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BSc (Hons) User Experience Design

Shape how people engage with the ever-evolving digital world.

Our BSc (Hons) User Experience Design is a forward-facing contemporary Communication Design degree in which you will create interactive products including websites and app prototypes, digital imagery, video and motion graphics, and designed research outputs.

The User Experience Design degree gives you the essential skills to become a successful UX designer — shaping how people engage with digital products and services.

Your learning will focus on applying user experience and digital design principles that are highly prized in today’s fast-changing design industry.

You will explore the technologies and people involved in providing the systems and services behind the interfaces and investigate the different ways users experience a design depending on their circumstances.

User research, user interface design, copywriting, typography, motion, and interaction design will all feature in the work you make.

Through a mixture of projects, you will become adept at generating insight-driven solutions for organisations and brands, charities, social causes, and design-for-good initiatives which aim to address the problems we face in the world.

You will work with expert staff, who are talented educators and designers. Many of them are practising designers working with clients week in, week out.

Your timetable will be also punctuated by regular industry talks from some of the highest profile designers, studios, and agencies, anywhere in the world.

What you will learn 

  • Share your first year, and then continue to work alongside graphics students, allowing for a unique cross fertilisation of knowledge, skills and experience
  • Problem-solving through understanding and deciphering project briefs, conducting discovery research, generating ideas, developing prototypes, testing, and iterating these into successful concepts, and presenting the final work
  • Through collaboration develop a set of professional, transferable skills such as teamwork, time management and project planning and the ability to communicate effectively with a variety of stakeholders
  • Participate in workshops and classes run by external professionals, undertake project briefs initiated and taught by designers from industry, and enter national and international design competitions judged by the design industry
  • Industry engagement including portfolio reviews and surgeries, talks from practising alumni focused on portfolio development and employability, interview practice and graduate portfolio showcase events

Industry-ready UX skills 

Our practical studio projects are designed to mimic the type of briefs you would be given in a design agency, resulting in outcomes that genuinely prepare you for the real world of work.

Your work throughout the course will generate case studies for your portfolio that showcase your knowledge of user research, user interface design and interaction design to copywriting, typography and motion.

By the time you finish the course you will have a developed a portfolio and have a strong sense of where you want to work within the industry.

You will also create a range of employment-focused tools including a CV, email/covering letter and a career overview and strategy.

During the summer break between second and third year, and after completing the course, students have taken up internships and joined graduate schemes which frequently lead to full-time employment.

Our graduates have gone on to become employees at digital design agencies including Foolproof, The User Story, Other Media and Cheddar Creative, and in-house positions e.g., at National Grid, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tata Consultancy Services and Stardust.

Course information

All courses run as a blend of on-campus and digital teaching and learning, and follow current UK government safety advice. Applicants and students will be notified directly if any changes need to be made.

Typical career paths include:

  • User Interface Designer
  • UX Designer
  • Interaction Designer
  • Digital Designer
  • Visual Designer
  • Product Manager
  • UX Design Manager
  • Front End Developer
  • Digital Web Designer
  • UX Architect
  • UX Business Analyst
  • Product Marketing Manager

You’ll also get specialist creative careers advice from our team in the Ideas Factory to help support you as you plan your career.

Course Information

Institution Code: N39
Course 3 Year UCAS code: I141
Course 4 Year UCAS code: I142
Course length: 3 or 4 year options
Sandwich courses: Creative Professional Development (1 year, Level 5 diploma), or Creative Computing (1 year, Level 5 diploma), available between years 2 & 3

Responsive website prototype – Naomi Winter

Typical UK offers

A / AS Levels – GCE
3 A-level qualifications at grades BBB. Where candidates are not taking 3 A-levels, Norwich will consider combinations of A-level/AS-level and other Level 3 qualifications.

BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit, Merit in a science/technical subject (e.g. maths, physics, computer science)

BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction*, Distinction in a science/technical subject (e.g. maths, physics, computer science)

T Levels
A T Level in any subject with overall grade Merit or above

UAL Extended Diploma
An overall Merit in a science/technical subject (e.g. maths, physics, computer science)

Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass in a science/technical subject (e.g. maths, physics, computer science)

International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 27 points

Norwich welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio, responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.

If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.

