Learn design skills
Check out other design-related courses offered by the Academy:
IDEA379A:
Design your purpose
What do you want to do once you graduate? That is the question we tackle in this course. Throughout the semester, you'll use design thinking and lean startup skills and mindsets to explore your personal and professional development goals and explore potential career paths. Using empathy, brainstorming, and prototyping tools, you'll design potential futures for yourself and test them to see if they are a good fit for you.
The courses below are 1-credit STIC courses covering various design topics.
IDEA258C:
Designing Ethical Campaigns
Have you ever wondered how to strategically contribute to a cause you care about and how to convince others to care as well? In this 1-credit Student-Initiated Course, you will be able to apply your knowledge to designing a campaign that can make tangible differences while staying true to your core values. We will explore various scenarios and hold discussions on ethics to help you better understand the different components of running an ethical campaign. Our assignments and activities will allow for you to have hands-on engagement with different target audiences at UMD to create and test your own ethical campaign.
IDEA258D:
Explorations in Design
"Explorations in Design" gives students the opportunity to apply their unique backgrounds to the realm of design. Students will engage in hands-on learning with real world applications to incorporate design thinking into everyday life. By exploring each stage of the design process (from ideating to prototyping), students will develop a final project to pitch at the end of the semester.
IDEA258U:
Introduction to UI/UX Design
What does "User Experience" mean? It was a term coined by cognitive psychologist and designer Don Norman in the 1990s on the cusp of the new digital era; however, the field in practice has existed long before that. Unfortunately, due to its over use and misuse, the pure concept of UX has become lost in the weeds and details of all of its components and methods. In this course, we will take a deep look at the true meaning of UX as simply a user's experience and what that means for you as both a designer and a user. You will learn about core UX principles and methodologies from both an academic and practical standpoint and be challenged to apply what you learn in classroom workshops and assignments. Finally, you will be asked to think both inside and outside the bounds of technology to find innovative solutions to real world design problems. For more information on the course, visit go.umd.edu/idea258u