TECH 5220 - [Visual and Interaction Design for Digital Products]

Spring. Not offered: 2023-2024. Next offered: 2024-2025. 1 credit. Letter grades only (no audit).

Prerequisite: TECH 5900. Enrollment limited to: Cornell Tech students. Offered in New York City at Cornell Tech.

Staff.

Visual and Interaction Design for Digital Products introduces students to the concepts, methods, techniques, and theory of visual design in the context of creating digital products. Students will analyze examples, past and present, of form in relationship to content on web and mobile. From there, they will learn and practice basic principles for typography, color, and composition through prototyping, visual iteration, and critique. Brand elements, UX principles, accessibility, user research, and design systems will be discussed.

You will not be a full-fledged, “full-stack” digital product designer at the conclusion of this seven-session course. You will, however, understand better how and why we should care about how people experience our products, and how seemingly arbitrary design decisions are in fact not arbitrary, and have consequences. We will be both working at the micro-scale (typography, color, form) and at the macro- scale (design patterns, accessibility, ethics) towards this understanding. You will understand better what makes a good designer, so that you’re not just relying on job titles to figure out who knows what. We will also work towards habits of seeing and critique that will make you a better collaborator with other disciplines.