The AVC 283 competencies center on logo design, business correspondence, brochure layout, chart and graph design, multi-presentation graphics, and poster art. While these are foundational graphic production skills, they reflect a print-oriented workflow that no longer represents the primary career trajectory for our graduates. The AAS in Digital Media Arts is designed to be broad, preparing students across graphic design, animation, web design, and video production, and within that breadth, the restricted electives should prioritize the skills most likely to lead to employment and professional growth. Our industry advisory board has consistently identified UX design as the skill area where student preparation matters most, and that feedback is reinforced by the career paths of our own graduates and adjunct faculty, many of whom have pursued additional UX design study after completing the program.
AVC 2xx addresses this gap directly. Where AVC 283 focuses on producing camera-ready advertising art and refining print-based deliverables, UX Design for Interactive Media teaches students to research user needs, prototype interactive interfaces for mobile and web, build and apply component libraries, evaluate designs through usability testing, and present their process professionally. These competencies align with the roles employers are actually hiring for: UX/UI designer, product designer, interaction designer, and digital designer. The course also introduces emerging topics like spatial computing and AI-assisted design workflows, giving students awareness of where the field is heading while keeping the focus on foundational UX skills they can use immediately.
For a two-year degree, every elective slot matters. Replacing or offering an alternative to a second graphic design production course with a UX design course gives students a broader, more current skill set without sacrificing the visual design foundations already established in AVC 181/183. Students who complete AVC 2xx will graduate with portfolio-ready UX case studies alongside their existing graphic design, animation, and media work, making them more competitive in a job market that increasingly values human-centered design thinking over traditional production skills alone.
Course Projects
Course Competencies
MCCCD Official Course Competencies must be coordinated with the content outline so that each major point in the outline serves one or more competencies. MCCCD faculty retains authority in determining the pedagogical approach, methodology, content sequencing, and assessment metrics for student work. Please see individual course syllabi for additional information, including specific course requirements.
MCCCD Official Course Outline
- A. UX design vs. graphic design, scope, intent, and process
- B. History and evolution of human-computer interaction
- C. Core UX principles, usability, accessibility, affordance, feedback
- D. Mental models and user expectations
- E. Overview of the UX design process
- A. Design thinking framework, empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test
- B. User research methods
- Interviews and contextual inquiry
- Surveys and questionnaires
- Observation and task analysis
- C. Synthesizing research, affinity mapping, personas, user journey maps
- D. Defining the problem, problem statements and HMW questions
- E. Usability principles, heuristic evaluation and peer critique
- F. Iterating on design based on research findings
- A. Sketching and low-fidelity wireframes
- Information architecture and content hierarchy
- Navigation patterns and user flows
- Layout grids and spatial relationships
- B. High-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes using industry-standard tools
- C. Mobile application interface design
- iOS and Android conventions
- Touch targets, gestures, and thumb zones
- Mobile-specific patterns, bottom navigation, modals, cards
- D. Responsive web interface design
- Breakpoints and adaptive layouts
- Fluid grids and flexible components
- Desktop, tablet, and mobile considerations
- E. Integrating AI tools into the design workflow
- AI-assisted ideation and concept generation
- Image and asset creation with generative tools
- Rapid iteration and design exploration
- Prompt design for visual output
- A. Design systems, purpose, structure, and use
- B. Building a reusable component library
- Atoms, molecules, organisms, atomic design
- Typography, color, and spacing tokens
- States, default, hover, active, disabled, error
- Applying components across screens for visual consistency
- C. AI tools for iteration and refinement
- Using AI feedback to identify design inconsistencies
- AI-assisted copy and microcopy generation
- D. Usability evaluation methods
- Heuristic evaluation, Nielsen’s 10 heuristics
- Cognitive walkthrough
- Peer critique, structured feedback methods
- Documenting and responding to feedback
- A. Introduction to spatial computing, AR, VR, and mixed reality contexts
- B. Differences between screen-based and spatially-anchored interfaces
- C. Spatial UX principles, depth, scale, anchoring, and field of view
- D. Extending a screen-based design into an AR experience
- Identifying elements suitable for spatial placement
- Anchoring UI components to physical surfaces
- Interaction design for gaze, gesture, and voice
- E. Prototyping and previewing spatial interfaces with current tools
- F. Ethical considerations, privacy, attention, and environmental impact
- A. Case study structure, problem, process, solution, outcome
- B. Visual presentation of design process and decisions
- C. Verbal presentation, framing design choices for a professional audience
- D. Portfolio integration, presenting UX work alongside existing DMA work
- E. Responding to questions and critique professionally
- F. Documenting and delivering final work in appropriate digital formats