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Classes

Classes are designed to challenge your thinking and develop your professional skills. You’ll leave each class with a unique set of tools to approach new communications challenges.

Tailor your experience to your career goals by focusing on one of eight areas of specialization. Use the search widget below to sort classes by quarter, specialization, instructor and degree track for each quarter. Get a comprehensive view of the full academic year in our Course Guide.

View the University of Washington Academic Calendar for important dates, including quarter start and end dates, registration dates and deadlines, and campus holidays.

Registration numbers (SLNs) are located on the Time Schedule. Please read the Department’s statement on internet resource requirements for access to courses.

COMMLD 530A: Storytelling with Data

(

Mcghee

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Thursdays 1/4 – 3/7, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 302
Registration SLN: 12628

Course Description:

This course teaches students to assemble visual evidence in service of a narrative story. It reflects the new reality that information graphics, maps, and data visualizations are no longer a supplement to text stories created by dedicated service desks, but are free-standing items produced by cross-disciplinary journalists with skills in data reporting and visual presentation.

This course leads students through the process of reporting, analyzing, and presenting a data-driven infographic feature story. Students will explore the gamut of influential and impactful visual stories: an explainer on Covid-19 transmission (the Washington Post’s most popular story of all time); articles exploring California wildfires and street protests in Hong Kong; and stories exploring larger historical and cultural themes like the rise of Confederate statues and such cultural questions as: why are women’s pants pockets so small and K-pop bands so big?

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COMMLD 521: Digital Media Branding and Marketing

(

Mottola

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 1/3 – 3/6, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 12627

Course Description

This course is designed for students that will be utilizing their MCDM education and experience in the marketing arenas in businesses and organizations (including non-profits) or in leadership functions where an understanding of marketing is an important skill. The focus of the course will be on how to build a brand online or extend a legacy offline brand into a relevant online brand by examining how the most interesting and dynamic brands operate today. We will explore how they utilize digital media marketing channels to reach target customers and address issues that may arise as the brands mature or uncontrollable events arise.

While digital has offered us many more opportunities and “shiny objects” to reach and communicate with customers, the fundamental marketing skills and theories don’t change much or quickly. Learning to be strategic about how to apply these fundamentals will allow students to remain flexible and relevant with change in the future.

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COMMLD 520B: Qualitative Research for Social Media Marketing

(

S.Kim

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays 1/4 – 3/7, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 104
Registration SLN: 12626

Course Description

From selling the newest runway fashions to promoting donations to Greenpeace, successful online marketing campaigns and product launches often start with well planned qualitative research. This course offers a qualitative methodological perspective on how to conduct interviews and focus groups. This course explains the who, what, why and how of qualitative research with practical applications for those professionally interested in marketing, branding, and even user experience as well. Students will work throughout the quarter to design and implement their own qualitative research project.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 520A: Communications in the Age of AI

(

Schiller

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Sundays 1/7, 1/21, 2/4, 9:00am – 5:00pm | CMU 230
Registration SLN: 12625

Course Description

This class will teach frameworks for thinking about AI’s impact on communications work across enterprise organizations, and practical applications for integrating it into daily work. Students will learn how to use AI strategically – to increase agility and accelerate work – while protecting key objectives of clarity, authenticity, security, and employee engagement.

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COMMLD 515: Advanced User Design: UX Studio

(

Levine

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 1/3 – 3/6, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 104
Registration SLN: 12624

Course Description

In this class, students will work in small groups to design and prototype innovative user-centered solutions to real-world problems and develop an application. Students will develop their projects from a user experience (UX) design perspective and produce a strong piece for their portfolio.

The course emulates real-life aspects of UX design teams, including in-depth experience with user research, usability testing and iterating on the product with real-life users. By the end of the course, students will construct a map of a product’s full customer journey, develop personas with use cases, design a working prototype, and build a proposal with requirements for the concept.

Prerequisite: COMMLD 511, 512, or 517.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 512: User Research and UX Strategies

(

Porter

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays 1/4 – 3/7, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 12623

Course Description:

This course focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of user interfaces from a usability perspective. The aim of the class is to study the concepts, methods, and techniques of usability engineering, with a focus on the artifacts where user experience is essential. Historically, usability has covered aspects of efficiency, learnability, and ease of use. Today, a large number of other measures for success rely on elements such as playability, engagement, entertainment, immersion, and aesthetics.

The above concepts will be detailed with the expectation that by the end of the quarter, students will recognize the aspects of each of the following deliverables within Interface Design and User Research. At the completion of this course, students will have portfolio-ready, end-to-end work examples. The work examples are designed for students to demonstrate they can: understand basic principles of user interface design, implementation, and evaluation, design and conduct usability studies, select an appropriate evaluation method and articulate its advantages and disadvantages, establish useful test objectives, and prepare reports and presenting results.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 510C: User Interface and Visual Design

(

Gordon

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Mondays 1/8 – 3/4, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | DEN 113
Registration SLN: 22225

Course Description

In today’s digital age, user interface (UI) and visual design have become integral components of the modern user experience (UX). Whether it’s a website, mobile app, or software interface, UI design plays a pivotal role in shaping how people interact with digital products and services. The way it looks, feels, and functions profoundly impact user satisfaction and engagement.

