autumn 2025
Headings denoted with an asterisk ( * ) is retrieved from the course syllabus version Autumn 2022
Content and learning outcomes
Intended learning outcomes
After passing the course, the student should be able to:
- give an account of theory, methods and technology for user experience (UX)
- identify and describe challenges in UX associated with emerging technologies and social needs
- critically reflect on the impact of UX technologies on marginalized groups, especially groups defined by gender, race, and disability.
- analyse and compare interactive products with respect to experiential qualities
- apply UX theory, methods, technologies and practice in development of systems
- reflect on how design work is influenced by the aim/starting point
- argue for and criticize design choices in their own work and the work of others from a UX perspective
in order to:
- be able to evaluate and choose theories, concepts, technologies and methods in relation to a problem statement
- independently be able to develop systems with good/wanted experiential qualities
- be able to anticipate probable consequences of design decision for marginalized groups
Learning activities
The course is made up of lectures, reading seminars and practical classes (workshops and group work activities).
Lectures are intended to give students an understanding of the devise ways in which user experience is understood within academia and in industry. These will provide both theorectical perspectives on experience, case studies of user experience design and evaluation, and introductions to tools and methods commonly used in user experience design and research. The course contains several guest lectures from invited speakers in industry, as well as lectures from the teaching team.
Reading seminars are intended to give students deep knowledge on particular topics within user experience. Commonly reading seminars are conducted in groups, where one student reads and presents a paper for other students in their group. Students are expected to dedicate several hours to reading materials and preparing materials in order to share their learning with others.
Practical workshops and group activities will make use of industry standard tools (Miro, Figma, etc). These activities are often led by industry through short challenges that students can respond to. These activities are intended to give students first hand experience of design, and evaluation processes within user experience research and design, as well as provide an opportunity for expanding on students' portfolios.
Detailed plan
A detailed plan of activivites can be found both on the course canvas page, and in session by session notes on schema.
Preparations before course start
Literature
We will read a series of academic papers and book chapters throughout the course. Links to the specific chapters and articles can be found in the course Canvas page. These readings will be available from the start of the course.
Key texts that this course draws from include:
Experience-Centred Design by Peter Wright and John McCarthy
Experience Design by Marc Hassenzahl
Humanistic HCI by Jeffery Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell
Race after Technology by Ruha Benjamin
Design Justice by Sasha Constanza Chock
Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein
Each of these books can be found online at the KTH Library
Equipment
During the course we will undertake practical activities using UX tools and techniques. Much of this work is undertaken in groups. It would be useful to attend practical classes with a laptop, or a tablet PC if possible.
Software
This course will use Figma - a wireframing software commonly used in industry. The course will provide you with a license for this software. We will also use online collaborative tools such as Miro, Google Docs, and Google Drive.
Support for students with disabilities
Students at KTH with a permanent disability can get support during studies from Funka:
Please contact the course responsible if you require additional support to fully particpate in this course.
Examination and completion
Grading scale
P, F
Examination
- INL1 - Assignment, reflection, 1.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
- PRO1 - Project 1, 2.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
- PRO2 - Project 2, 2.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
- PRO3 - Project 3, 2.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
- PRO4 - Project 4, 2.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.
The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.
The section below is not retrieved from the course syllabus:
Assessment on this course is done in a culminative way based on a mixture of active participation in activities within the classroom, as well as assignments completed outside of teaching time.
Assignment, reflection ( INL1 ) - Active participation and reflection activities completed within reading seminars throughout the course
Project 1 ( PRO1 ) - Active participation and reflection activities completed within workshops throughout the course
Project 2 ( PRO2 ) - Design challenge - extend a design challenge of your choice from accross period 2 with an additional 10 hours of UX work. Due end of period 2.
Project 3 ( PRO3 ) - An interaction criticism of a UX design using theories and concepts covered so far within the course. This assignment includes both a written component and an oral presentation. Due Period 2.
Project 4 ( PRO4 ) - Feedback on an interaction critique provided by another student on the course. Due end of period 2.
Ethical approach
- All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
- In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
- In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.
Further information
Changes of the course before this course offering
Summary of feedback:
Students continue to enjoy the interactions with teachers from industry and that the engagement with industry felt meaningful and with opportunities to exchange knowledge and experiences. Students also reported that the course was well organized, with a good variety of teaching and learning activities that related well to one another. However, students disliked that not everyone received feedback on their design challenges from industry speakers and this lowered their motivation to spend time on these activities. Students would prefer the canvas page to be organized around course components rather than time. Students found it time consuming to form groups for the design challenge and some would have preferred a random assignment. Some students would have liked more follow-up on the interaction critique assignment. Students also suggested a demo day or peer assignment to review design challenge work.
Overall thoughts on feedback
Based on the feedback collected at the end of the course and across period 2 we found that the course continued to be well received by students. Students appreciated the overall structure of the course, the guest lectures, the mixture of topics covered and the design challenges utilized throughout the course. Students appreciated the written feedback provided to student assignments and felt that teaching staff had deeply engaged with their work in order to provide useful comments that would improve their skills over time. However, there were elements of the course that the students felt could be improved, which we will now discuss.
Not enough feedback on design challenges
Guest speakers set design challenges for the class. The guest speaker returns a couple of weeks later and gives feedback in front of the class to around 6-8 different project groups. All groups receive feedback at least once during the course. However, we want all the students to do all of the design challenges to gain more experience in UX design. We appreciate that this is frustrating for students and disappointing especially when they have put a lot of work into forming solutions to the challenges raised by guest speakers. Next year we will add assignments when students provide feedback to one another on their design work. This will help to develop students’ skills in giving critique while also ensuring all their design work gets reviewed.
Clarity of canvas
Every year we update canvas, changing the structure, format of instructions and so on to try and make as clear as possible what students need to do and how. But somehow the information is never clear enough. We will work again with the canvas pages to make them clearer, to reduce inaccuracies and so on, and I will endeavour to ask for one or two students from next year’s cohort to work with me to rapidly fix any issues with the content in the first week of the course.
Contacts
Communication during course
The course coordinator and teaching assistants are happy to be contacted over email, or via Canvas with questions about the course.
Course Coordinator
Teachers
Examiner
Round Facts
Start date
25 Aug 2025
Course offering
- uxdesign Autumn 2025-51527
Language Of Instruction
English
Offered By
Contacts
Communication during course
The course coordinator and teaching assistants are happy to be contacted over email, or via Canvas with questions about the course.