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Whether your future career goals include becoming a digital filmmaker, photographer, graphic designer, Web designer, or 3D animator, the Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) at Boston University offers the online courses to get you started. Thanks to the university’s hands-on approach to education, CDIA graduates are equipped with the real world experience needed to secure high powered, well paying jobs within the technology, media, and entertainment industries.

While CDIA offers courses in a number of areas, the school has become especially well known for its top notch programs studying the effects of user experience, ergonomics, and human factors when designing Web applications and other media technologies.

User Experience

At the Center for Digital Imaging Arts, a number of members of the faculty have real world expertise working as user experience designers for major companies around the country. This experience gives them a unique and helpful look into the true essence of what user experience really means. In the Graphic and Web Design department specifically, this concept is especially important for students to understand.

For those interested in obtaining a Web Development Certificate from CDIA, courses such as, “Building a Content Management System Community” and “Introduction to AJAX,” include instruction on developing Web communities with user experience and user interaction in mind. Meanwhile, students working to earn a Graphic and Web Design Certificate are required to complete “Production Practicum,” a hands-on experience that allows them to produce a media project with concepts such as user experience in mind.

Ergonomics

In the workplace, proper ergonomics is an important factor for employee productivity. CDIA understands this, which is why the area of study is emphasized in the curriculum across a full spectrum of courses.

Building the proper environment, including proper ergonomics and lighting displays, is an important part of the design of every photographer’s workplace studio, which is why it is an area of study taken very seriously for those students involved in the Professional Photography Certificate program at CDIA.

In the “Product and Still Life Studio Lighting” module, students are taught the basics of ergonomics and studio design, with an extra emphasis on commercial practices and methodologies. Additionally, the topic is explored in courses such as “Working with Models I,” “Working with Models II,” “Portable Lighting with Speedlights,” and “Studio Portrait Photography.”

Human Factors

When it comes to designing products with user experience in mind, keeping the human factor in consideration is important for all media and technology executives. At CDIA, this is a concept that is emphasized in a variety of required courses.

This area of study is so important for those in the Graphic and Web Design department, that CDIA has hired instructors with experience in Human Computer Interaction along with Information Systems and Graphic Design.

Within the two-term Graphic and Web Design Certificate program, special presentations, such as “Understanding Information Architecture,” are designed to provide additional insight into the human factors that should make-up the design of a successful Web site or media project.

CDIA’s Web Development Certificate program, meanwhile, offers extensive courses in “Building a Content Management System Community,” “Web Services and Ecommerce,” and “Introduction to AJAX,” which require a “heavy” understanding of human factors and interactions on the part of the students.

Overall, user experience, ergonomics, and human factors are three of the many areas of study that are emphasized at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University, where access to emerging technologies and an emphasis in real world experience put students ahead of the game by the time graduation rolls around.

Author Bio: Stephanie Miles is a freelance writer for the education site Guide to Online Schools.

Full Sail University is an award-winning online degree program that has become renowned for its extensive courses in media, Web, and game design. The program has led students to a number of career opportunities in the entertainment and media fields.

Students who graduate from Full Sail University have the opportunity to earn associates’, bachelors’, and masters’ degrees in a number of technology-driven areas, including media design, entertainment business, Internet marketing, game development, and many other fields.

While Full Sail University is a top rated school in a number of academic areas, it has become especially well-known in recent years for its emphasis in the areas of usability, user experience, and interactive design.

Usability

When it comes to the study of usability, Full Sail understands how important the topic is for students who may be interested in pursuing careers in media or Web design. Because of this, the university has begun offering a number of courses with curriculum that is designed to teach students how to properly integrate usability patterns into the overall design of the Web sites they build.

Web design courses such as “Human Computer Interaction and Usability,” which is a required course for those studying Web Design and Development, along with “Web Design for Search Engine Optimization,” teach students seeking a bachelor’s degree the concepts and strategies necessary to create successful Web interfaces for consumer-driven audiences.