If the qualification that you are studying is not shown, do not worry as we are able to accept other pre-entry qualifications as well as combinations of different qualifications. Please do contact our Student Recruitment Team if you have any queries.

International applications

We accept qualifications from all over the world. To find our entry requirements from a specific country, please check our dedicated international pages.

Most international students are required to hold an English language qualification. Applicants are required to have a minimum UKVI approved IELTS exam score of 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each section. Equivalent English language qualifications are acceptable such as, IB English language syllabus A or B/English Literature (Grade 4).

We also accept some alternative English qualifications. Learn more about our English entry requirements.

You can email us on international@norwichuni.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss your application individually.

BSc (Hons) User Experience Design degree portfolio guidance

We are calling the traditional portfolio a ‘development portfolio’. This is to emphasise that what we would like to see is where you are now in your creative journey. You don’t need to spend a long time making the perfect work, as we can assess your potential from your work in progress. Your development is the most important part of your learning.

Your development portfolio should be relevant to this course, but you can include a wide range of work that shows your creativity, technical competence, industry awareness and career aspirations.

Because User Experience Design encourages applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds we are flexible on portfolio content.

However, as a guide, we ask for at least two of the following or similar:

  • One or two website or app designs that demonstrate your design skills.
  • A coding project you’ve undertaken (any coding language is accepted)
  • Sketches, interface diagrams or similar that demonstrate your idea development skills.
  • Visual research into similar products or services in the market place
  • A short piece of critical writing about one or more digital services, for example that analyses positive and negative elements of a website from a user’s perspective.
  • Evidence of research projects in any discipline, perhaps collecting and analysing people’s opinions or analysing statistical data.
  • Examples of experimental collaborative projects (such as attending Game Jam events or Techathons)

Further portfolio advice and tips

Get more advice on presentation formats, layouts and when to submit your development portfolio in the application process.

2023/24 University fees for new entrants

Norwich University of the Arts will assess students’ tuition fee status using the guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs

Students from the UK or Ireland and EU students with ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status will be charged ‘Home’ fees if they meet the relevant residency requirements.  They will usually be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the UK government, meaning that they won’t have to pay Norwich’s tuition fees upfront.

Students who do not meet the necessary residency requirements will usually be charged ‘Overseas’ fees and will not be eligible for the UK government tuition fee loan. Since 2021/22, this includes new entrants from the EU, EEA, and Switzerland who do not have ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status, because the UK has now formally left the EU.

Fee status Course Annual fee
Home Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) £9,250
Overseas Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) £18,000

For Home undergraduate students starting in 2023, inflation may be applied to your fees in later years, if the UK government were to increase the fee cap beyond the current limit of £9,250 per year. If such an increase were to apply, we would confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we would limit the increase to the maximum allowed by the Office for Students.

For Overseas undergraduate students starting in 2023, inflation will be applied to your fees in later years. We will confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we will limit the increase to no more than the Office for Students’ recommended inflationary measure, which is RPI-X. RPI-X is calculated by the Office for Budget Responsibility. In setting fees for the following year, we will use the Office for Budget Responsibility’s RPI-X forecast for quarter 3 of the relevant year.

See our Fees and Funding page for further information which is also available in a downloadable format.

Financial support for UK students in 2023

Tuition fee loans and loans for living costs are usually available to UK and some EU students, as well as non-repayable Norwich University of the Arts bursaries based on family income. Find out more about applying for funding.

Four year degree – BSc (Hons) User Experience Design

Four year degrees offer students a chance to build on their experience within their undergraduate course of choice.

Year 0 will help to build confidence and develop subject specific practical, creative and conceptual skills – making full use of University studios and workshops.

Typical UK offers and entry requirements for Year 0 entry

GCE A/AS Levels
2 A-level qualifications at grades CC or higher. 

BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Merit, Merit, Pass in an art, design or media related subject

BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit in an art, design or media related subject

T Levels
Pass (D or E on the core)

UAL Extended Diploma
An overall Pass

UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
An overall Pass

Foundation Diploma in Art and Design 
Pass

Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass

International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 24 points

Norwich welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio, responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.

If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.

Find out more

Lecturers

Kris Lavington Woods
Ricky Walton
Tim Caynes

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