UI/UX Design Certificate of Achievement

User experience and user interface design is essential in our increasingly digital world. This certificate of achievement provides students with the fundamental skills and support to become an end-to-end UX/UI professional. You will learn the visual design and technical skills needed to solve big design challenges.

Based on demand and labor market info, we estimate that 20-30 students will complete this program annually. There is currently an undersupply of workers based on the labor market information, as well as a lack of similar programs within Solano County (it should be noted that many educational resources for UI/UX are done through for-profit, private institutions, or as certificates offered by educational programs at nearby UCs and States schools, UC Berkeley and UC Davis included) but these programs come with considerably higher costs.) 

• Employ and document a structured design process to develop design solutions, working both individually and collaboratively.
• Critically analyze and discuss the merits of design work, using relevant concepts and terminology. 
  
• Employ professional design/production studio practices, such as project management, record keeping, asset management, file naming and archiving.
• Develop and maintain a professional portfolio of work.
• Create effective user-centric experiences using industry-standard tools. 

Based on the research of full time faculty member Rachel Smith, who originally began discussion of this in 2021 with the advisory committee for Digital Media Arts, (and in collaboration with faculty members from UC Davis in the design program), the following curriculum was developed for this certificate. 

REQUIRED COURSES (21 units)

Required Courses	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
DMA 09	Introduction to Digital Design	3	Y1
DMA 10	Graphic Design 1	3	Y1
DMA 60	Principles of User Experience Design	3	Y1
DMA 61	Principles of User Interface Design	3	Y2
DMA 62	UI/UX Design 1	3	Y2
DMA 63	UI/UX Design 2	3	Y2

COMPLETE 3 UNITS (CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST):

Choose (3 units	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
DMA 01	History of Visual Media	3
DMA 11	Graphic Design 2	3	Y2
DMA 92	Social Media for Professionals	3	Y2
DMA 31	Introduction to Animation	3	Y2
DMA 40	Motion Graphics	3	Y2
DMA 32	2D Animation	3	Y1
DMA 33	3D Animation & Modeling	3	Y2
DMA 40	Motion Graphics	3	Y2
DMA 15	Typography	3	Y2
DMA 091	Digital Media Portfolio	3	Y2
DMA 020	Intro to Digital Illustration	3	Y2
DMA 101	Adobe Illustrator Bootcamp	3	Y2
DMA 102	Adobe Photoshop Bootcamp	3	Y2
DMA 103	Portfolio and Publication Bootcamp	3	Y2
DMA 090	Digital Media Projects	3	Y2

UI/UX is a fast growing area of design and digital media. Digital design jobs are expected to grow 13% by 2030— 6% faster than the national average. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm) This type of curriculum is in high demand from students (both recent high school, college graduates, as well as working professionals and lifelong learners return to college to improve their technical skillset. We believe that this educational certificate will align with Solano College's mission to "transform students’ lives with transfer courses, career and technical education, and basic skills preparation leading to certificate programs, associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and lifelong learning opportunities."

DVC offers a certificate in Web Design and Development. According to Joann Denning - "We did develop a Ui/UX certificate that just became available for students. We are also in the process of revising many of our certificates to increase student success. We are hoping to make the certificates more stackable and reduce the unit's to improve completion rates. Our most popular certificates are probably Graphic Design, Art Digital Media ,Web Design, and 3D but this might change once all our revisions are approved. " As students in this service area are typically not going to Solano College (its' in Contra Costa County) we don't imagine this will have a great impact.