Throughout these courses, students are asked to examine usability patterns to create intuitive system designs and interfaces. For masters’ level students, additional usability-focused courses, including “Introduction to Web Interface and Usability,” are offered as well.

User Experience

Whether students are seeking bachelors’ degrees in game design, computer animation, Internet marketing, or Web design and development, user experience is a theme that arises in many of the classes taught at Full Sail University. Professors encourage students to use rich media and unique animation approaches to enhance the user experience on a number of student projects that are required over the course of the online program.

Meanwhile, students taking part in classes, such as “Web Design and Development,” are taught that increasing front-end usability can work to make the overall user experience more intuitive and favorable on the Web sites they help to design. The concept is cemented in popular courses like “Rich Media Optimization,” “Scripting for Web Applications,” and “Design Integration.”

Interactive Design

Professors at Full Sail understand the importance of building a Web site that is both interactive and user-friendly, which is why they have integrated the study of interactive design into a number of undergraduate-level courses.

The concept of computer-human interaction is one that is studied intensely throughout “Psychology of Human Interaction,” a required course for Web Design and Development majors. It is also studied by those who choose to take the “Emergent Technologies in a Collaborative Culture” course.

Whether students are interested in careers as interface designers, usability experts, or any other media-related field, understanding the basics of interactive design is a key component to landing a position in the field, which is why the topics are studied so thoroughly by students at Full Sail University.

Author Bio: Stephanie Miles is a freelance writer for Guide to Online Schools.

Established in 1924, the University of San Francisco has a long reputation as a leader in business education and thanks to the implementation of its flexible online learning program, even those unable to make it to the University’s sprawling campus are able to earn a degree using the latest technologies and online learning systems.

Through the University of San Francisco’s online program, students are able to earn advanced certificates or master’s degrees in areas such as Internet marketing, supply chain management, and sales management. Each of these programs is specifically designed for professionals looking to improve their performance on the job or increase their marketability in today’s competitive job market.

It is through these courses that students enrolled in the University of San Francisco’s online program are able to study areas such as usability, user experience, and interaction design in a variety of upper-level classes.

Usability

Usability is emphasized in a number of USF courses. Specifically, for students working to obtain a master’s degree in Internet marketing, usability is covered extensively in the popular course, “Search Engine Marketing and Usability.” The course is designed for those looking to fine-tune their current online strategy, along with those preparing to obtain a Google Advertising Professional Certification. While beginning Web marketers will learn the basic skills necessarily for online usability, those who come into the course with more experience will still be challenged by the course’s emphasis on learning to optimize online presence and marketing efforts.

Starting at week one, instructors give students an overview of what usability truly means in the business world. The lesson is followed up with additional lectures on the topic of information architecture and usability. In addition, students must complete a usability case study as a requirement at the end of the course.

User Experience

USF’s Internet marketing online program employs a number of instructors who are experts in the field of user experience. Understanding proper use of user interaction in website design is a key component for completion of the course “Integrated Online Strategies.” Not only do students receive lectures on the basics of social media and Web 2.0—of which user experience are both major factors—but they are also taught about creative planning opportunities, podcasts, and blogs.

Interactive Design

To become an expert in the field of Internet marketing, individuals must master the concept of interactive design because consumers are much more likely to stay on a Website if an interactive element is present on the page.

In the course “Advanced Web Analytics,” this issue is discussed in great depth. During the second week of the eight-week program, the topic is brought up during a lecture titled, “Visitors: Site Interaction.” In this class, University of San Francisco stresses that in order to succeed in developing effective Web sites and media ventures in the real world, there must be an emphasis made on interactive design. This is a concept that is brought up when discussing traditional analytics components as well, since user variables and site interaction are two imperatives when looking at “vital visitor info.”

At the University of San Francisco’s online program, Internet marketing students are consistently presented with information on the areas of usability, user experience, and interactive design, with the hope that this information and knowledge will prove useful once they enter the working world and begin developing Web sites and marketing campaigns on their own.

Author Bio: Stephanie Miles is a freelance writer for the education site Guide to Online Schools.