BrainStation Announces New London Campus
Take a look at BrainStation's brand new campus in Shoreditch, London, the home for our part-time courses, award-winning bootcamps, and industry events in the UK.
If you could design any app what would you create? UX Design students at BrainStation have the opportunity to turn that question into a reality as they learn how to prototype the program they wish existed.
For his Certificate course project, Zac Poissant aimed to design the ultimate “all-in-one” public transit app to make commuting “easier, more efficient, and stress-free.”
An app like this would be appealing for many transit users, including Poissant himself, “as someone who has used the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) regularly in the past, I was motivated to solve the problems that I and others have faced when using public transit.”
Poissant set out to create an app that would allow you to save your favorite routes, get directions, and identify peak traffic hours to avoid. He also wanted the app to alert transit users to any relevant transit delays all in a beautiful, easy-to-use interface.
To get from idea to concept to prototype, Poissant followed this design process:
- Define the needs of the business
- Empathize with the user and understand the problem that exists
- Ideate solutions that meet the needs of both
- Create a prototype to test and validate assumptions
- Correct designs based on user feedback and repeat until the product is ready
Poissant emphasizes the last two steps in the process, believing they are essential for creating a customer-centric product.
“A useful lesson I learned in the course, is to validate our assumptions every step of the way. Test early and test often,” he says.
Having started his career in graphic design, Poissant is well equipped to transition into a product design role. But, to help in his career development, he knew some additional skills would solidify his new position. “I’ve always been a very strong visual designer but lacked experience when it came to things like user research and how to conduct a usability test.”
A UX design course seemed the best way to learn those additional skills.
“The UX design course at Brainstation was immensely helpful in giving me the confidence I was looking for as a well-rounded Product Designer,” he says, adding that he does not want to stop there.
“I plan to work on more portfolio projects that inspire me and solve needs that I, as well as others, have. An example might be a roommate app that helps users find like-minded people who share the same values and general sleep schedule. Or perhaps a budgeting app. In addition to this, I hope to continue to work on challenging projects in real life that solve real business and user needs.”
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Now’s the time to take a flexible, part-time UX Certificate Course
