Course Summary

This course is optimized for the developer who is looking to efficiently learn t
he most important design techniques that will help them make better apps (with a
focus on mobile/Android).
This is a UX design course built for current (and aspiring) mobile developers. I
n this short course, you'll step back from your IDE and dive into the techniques
that great designers use to plan and prototype amazing apps before any code is
written.
Why Take This Course?
UX (User Experience) is a big deal. Though the term is often confused with User
Interface, UI is only only a tiny subset of UX (we ll talk about the difference in
Lesson 1).
You should take this course because well-designed apps are just as important as
well-built apps.
The goal of this course is to help you understand the most important and immedia
tely useful techniques and approaches used by great mobile UX designers. This co
urse won t turn you into a designer, but it will help you incorporate design eleme
nts into the products you build.
Prerequisites and Requirements
This course is optimized for the developer who is looking to efficiently learn t
he most important design techniques that will help them make better apps (with a
focus on mobile/Android).
That said, programming experience is not required to benefit from the design pri
nciples and best practices we teach in this course.
What Will I Learn?
Projects
Design and blueprint your own incredible Android app!
Syllabus
Overview
The goal of this course is to help you build better apps by helping you become a
design-minded developer. In Lessons 1 and 2, you will learn widely applicable d
esign principles and techniques like high-level UX planning and user-centered de
sign.
In Lessons 3 and 4, you will focus on design ideas specific to mobile/Android de
velopment. Mobile platforms all come with a unique set of constraints and opport
unities and this lesson will help you respect those constraints while taking adv
antage of the opportunities.
Lessons
LESSON 1: WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE?
In this lesson you will think about User Experience from the highest level. You
will break down complex apps into a small number of simple steps and think about
their big picture flow (including ones that you have worked on in the past or a
re currently working on).
Topics covered:
What is UX?
UI vs. UX
High-level planning
Low-fi wireframing and prototyping
Two concrete app improvements to implement now
LESSON 2: USER-CENTERED DESIGN
In this lesson you will learn how to design apps that your users will love. You

will learn the importance of user-centered design, what happens when you design
for everyone/no one (spoiler alert: it s generally bad), and how to effectively us
e tools like personas and use cases to ensure a baseline level of quality for an
ything you build. You will also learn a bit about how to use cheap and easy user
research techniques to make well-informed design decisions.
Topics covered:
The perils of ignoring your user
How to create effective personas and use cases
Low cost user research
How to use personas and use cases to inform feature lists
LESSON 3: DESIGNING FOR MOBILE CONSTRAINTS
Mobile design and development come with constraints and opportunities. This less
on is about the constraints. You will learn what constraints are inherent to mob
ile development and how to use design tools and techniques to ensure your app ac
tually respects those constraints.
Topics covered:
The 5 big constraints: limited data, finite battery, hand-held usage, di
vided user attention, and small screens.
The implications of these constraints and what happens when you get them
wrong.
Advanced wireframing
LESSON 4: DESIGNING FOR ANDROID DELIGHT
At this point, you will already know how to make a solid mobile app that users l
ike. But like isn t enough! In order to be really successful, your app needs to be
loved. In this lesson, you ll learn how to leverage the power of Android by using
device sensors and Google APIs to understand your user s context.
Topics covered:
Android sensors
The importance of contextual apps
The components of context
Android APIs (Google Play Services)
Final Project
In your final project, you will create high/mid-level design specifications for
your own incredible Android app. You'll begin work on this project in the Assign
ments for Lesson 2, and continue working on it until the end of the course.
When it's finished, you will have the blueprint for an app that will:
Be designed for a specific target user.
Have an almost-perfect high level flow.
Avoid all major mobile pitfalls.
Use Android sensors and APIs to understand your user's context and deliv
er context-aware moments of amazement that they will love.