Course detail

User Experience and Design of User Interfaces and Services (in English)

FIT-UXIaAcad. year: 2025/2026

User experience - introduction to psychology and sociology of users and to user research.
Design of user interfaces - tools, methodology, practical steps.
Design of services - tools, methodology, practical steps.
Practical experience on a large team project solved during the whole semester, divided into epoques / milestones.

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

prof. Ing. Adam Herout, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia (UPGM)

Offered to foreign students

Of all faculties

Entry knowledge

Moderate proficiency in at least two modern high-level programming languages, such as Java, C++, Python, PHP, ...
Moderate proficiency in JavaScript or similar.
Experience with design of user interfaces - either web, mobile or desktop.
Knowledge of principles of web development - client/server programming, REST API, HTML, CSS, databases.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

Mid-term exam / written essay - 30 points.
Project solved during the semester, points awarded multiple times during the solutions, based on achieved milestones - 70 points in total.

Aims

Provide necessary theoretical knowledge about user experience and design of interfaces and services.
Make familiar with important literature in the field.
Make familiar with relevant knowledge from psychology and sociology of users.
Get practical experience with key parts of the design and development of user interfaces and services.
Get insight in time and skill complexity of individual parts of the procedure of the design.
Theoretical knowledge about user experience and design of interfaces and services.
Knowledge of important literature in the field.
Basics of psychology and sociology of users.
Research of user sentiments and preferences, statistical evaluation, significance.
Practical experience from solving the project: definition, user research, prototyping, testing, design, presentation, evaluation.

Teamwork on the project.
Presentation of the project (written, oral).
Practical experience on graphical design of the project.
Autonomous study, exchange of information with peer students.

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Bill Buxton: Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition (April 11, 2007) (EN)
Don Norman: The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition, Basic Books; Revised, Expanded edition (November 5, 2013), ISBN: 978-0465050659 (EN)
Steve Krug: Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, New Riders; 3rd edition (December 24, 2013) (EN)

Type of course unit

Lecture

16 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

prof. Ing. Adam Herout, Ph.D.

Syllabus

Introduction to the course. Introduction to the problematic. Guidelines and discussion regarding the project assignments.
Identification of the relevant problem and goals; analysis, estimates, opportunity and threat analysis, planning. (interactive lecture).
User research: history, methods, procedures, recommendations to the project assignments.
Early design and prototyping of UI: importance, methods, tools, validation with users, recommendations to the project assignments.
Case studies of UI designs - presentation, critical evaluation, analysis, summarization of outcomes, formulation of recommendations. (interactive lecture)
Psychology and human factors in the design of user interfaces.
Psychology and human factors in the design of user interfaces II.
Design of User Interfaces: overview, history, trends, tools, technologies, procedures, recommendations to the project assignments.
Case studies of UI prototypes - presentation, critical evaluation, analysis, summarization of outcomes, formulation of recommendations. (interactive lecture)
Design of services: history, differences, trends, tools, examples from practice.
User testing, statistical processing of user data, law and ethical limitations.
Case studies of designs - presentation, critical evaluation, analysis, summarization of outcomes, formulation of recommendations. (interactive lecture)
Case studies of designs - presentation, critical evaluation, analysis, summarization of outcomes, formulation of recommendations. (interactive lecture)

Fundamentals seminar

10 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

prof. Ing. Adam Herout, Ph.D.

Project

26 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

prof. Ing. Adam Herout, Ph.D.

Syllabus

Team project (3-4 people).
Individual assignments - proposed by students, approved by the teacher. Components:

Problem Formulation, team formation
User Research: questioning, evaluation
User Research: formulation or results, personas, scenarios
Early Design: drawings, wireframes, testing, iterative improvement
UI Prototype: identification of key parts, utilization of resources
Design of experiments, identification of key UI elements, questions
Experiments, questioning, formulation of outcomes
Report and Presentation of the project, substantiation of conclusions

VUT

Faculties

University Institutes

Parts

User Experience and Design of User Interfaces and Services (in English)

Type of course unit