User Experience Design MSc (PGCert PGDip)

Course structure

The course can be studied full-time or part-time.

For full-time students the academic year is divided into three 15-week semesters.

The taught element of the course is delivered during the first two semesters. Modules involve approximately 20% classroom teaching and 80% individual or group work. The third semester focuses on your major project.

Part-time students study alongside full-time students with a minimum attendance of one half day per week, depending on the number of modules taken.

Syllabus 

As an MSc student you will study five core modules and choose two option modules allowing you to specialise in areas of the course that interest you most. Full-time students also have the option of a placement year.

Core modules

• Major Project
  Your major project provides an opportunity to demonstrate your capacity to work at Master’s level as an independent researcher and/or developer in your chosen area of expertise. You will produce an independent piece of research written as a dissertation, or design and produce an interactive product. 
• Research Methods
  You will develop the professional perspectives and skills needed to plan, carry out and evaluate research in your field of informatics-related studies. You also build your understanding of the social, legal and ethical issues in this context. 
• Interaction Design and Evaluation Process
  This module provides professional software developers with a solid foundation for developing user interaction aspects of projects, and the capability to reliably evaluate the usability of your own and others work. 
• Interface and Information Design
  You will build on your understanding of the user centred interaction design process, developing your interface design skills and enabling you to produce work to a commercial design quality. 
• Design Thinking
  This module helps you develop your creative problem solving and design thinking through practice. You will be guided through the entire design process using research methods to understand stakeholder groups, identify need and create an innovative, user-centric and ethical solution. Whether a process, service, produce or an app. 

Option modules

• Independent Portfolio Project
  This module provides you with a structure to develop your own innovative products to the prototype stage, which can be added to your professional portfolio of work.
• Independent Research Project
  You will explore theories, concepts, methods and technologies in your specialist field.
• Web Development
  Introducing you to standards-based web technologies, you will learn how to apply best practice in front-end web design and development. 
• The Business and the Information System
  You will learn how to critically evaluate the role of information systems within the wider enterprise, asses the issues and problems a business analyst will face in this environment and propose what they might do to address those issues. 

It is possible to undertake a postgraduate certificate or postgraduate diploma instead of the full MSc.

PGCert

Students take three modules:

• Interaction Design and Evaluation Process
• Interface Information Design Process
• Design Thinking

PGDip

Students take six modules:

• Interaction Design and Evaluation Process
• Research Methods
• Web Development 
• Interface Information Design Process
• Design Thinking

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Placement year

To further increase your employability and international experience we offer full-time students starting in September the opportunity to take a placement year. This means that your course will take two years, but you’ll be graduating with work experience.

The year on placement in a role related to your course will allow you to put all that you have learned on your masters into practice, enhancing your career opportunities and giving you practical experience in your area of expertise.

The placement is assessed formatively throughout the year, giving you the chance to reflect on your experience and helping to build your CV.

Work placements are optional, and you'll arrange your placement with support from our dedicated Placements and Employability team.

We offer a two-year international study visa route to support applications for this course.

Staff profile 

Dr Andrew Blake, Senior Lecturer

I am course leader for the User Experience Design MSc, and my research interests encompass the theories and principles that underpin the discipline of user experience design, UXD. 

The UXD course at Brighton equips students with the practical skills needed to work as effective UXD practitioners in the interactive/digital industries. We encourage students to critically reflect on and question the effectiveness of contemporary thinking that underpins UXD best practice. 

My research interests focus on the efficacy of diagrams, and my PhD explores the impact of graphical choices on diagram comprehension. I am currently collaborating with colleagues from Cambridge University on a project entitled ‘Accessible Reasoning with Diagrams’; the project is funded by The Leverhulme Trust. And I am also collaborating with colleagues from Jadavpur University charting the cognitive processes active when interpreting diagrams.

I’m delighted to welcome students from the UK and all around the world onto the course – the diversity of the student body really supports engaging discussion and different perspectives that help make this course all the more exciting and prepares students for global careers in UX Design.

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included, while studying a course in the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics are listed here.

• You will have access to computers and necessary software, however many students choose to buy their own hardware, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
• In most cases coursework submissions are electronic but students may wish to print notes which would involve an extra cost.
• Costs of up to £50 are included in the fees for students on engineering courses to pay for materials for their final year projects. On rare occasions where material costs exceed £50, they will need to be paid for by the student.

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2021–22.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps