From User/Learner to Designer
User Experiences (UX Design), Heuristics
and Digital Projects
~COMP 2~
What will you create for your fandom?
What will you design for your research?
Presentation & Community Impact
- Venngage - "Which of the 8 types of presentation models will your project go in?"
- HBR - "What areas of preparing for a presentation do you need to focus on?
- Meade - "What types of artifacts would best represent your journey studying gaming, media, and digital/tech culture this semester?
Charities, Outreach, and Engagement Question
- What are the positive ways game culture and online communities on social media sites are helping combat negativity/harm online?
- How can your writing/research help show engagement within the online community or fandom?
Opening Reflection
In World 13, open either the Venngage source on Presentations or Meade's Artifact Webtext - type out some ideas of what style presentation or types of artifacts will work best for your Digital Project.
What type/style presentation will your project take on? Could one of the Venngage template models work? (All infographic/presentation sites have templates to choose from)
What kind of artifacts (visual, digital) could help your project and presentation?
Meade's "Artifact & Portfolio" Text
4 Step Process of using Artifacts
1. Collect
- What shows your learning? Understanding/exptertise?
- Your story, personal growth?
2. Select
- Which artifacts are most useful to my audience?
3. Reflect
- What does your artifact mean? Descriptions & Purpose
4. Connect
- What should the audience think of this artifact?
"Artifacts are evidence of what you have learned; they demonstrate skills, document expereiences and show competencies" (Meade)
What will you design?
For Web-building:
Canva
Wix
Weebly
For Infographics:
Venngage
Canva
Piktochart
Visme
For Social Media:
Canva
MediaModifier
Post Generators
For Presentations:
Canva
Prezi
Google Slides/Powerpoint
1. Information Phase: Review facts, stories, and sources from your major essay & assignment expansion assignments - compile most relevant quotes and information; what important info should your audience know?
2. Design Phase: Review Digital Project options (e.g. site-building, infographics, presentation platforms, social media etc.). Create a bulleted list of what visual images, posts, data visuals and other content should go into your project.
3. Presentation Phase: What order or structure do you want to discuss your project, in terms of posts, slides, navigating through your infographic or site?
Digital Project Outline
Compile in a Word Doc for later use.
Spotlight: Telling a Digital Story through Online Tools - A Teacher's Experience
- Mixture of text sources and image/visual appeal
-
Every image has a purpose:
- shows communication methods,
- relevant research,
- stats & facts
- examples of class ideas (Gee's learning principles, participatory culture, research methods, genre/remix, etc.
- be "conversational"
Design Do's
Design Don'ts
- Avoid "text-heavy" content as it loses audience; results in reading content
- poor color and background choices
- lack of organization or structure to your content.
- images/visual content does not support your writing/findings.
Interacting with Designed Content
Browse the models by clicking on the following images to take us to sample infographic visuals:
What type of infographic design was appealing to look at? What ideas could work well for your topic in creating a visual like this?
Add this idea to your DESIGN PHASE in the Digital Project Outline.
Games & Media
Educational
Technology
- For your classmates, LIST your major essay topic themes you are working with.
- Include a Sample Site (URL), image, source, or example of content that will be in your Digital Project
- Include a couple brainstorming questions for your group members right now about their topics. What research, content, or design questions do you have?
Digital Project Outline Interaction Thread
-
Remember, you are adding to your Digital Project Outline, practice including the following in your outline:
- Sample Images or visuals that you can use in your digital project.
- A Site/Resource that will be part of your talk.
- Test out Canva, an Infographic platform, a sample social media post; find the right design template for your needs - consult our Digital Project assignment in Canvas.
Design Phase Practice
I will come around to see what visual content, platform, or design you are choosing to practice with in class today.
Final World 13 Objectives
- Final A.I Friday Forum - What are some important takeaways about concepts of design for Digital Projects?
- Final Student Conference Questions - In Canvas, brainstorm what important questions about your project you want to bring to our conference next week.
- UX Design and Heuristics is about addressing how users/gamers experience and navigate content created by the design team. Take 3-5 minutes to think about the process of learning a game environment, social media platform or new app - what were the questions or challenges you had that related to your experience with navigation, controls, understanding the content/features? Save your response for what we do later in class.
Opening Brainstorm:
Heuristics for Games
What are ways that learning about UX Design Principles and Heuristics are important for designers, programmers, and managers of games, social media and online sites?
Learn by "Design"
Process of creating products, services, tech/media, that solves a user problem and making certain the experience is enjoyable and users have ease of access.
1
UX Design
Refers to a set of principles showing "how" something works when learning the game, media, or technology, including the mechanics and rules in order to win/succeed, and knowing what to do.
2
Heuristics
Acquired outcomes of learning, the point where you the user/player gets "good" at navigating and interacting with the content.
3
Skills
Stevens, Emily. (2024). 7 fundamental UX design principles. UX Design Institute
Argentics. (2025). The Power of Game UX Design in Modern Gaming.
- Step 1: Which UX Design Principles or Heuristic Principles in designing online content or game design do you feel is most important to address? Focus on a specific reading when selecting your design/heuristic principles or suggest how a combination of 2-3 principles work well together. What is a good example that connects?
- Step 2: What information should go into your Content Creator Fandom Digital Project? What should you design to show your affinity group, research interest, and work this semester on your topics?
In-Class: UX Design Examples & Project Brainstorm
- What sources and quotes should I use from my essays?
- What key terms or concepts should I discuss about my content?
- What research should I present on? What should I leave out?
- What am I informing/persuading my audience about?
Information
Design
- What graphs, charts, or data visuals should I use?
- What infographics should I show off that I've worked on?
- What social media posts should I show off that I've created or found?
- What is the best way to present facts/visuals together?
3 Phase Process to Digital Projects
- Does my audience understand my expertise within the research? The "WHY" I'm writing about this?
- Will my Digital Project aid me in talking through the major points of my research?
- Have I prepared speaking notes about my project for 3-5 minutes of sharing?
- What might be asked during my Q&A session of the presentations?
- What major highlights should I cover?
- Why studying popular and digital culture is important for building awareness...
Presentation
Thinking about Design
What is the best way to present research and visuals together? Be mindful of text and image relationships on screen!
- What are the most important pieces of information provided in the sample?
- What seems to be the topic focus related to a specific type of media (e.g. games, social media, content creators, influencers, online sites)?
- What works well in terms of design?
- What would you do differently for this or for your project?
Sample Student Project Analysis
- What were the projects you responded to and what did you think the project's highlights were?
- Share with your group members what piece of your writing you think will work best for your Digital Project.
Group Debrief
Submit your assignment along with a comment about what your top priority will be in creating this digital project.
UX Design, Heuristics, Digital Projects
By codys
