Faculty Syllabus

UXUI-1375 Design Ideation

Linda Smarzik


Credit Fall 2026

Section(s)

UXUI-1375-003 (41963)
LAB DIL ONL DIL

LEC Tu 12:00pm - 2:40pm DIL DLS DIL

UXUI-1375-004 (41964)
LAB HLC ONL DIL

LEC M 3:00pm - 5:40pm HLC HLC2 2333

Course Requirements

Catalog Description:

Fundamental techniques in conceptualizing. Includes all procedures from initial research to creating strategies to finalizing a project.

Credit Hours: 3 

Online Classroom Contact Hours per week: 4 hours and 10 minutes

All courses offered in the Visual Communication department are workforce courses, and may have some transfer restrictions to other colleges. Students interested in transferring courses to another college should speak with our departmental advisor Jen Jones, or their Area of Study advisor.

Course Prerequisites:

No previous course is needed to take this class.

Technology

Minimum Technology Requirements

  • Access to Internet - high-speed connection
  • A reliable computer
  • A webcam and a working microphone on or attached to your computer.

Minimum Technology Skills 

As part of your online experience, you can expect to utilize a variety of technology mediums as part of your curriculum:

  • Google Slides (or PowerPoint) to create presenations   
  • Google Docs 
  • Gmail
  • Miro 
  • Blackboard
  • Zoom 

Optional

Readings

Recommended Readings [these are not required to purchase]

  • Sketching User Experiences
  • Sketching User Experiences - The Workbook
  • Drawing Ideas
  • Change by Design
  • The Art of Innovation
  • The Design of Everyday Things
  • Rapid Viz: A New Method for the Rapid Visualization of Ideas, 3rd Edition
  • Solving Problems with Design Thinking
  • Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon
  • The Steal Like an Artist Journal: A Notebook for Creative Kleptomaniacs, by Austin Kleon
  • Lean vs. Agile vs. Design Thinking , By Jeff Gothelf
  • The Bootcamp Bootleg, an active toolkit to support your design thinking practice - Free resource from the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford's d.school.
  • An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE - Free resource from the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford's d.school.
  • Mix Tape Series - 1. Understand, 2. Ideate, and 3. Experiment - Free resources from the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford's d.school.

Course Subjects

Wk

Competency 

Homework

1

Competency 1: Introduce

  • Beginner's Mind
  • Problem solving, critical thinking and their role in DT
  • Overcome the Fear of Failure

 

Project 1: 

Read case studies and outcomes

 

Due week 2

Reading Assignment 

Due week 2 

Retrospective 

Due week 2

2

Competency 2: Develop techniques to empathize with users &; define problems

·       Solution-oriented research methods
Discovery, problem statements and user stories

·       Identify and question assumptions and develop empathy
Organize and communicating themes
Define a brief with timelines and deliverables

·       How success will be measured

Project 2: 

 UXUI 1375 DESIGN IDEATION: Empathize & Define

 Due week 3

Reading Assignment 

Due week 4 

Retrospective 

Due week 4

3

  

Homework to be determined 

4

Competency 3: Learn how to ideate and explore divergent ideas

  • Framing problems
  • Synthesize and visualize findings
  • Everything's a remix
  • No bad ideas / throw everything at the wall

Project 3: 

 UXUI 1375 DESIGN IDEATION: Ideate (Converge) Due week 5

5

  

Present:

Project 3

Reading Assignment 

Due week 6 

Retrospective 

Due week 6

6

Competency 4: Master the skill of discriminating between different ideas to converge on a solution

·       Organizing and communicating ideas and themes

·       Prototyping

·       Testing via critique, heuristic evaluation, small test and user testing

·       When to go back to divergent ideation

·       Refine and define

Project 4: 

 UXUI 1375 DESIGN IDEATION: Project, Ideate + Converge

 Due week 9

7

  

Homework to be determined 

8

  

Homework to be determined 
   

9

  

Present:

Project 4

Reading Assignment 

Due week 10 

Retrospective 

Due week 10

10

Competency 5: Gain the ability to communicate solutions

 Storytelling including explain what's good about it and why (not just because you like it)

Understand the audience and gear the communication to them

Project 5:

UXUI 2374 CAREER LAB: Interview Prep for Design Interviews

 Due week 12

11

  

Homework to be determined 

12

  

Present:

Project 5

Reading Assignment 

Due week 14 

Retrospective 

Due week 14 

13

Competency 6: Apply ideation methods to workshops

Due final week of class. 

14

College closes at noon for Thanksgiving 

No class 

15

Competency 6: Apply ideation methods to workshops

To be Determined

16

Competency 6: Apply ideation methods to workshops

Final Presentations

A grading rubric is available on Blackboard for each project.


 

Student Learning Outcomes/Learning Objectives

What you’ll learn to do by the end of this course: 

  • Demonstrate the use of sketching for ideation, visual thinking, creative problem solving, storytelling, and idea generation.
  • Sketch wireframes, storyboards, interactions and animations. 
  • Explore the application of ideation/sketching in Design Thinking and User-Centered Design. 

What you’ll learn to do by the end of the discipline: 

  • Prototypes: Students will effectively produce prototypes for software applications using industry standing methods, tools, and techniques. 
  • User Centered Design: Apply a user centered design process in the creation of software applications. 
  • Responsive Layouts: Design and develop responsive layouts for multi-device, and multi-channel applications. 
  • Team Collaboration: Prove proficiency in team collaboration. 

UX Portfolio: Develop proficiency in the presentation, design, and delivery of a UX portfolio to demonstrate professionalism

Office Hours

Office Hours

Published: 05/13/2026 12:59:53