This course will provide beginning students with a fundamental understanding of visual design principles (layout using typography, colors, images, and other graphic elements), and UI best practices (research, navigation systems, component libraries, accessibility, prototyping, testing, and much more).

By the end of this 10-week course, students will have the basic design skills and production knowledge to create user-centered digital interfaces.

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COMMLD 510B: Listening Skills for UX

(

Crofts

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Tuesdays 1/9 – 3/5, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | PCAR 297
Registration SLN: 12621

Course Description

While there are many skills that contribute to being a successful UX researcher, one of the most foundational is being a superb listener. Strong UX design relies on listening at many stages of the process: focus groups, client sessions, and 1:1 user interviews to name just three environments where these skills contribute to excellent deliverables.

Using UX researcher Ximena Vengoachea’s book Listen Like You Mean It as the core text, students in this class will learn techniques to actively engage with users, particularly in the 1:1 environment, by listening to their needs in order to glean meaningful data which then inform UX decisions. To do so, this class will spend the quarter hearing from UX practitioners about their listening habits, engaging in listening exercises, and in groups producing an original listening methodology proposal, all to refine essential listening skills required to conduct superior user research and to create user-centered deliverables.

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COMMLD 510A: Persuading Ethical UX Design

(

Evans

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 1/9 – 3/5, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 230
Registration SLN: 12620

Course Description:

When you are in an ethical debate at work about a product or UX design that clearly focuses on business goals at the expense of customers, the experience can feel very isolating. What can you do?

In this course, you will learn how ethical debates have many moves in common, not unlike a chess game. You will learn moves you can make to stop debates before they start, like responsible setting of KPIs and brainstorming unintended consequences. You will also learn common arguments from folks in business, legal, executive, and product roles and how to counter them. Finally, you will learn all-new moves involving research, brand equity, and the psychology of moral judgments that give Comm Leaders an edge. 

This course is about learning how to do well by doing good. Assignments include weekly 5-slide persuasive decks and a final group-project making a storyboard of a full ethical debate. Readings will alert you to societal issues around Dark Patterns in UX design, Privacy and employee surveillance, Socially-responsible marketing and Ethical uses of AI.

This class is a good match for students who:

• have some understanding of the fundamentals of human-centric and UX design

• want to work on a portfolio-level group project built on the foundations of moral, psychological and business principles

• are keen to engage in ethical debats with peers and the instructor

Meets Law & Ethics requirement.

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COMMLD 503A: Practicum—Building Community through Live Streaming

(

McLean

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Mondays 1/8 – 3/11, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 22268

Note: Students enrolled in this practicum must be available all day Tuesday, February 13, 2024 to help produce a live stream of the annual Comm Lead Connects event.

Bridging the gap between brands and their audiences, interactive live streaming offers a transformative approach to deepening community ties and enhancing brand narrative. In this course, we focus on shifting from one-way broadcasts to immersive community-building experiences. Through hands-on experience with producing a live stream for the annual Comm Lead Connects event, students will experience the nuances of crafting a project that aligns with brand mission, values, and goals.

Drawing insights from seminal works like “Media Events” by Dayan and Katz and “Watch Me Play” by T.L. Taylor, we’ll understand the evolving dynamics of digital broadcasts and their potential for storytelling. Guided by principles from Charles Vogl’s “The Art of Community” and Priya Parker’s “The Art of Gathering”, we will emphasize the importance of purposeful engagement in virtual spaces.

By the course’s end, students will have a deep understanding of how live stream production can forge genuine community bonds. Leaving with a detailed guidebook, they’ll be ready to lead their own projects with confidence.

About Communication and Leadership Practicum:
Communication and Leadership Practicum courses can be taken at any time in your Comm Lead Journey. They give you the opportunity to engage in contemporary professional practice by addressing the challenges of real-life organizations. Each section is matched with a client organization or group of client organizations, and focuses on a distinct professional skill or practice that is deemed essential across a variety of professional fields. 

Designed to mirror a professional setting, our Practicum offer you the opportunity to work at a higher level and with greater responsibility than what you might encounter in an internship or in entry-level work. In the span of a quarter, you will enhance highly-desirable professional skills, produce work that you can include in your own professional portfolios, and most importantly, leave with a story–your story – of what you did in this project to create value for your client.

