Design of Interactive Products

About the Course

This course gives as an exposure to the design process, including user studies, interaction design and design evaluation. This course gives participants an exposure to issues, theories, principles and heuristics relating to human interaction with interactive products. It also provides participants hands-on practice through a course project.

This course will be offered in two modes, either as a full time course delivered in-person or as an online course delivered on weekends. The course runs synchronously in both modes. The course counts towards 12 credits in the ePGD programme in Interaction Design offered by IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay.

Who should attend?

This programme is for you if you are:

An interaction designer, a user interface designer or a user experience designer with little formal exposure to design
A design professional from another design discipline who wants to move to interaction design
A software professional with experience in user interface design, but no formal training
A quality professional in the IT industry, who would like to learn about usability or interaction design
A product manager responsible for the delivery of software products
A faculty member in a design school or an engineering college who would like to teach a course on topics such as human-computer interaction, user studies, interaction design or design evaluation.

Goals and Outcomes

This course has two goals:

Firstly, it gives participants an exposure to issues, theories, principles and concerns relating to human interaction with interactive products.
Secondly, it provides participants hands-on practice with the process and the techniques related to user studies, interaction design and design evaluation.

Intended outcomes of the course:

Participants should be able to conceptualise, design and evaluate interactive products.
Those who are already involved in these activities should be able to improve the quality of their work, and should understand the theory behind what they do.
Those responsible for the process should be able to make the process in their organisations more user-centred.

Contents and Schedule

The table below shows the planned contents for the in-person continuous version of the course. The weekend, online version of the course will have a slightly different schedule, but similar contents. In both cases, these contents are indicative. Some content may be added in each instance of the course. Specific schedules for an instance of the course may also vary slightly.

Day / Week

Session 1

Session 2

Day 1 / Week 1

Introduction and startup
Contextual interviews

Practise a contextual interview
Analysis and tips.
Plan and conduct interview 1

Day 2 / Week 2

Work models
Interpreting interviews

Interpret interview 1
Share
Conduct interview 2

Day 3 / Week 3

Consolidation using affinity
Case studies, learning from the field

Interpret interview 2
Conduct interview 3

Day 4 / Week 4

Other user studies methodsLayers of user experience

Sharing session, plan remaining interviews

Off day / week

Conduct and interpret interviews

Begin the affinity

Off day / week

Continue affinity (optional)

Finish the affinity, prepare for presentation 1

Day 5 / Week 5

Presentation 1: Findings from user studies

Conceptual models
User models
User experience goals

Day 6 / Week 6

Personas
Interaction design scenarios

Creative ideation workshop
Build personas and scenarios

Day 7 / Week 7

Patterns, guidelines and standards
Heuristics and principles of human-computer interaction

Build personas and scenarios
Interaction design case studies

Day 8 / Week 8

Detail out the interfaces

Prototype the design
Prepare for presentation 2

Day 9 / Week 9

Design evaluation

Presentation 2: Personas, scenarios, interfaces
Plan evaluations

Off day / week

Plan and do evaluations

Off day / week

Continue affinity (optional)

Day 10 / Week 10

Design processIntegrating HCI with software engineering

Do evaluations

Day 11 / Week 11

Institutionalising HCI - the challenges in IndiaIntegrating HCI methods in your workUser experience metrics

RedesignPrepare for presentation 3

Day 12 / Week 12

Presentation 3: Findings from evaluations, final design

Feedback, Lessons learnt, Wrap up

Course instructor(s)

Anirudha Joshi

Eligibility Criteria

You have an undergraduate degree (or equivalent) from a recognised university in any of these disciplines: design, engineering, architecture, fine arts, applied arts, information architecture, ergonomics / human factors, writing and communication.
OR
You have any other undergraduate degree from a university recognised by IIT Bombay and if you have work experience in the industry of 3 years or more in any of these roles: user interface designer, user experience designer, web developer, information architect, graphic designer, visual designer, copywriter, product manager, brand manager.

Credits and Certification

Participants get 12 credits after passing this course which count towards the ePGD in Interaction Design from IIT Bombay. Please refer to the Credits / Certification section of the FAQs for more details.

Design of Interactive Products

May 2026

Aug 2026

About the Course

Who should attend?

Goals and Outcomes

Contents and Schedule

Course instructor(s)

Credits and Certification