User Interface Design and User Experience Design

04 Nov 2025 - Programming

Recently in October, I completed both the User Interface Design and User Experience Design courses through Western Governors University’s online program.

Although I have experience designing and developing websites, these courses taught me professional tools and processes used before development begins, such as a Project Timeline, User Persona Document, and a Low-Fidelity Wireframe.

The Project Timeline outlines the phases of a project from inception to completion and sets SMART goals with specific time requirements to ensure the final deliverable is released on schedule. To better understand the ideal target audience, a User Persona is created to represent a fictional user who would visit the website. While this may seem trivial at first, it is an important exercise to ensure the intended user can successfully accomplish their goals when navigating the site. The Low-Fidelity Wireframe maps out the navigational layout and desired user flow before investing time into prototype or full design development.

The User Experience Design course also introduced me to post-development testing through Guerrilla Usability Testing. This testing involves observing real users completing tasks within the prototype to identify usability issues and areas for improvement.

I plan to use both these pre-development and post-development tools in my professional web development career to ensure I am meeting client needs and creating websites that not only look great, but are intuitive and user-friendly.

Steps to Final Deliverable:

• Project Timeline
• User Persona Document
• Low-Fidelity Wireframe
• Prototype Development
• Guerrilla Usability Testing with usability tasks
• Final Product Development