Credit/No Credit Only

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COMMLD 570A: Building Brands with Communication and Community

(

Kim

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Tuesdays 10/3-12/5, 6:00PM – 8:20PM | DEN 210
Registration SLN: 13022

Course Description:

An important way brands communicate who they are and what they do, is through community – through collaborations, partnerships and impact programs. This course will explore how partnerships and collaborations with like-minded brands or orgs, along with the communication strategy around them, grows your audience while furthering your mission. This course looks at how the right partnerships and collaborations help tell your story while deepening your relationship to your audience, the partner brand and others. This will include looking at both business partnerships (ones that further brand awareness, customer growth and sales) as well as social impact partnerships (ones that further customer loyalty, through things like givebacks, impact programs and public service). Lastly this course will also look at using your mission to create community impact programs and how to build powerful campaigns around them to grow your audience and engagement and create opportunities for others to share your story.

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COMMLD 530C: Building a Visual Campaign

(

Faris

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Sundays, 10/15, 10/29, 11/12, 9:00AM-5:00PM | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 23651

Course Description:

Images have a profound impact on our lives and have shaped our communities. Visuals reach people at an emotional level motivating us to act on a cause, influencing our decisions, or convincing us to buy one product over another. How do you bring visual content designed for a variety of channels together into a cohesive and compelling campaign? Through interactive coursework, thoughtful discussion, and real-world examples, students will walk away with the tools and knowledge to create campaigns that deliver results. Students will work in groups during three workshop-style days to develop and present a multi-channel visual campaign.

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COMMLD 510: Leveraging Diverse Perspectives in Product Content Design

(

Joslyn

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Mondays 10/2-12/4, 6:00PM – 8:20PM | CMU 242
Registration SLN: 23615

Course Description:

This course will guide students through a variety of techniques and processes to building experiences that are inclusive, and designed to directly serve their intended audience. This includes a lightweight look at understanding and defining your audience, testing for a variety of accessibility challenges, designing for inclusion, and an overview of ways to get feedback from your audience.Students will then be able to leverage these techniques to evaluate experiences to identify opportunities to improve.

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COMMLD 541A: Crisis Communication

(

Visneski

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

Track Neutral Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/3-12/5, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | Online
Registration SLN: 13015

Course Description:

Nothing is more dramatic than a crisis. When an organization, company, industry, or individual in the public eye is in a crisis, communication is one of the crucial routes back to normalcy. Oftentimes, organizations find themselves unprepared when a crisis hits and only then think “Oh goodness, we should get a crisis communications plan in place!” Trying to “spin” a bad situation can both be unethical, and ineffective, damaging reputation, and subsequently business.

This course will teach you how to be rapidly responsive, responsible, and to avoid common pitfalls in crisis comms. We will examine how organizations attempt to anticipate and recover from crises, how the broadcast and print media cover different types of crises, how crisis communications fails, and how it succeeds.

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

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COMMLD 512: User Research and UX Strategies

(

Levine

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 10/2-12/4, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | DEN 213
Registration SLN: 13001

Course Description

This course focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of user interfaces from a usability perspective. The aim of the class is to study the concepts, methods, and techniques of usability engineering, with a focus on the artifacts where user experience is essential. Historically, usability has covered aspects of efficiency, learnability, and ease of use. Today, a large number of other measures for success rely on elements such as playability, engagement, entertainment, immersion, and aesthetics.

The above concepts will be detailed with the expectation that by the end of the quarter, students will recognize the aspects of each of the following deliverables within Interface Design and User Research. At the completion of this course, students will have portfolio-ready, end-to-end work examples. The work examples are designed for students to demonstrate they can: understand basic principles of user interface design, implementation, and evaluation, design and conduct usability studies, select an appropriate evaluation method and articulate its advantages and disadvantages, establish useful test objectives, and prepare reports and presenting results.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 582: Communicating Trust and Credibility for Emerging Technologies

(

Lohmann

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Sundays, 10/8 9am-5pm In-Person, 10/22, 11/5, 11/19 9am-1pm Online, 12/3 9am-5pm In-Person | CMU 302
Registration SLN: 23545

This course introduces students to the art of honestly advocating for emerging technologies that an organization has decided to adopt and deploy. It provides a foundation to ensure students understand how to effectively inform stakeholders that these new solutions are both useful, safe and align with values that prioritize the good of the community as a whole. Yet, there’s a fine line between storytelling and propaganda, especially when it comes to making the case around these powerful innovations. What are the ethics of effective advocacy?
How can propaganda be differentiated from honest storytelling? How do we most effectively champion appropriate technologies to our employees, customers, clients or constituents?

We will also examine questions about the platforms and technology themselves: What reference should we use to recognize that emerging technologies are serving as trustful conduits and not propagating misinformation or disinformation? What communications methods, platforms and amplifiers are being used to spread propaganda and fake news, and how does this impact democracy? By learning how to critically think about such questions, students will learn how to communicate clearly and ethically in favor of the use of nascent technology solutions that might impact an organization or community.

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© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington

© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington