Did you know, DNS members with less than 50 employees could access this training program for free? Have more than 50 employees? No worries, you could attend for 50% off!

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Course overview

Course Details

This course will cover key concepts of human-centered design including empathizing with customers through observation and interviews, defining through developing “points-of-view” based on user needs and insights, and ideation through brainstorming creative solutions for design challenges. Participants will also focus in on designing inclusive and accessible digital products and defining a minimum viable product. Most importantly, through a hand-on experiential approach, participants will learn by doing and apply this framework to practical examples in their own organizations.

Human-centered design empowers us to tap into the human experience in every step of the design process so that we are considering the end users- our customers! Over this 4-day UX course with 16 hours of in class time, and 4 hours of 1-1 consultation, participants will learn how to tap into human-centered design principals to design and develop digital products people love to use. 

September 15: Building a foundation for designing digital products people love

This session explores key concepts of human-centered design (HCD), designing for inclusion and accessibility, and defining a minimum viable product through a mix of theory and hands-on learning.

Outcomes include: 

• Foundation level understanding of key human-centered design (HCD) concepts of
• Considerations for designing inclusive and accessible digital products
• Defining a minimum viable product (MVP)

September 17: Human-Centered Design Deep Dive (Part 1)

This session focuses on diving deeper into the key concepts of human-centered design (HCD) by framing our design challenge and starting their hands-on project through a mix of theory and hands-on learning.

Outcomes include: 

• Frame our digital product design challenge
• Human-Centered Design (HCD) key concepts in practice
• Empathize – Participants will learn about the audience they are designing for by observation and interviews.
• Define – Participants will create a point-of-view based on user needs and insights.
• Ideate – Participants will brainstorm and come up with as many creative solutions to their design challenge as possible.

September 22: Human-Centered Design Deep Dive (Part 2)

This session focuses on a continued deep dive into the key concepts of human-centered design (HCD) and where participants will prototype and test their product through a mix of theory and hands-on learning.

Outcomes include:

• Digital product design challenge continued
• Human-Centered Design (HCD) key concepts in practice
• Prototype – Participants will start building a representation of one of their ideas to show others.
• Test – Participants will begin testing by writing their usability testing script.

September 24: Human Centered Design Deep Dive (Part 3)

This session concludes our deep dive into the key concepts of human-centered design (HCD) with participants continuing to test and then iterate on their product through a mix of theory and hands-on learning.

• Digital product design challenge completed
• Human-centered Design (HCD) key concepts in practice:
• Prototype – Participants will rework their prototype based on feedback received from their initial round of usability testing
• Test – Participants will begin testing by writing their usability testing script.

Rationale for Training

Companies and organizations make major product design decisions far too often without considering the people using their products. This can result in slow onboarding of new customers, loss of existing customers, and avoid project failure and costly redesign The human-centered design principals focus on building products with human needs and experience at the centre of product design, and can be applied to any type of product development to provide a better experience for end users and ultimately drive business. 

Leveraging a human-centered design (HCD) process can help your business and product stand out a sea of competitors and help reduce friction and barriers to customers using your product. Through designing digital products people can use intuitively and with ease, organizations can help to increase sales and market share by standing out from their competitors through increased usability and brand loyalty. Using human focused design practices improve customer satisfaction, increase customer retention, decrease customer service and support costs, avoid project costly redesign. 

Eligibility

This program has been fully funded through Workplace Innovation and Productivity Skills Incentive (WIPSI), and will be provided FREE for DNS members with less than 50 employees. If your company has more than 50 employees, 50% of program costs will be funded. You must meet all eligibility requirements to take part in this opportunity.

• Be operating within the tech sector as a tech business
• Be Located in Nova Scotia and be registered with the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stocks or incorporated by an act of the Nova Scotia legislature
• Be in business for at least one year
• Have at least 25,000 dollars in wages or owner remuneration (this is not revenue; this is wages paid out either to employees or to the owner)
• Be a DNS member prior to the program start date

Apply for this Program

Please submit your completed form to victoria@digitalnovascotia.com with your preferred course in the subject line.

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About Jamie Gerrard
Director of Strategy & Design @ 20/20 Experience Design

Jamie is an Experience Design consultant with over 15 years of experience providing product design leadership in user experience strategy, design, execution, and training. He has held a variety of senior leadership roles including Design Principal, Director of Product and Marketing, and Director of User Experience. His industry experience has included private and public sector organizations with a focus on internationally recognized travel & tourism brands, insurance, sports, startups, and provincial governments.