Quarter: Winter 2024 - Page 2 - Communication Leadership

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 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 504: Communication Leadership Capstone

(

MacLaren

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Mondays 1/8 – 3/4, 5:30pm – 7:20pm | Online
Application Required

Course Description:

In the COMMLD504 Capstone class for MCCL students, you will refine and finalize your near complete capstone project, develop professional presentation skills, and hone your professional narrative prior to graduation. This course will help you learn how to target your audience, effectively support your ideas, and select and organize materials to prepare for a presentation or portfolio using multimedia tools. Students will think, reflect, respond, and provide/receive feedback throughout the course. Your interactions will be a learning experience as you engage with each other’s work, diverse perspectives, and presentation styles.

Note: Registration for this class is add-code only after submission of an application.

More about the 504 Capstone

The Communication and Leadership Capstone project is the culmination of your MCCL journey in the Communication Leadership Program. Before graduation, students work to complete a project that responds to professional communities’ needs, using communication and leadership tools.

Capstones are a chance to demonstrate your learning and build your portfolio through an in-depth, independent project done under the guidance of faculty and staff advisors. It’s also a chance to impact the world and help address the needs of real-life organizations.

Completing your capstone and the accompanying credits is a multi-quarter process, usually done during the student’s second year in the program. Projects can be research-based, work done in a class, for a client organization, or even for your current job.

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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 512: User Research and UX Strategies

COMMLD 510C: User Interface and Visual Design

COMMLD 510B: Listening Skills for UX

COMMLD 510A: Persuading Ethical UX Design

COMMLD 504: Communication Leadership Capstone

COMMLD 503A: Practicum—Building Community through Live Streaming

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