User Experience and Game Design DigiPen Institute of Technology

Overview

Through the User Experience and Game Design course from DigiPen Institute of Technology user experience (UX) refers to a user’s interaction with processes, services, or products. With good UX design, the end result should be an experience that is so seamless, useful, and uncomplicated. Imagine downloading an application for the first time and instinctively knowing how to navigate and use it. That’s an example of good UX and user interface (UI) design. Good game design is similar, offering users and players an experience that is fun, intuitive, and engaging.

As a student coming into this programme, you will immerse yourself in the creation of both. In the process, you will learn to design and build immersive software such as augmented and virtual reality applications, responsive dashboard interfaces, and other engaging interactive systems and experiences. You will do so by conducting extensive research, evaluation, and user-based testing, creating wireframe documents to visualize your ideas, and finally rapid prototyping and iteration to bring these designs to life.

Career opportunities:

With such a wide range of design and technical skills in your portfolio, you will be able to pursue a career as a professional designer within the software and game industries, and beyond. Graduates from this programme have gone on to become software developers, technical designers, UX designers, and game designers in the following companies:

• gumi Asia
• NCS
• Procter & Gamble
• Shopee
• Singtel
• ST Engineering

• Ubisoft Singapore

As a graduate of the BA in User Experience and Game Design programme, you will be well versed in both interactive design and game design theory, including user interface design, user experience design, usability, spatial design, system design, and behavior design. You will have the skills and collaborative experience to pursue any number of professional design roles across software, games, and other digital companies. This vast skillset also allows you to act as the bridge between designers and people from other disciplines such as programming, art, and content creation.

• VR/AR Developer

A VR/AR developer will work on the design of products which use mediums such as virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality in the fields of training, simulations, architecture visualization, games, and education. The VR/AR developer will both design and use knowledge of programming languages to build rapid prototypes which go from high-concept implementation to fully functional products across several industries. They will also need to work on user experience design when it comes to camera, controls, and user orientation.

• UX Designer

The work of the user experience (UX) designer can be seen across many industries, from games to business to museums and more. A UX designer seeks to make a product or experience more satisfactory and accessible for the end user, whether the end result is an intuitive mobile phone app or a more streamlined in-store checkout system. To get there, the designer will rely on a large set of tools and responsibilities, including user research, paper prototyping, wireframing, and usability testing.

• Game Designer

Game design is a broad term that can encompass many unique job types. In general, a game designer works to create and refine the interrelated systems that make up a game-playing experience, from the mechanics of combat in a fighting game to the complex menu navigation in an online RPG. They often work closely with engineers and people from other disciplines to implement and fine-tune their design concepts.