Master in Digital Product Design
Online
DURATION
24 Months
LANGUAGES
Italian
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
03 Feb 2025*
EARLIEST START DATE
03 Mar 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 16,000
STUDY FORMAT
Distance Learning
* for EU and non-EU citizens
Introduction
From app interfaces for the use of services to those for accessing the functions of phygital devices, the digital product is integrated into everyone's life and, therefore, into the offering of many companies. Its design, development, testing and evaluation phases require the contribution of professionals with solid theoretical knowledge and ethical-legal awareness, with design skills and a predisposition to updating. The Master in Digital Product Design – A multidisciplinary path between UX, UI and Product Management was created precisely to transfer these skills.
The training course aims to train figures capable of developing successful digital products starting from the needs of users, operating in an Agile/Lean perspective and working within a multidisciplinary environment. Thanks to a teaching model based on project-based learning, participants will acquire the methodologies and tools of user experience, user interface and product management.
The 24-month training offer allows you to alternate work and study, it is ideal for:
Professionals with upskilling and reskilling needs; organizations that want to include new graduates through a High Apprenticeship path, facilitating their insertion into company processes. The educational activities are the following.
- Online and in-person lectures (mandatory for 80% of the hours) that address the theoretical design aspects related to the development of digital products
- Workshops with practical exercises that start from real briefs and address central themes such as user research, interaction design, product storytelling
- A 450-hour project work during which to conceive a new medium-long-term scenario through a digital prototype
Program Outcome
Educational Objectives
The Master in Digital Product Design aims to train new graduates and update the skills of professionals in the design and management of digital products. The objectives of the program are the following.
- Familiarize yourself with the concepts, vocabulary, methods and tools for designing digital products.
- Acquire the methodologies and tools of user experience, user interface and product management.
- Learn how to plan, coordinate and validate a design process and outcome
- Develop the skills specific to Design Ops roles (UX and UI Designer, User Researcher and UX Engineer) and Design Lead (Product Manager, Business Owner and Innovation Manager)
Career Opportunities
- UX Designer
- UI Designer
- User Researcher
- UX Engineer
- Product Manager
- Business Owner
- Scrum certified Innovation Managers
Curriculum
Teaching Modules
The Master in Digital Product Design lasts 24 months and includes 400 hours of teaching activities (2/3 days per month, approximately 50 days in total) including workshops, online lessons and in-person lessons at POLI.design and Cefriel. In addition, a 450-hour Project Work is planned.
Module 1 - Grounding
Overview of the economic-cultural context underlying a successful digital product. Focus on the fundamentals of design, on UX, UI, and AI for product design; on Agile and Operational Design methodologies; on the concepts of Inclusive and Justice Design; and the basics of Figma. Keywords: evaluation heuristics, basic knowledge of AI, Scrum Management tool, Figma project.
Module 2 - Business Design
Deepening the basics for a digital product feasibility assessment and those for making decisions guided by a solid value proposition. Introduction to strategic and service design, design thinking, business implications and opportunities, and problem framing. Keywords: design thinking tool, value proposition canvas, business model canvas, system map, how might we.
Module 3 - User Research
Methods and tools to understand user needs, identify valuable insights and generate a design-driven product strategy. Focus on the basics of cognitive psychology, qualitative/quantitative research methods, desk research, user observation (direct and indirect), user needs mapping techniques. Keywords: interview plan, personas, customer journey map, blueprint, online statement.
Module 4 - Prototyping to Coding
Technical literacy to understand the tools and learn good practices on programming and its mindset. Full immersion in Figma and introduction to Protopie, HTML and CSS. Focus on native prototyping with React and/or Flutter and project hand-off. Keywords: interactive prototype, native prototype.
Module 5 - Interaction Design
Designing user/product interactions to ensure a usable and memorable experience in content retrieval and navigation flows. Focus on interaction design principles, qualitative benchmarking, Agile techniques, information architecture, paper and digital prototyping. Keywords: user story and use case, sitemap and user flow, interactive prototype.
Module 6 - UI Design
UI design best practices and visual culture input to create accessible, creative and engaging interface solutions. Focus on branding principles, toolkits and design systems, accessibility principles, data visualization bases, UX writing and portfolio creation. Keywords: mood board, style and tile, interface mock-up, interactive prototype.
Module 7 - AI & VUI Design
Cultural, technical and ethical insight into the future of interaction design from the designer and end-user perspective. Introduction to conversational design and prompt design, focus on design for chatbots and voice interfaces, on phygital conversational interfaces (also about IP, privacy and legal design), and the psychology of conversations. Keyword: conversational interface, a manifesto for ethical AI.
Module 8 - Evaluation
Techniques to measure the ROI of a UX project and improve the product starting from the insights collected, on its actual use by users. Focus on CRO and neuromarketing, cognitive walk-through, A/B and usability testing, interpretation of analytics, and eye-tracking. Keywords: usability report, updated interactive prototype.
Workshop 1 - User Research
Interviewee recruitment activities, definition of the interview protocol, interview sessions, interview transcriptions, problem framing, concept generation and final presentation. Keywords: personas, user journey map as-is, user journey map to-be, new MVP concept.
Workshop 2 - Interaction Design
Activities for defining user stories and use cases, content hierarchy and naming, defining the main user flows, low-fidelity screen design, and final presentation. Keyword: sitemap, partially navigable MVP wireframe prototype.
Workshop 3 - Product Storytelling
Activities to define the tone of voice and the mood board, prototype dressing, UI library construction, synthesis of the evidence emerging from the prototype tests, prototype refinement and final presentation. Keyword: partially navigable MVP UI prototype.
Project work - Cross-curricular project
Design in work groups (supervised by three tutors) and final presentation of a digital product in agreement with partner companies. Focus on business design, service design, user research, interaction design, UI design and evaluation. Keyword: envisioning a new medium-long-term scenario through a digital prototype.