University College Adds User Experience Concentration to its Communication Management Program

Effectively moving an audience lies at the intersection of communication and technology, and understanding the user journey from end to end is critical. To meet the growing need for this knowledge, University College, the college of continuing and professional studies at the University of Denver, is pleased to announce a new User Experience Strategy concentration within our Communication Management program. 

“The new User Experience Strategy concentration at University College is a rare fusion of strategic communication frameworks and industry-driven user experience best practices,” said industry leader, Professor McLean Donnelly, who helped design the curriculum for the concentration’s courses. “Structured in project-based assignments, students will gain the ability to think critically about the user experience and build the skills to impact and steer the vision in today’s digital economy.”

Increasingly more emphasis is being put on user experience and service design, and there is rapid growth in careers with this focus as more companies are turning to user data to understand and meet consumer expectations.  

“Students will learn to be a champion for the user backed by user experience research, data, and analysis,” said Cindy Cragg, academic director of the Communication Management program. “They’ll learn to position themselves as the communications professional who can both lead and defend strategic decisions based in user-journey data, as well as set the user experience vision and strategy for all teams within an organization.”

Students in the Communication Management program can either earn a master’s degree with the User Experience Strategy concentration or earn a 4-course specialized graduate certificate or 6-course graduate certificate. No design skills or tech experience are necessary to study in the concentration, as it is focused on learning to make business and product decisions based on user experience data.

In this program, students will learn to:

• Analyze the components and implications of user experience design across communication channels.  
• Use critical analysis to manage the strategy and execution of interactive experiences and how users are impacted by these experiences.  
• Analyze user-journey data to measure and inform decisions across platforms and channels.

“It’s highly valuable for communication professionals to be able to assess the psychology behind processes for employees and customers across all sectors, including public, private, and government, as well as be able to use that information to steer how users move from online to in-person experiences,” said Cragg.

If you are interested in learning more about the User Experience Strategy concentration, please reach out to Enrollment Manager Melanie Watson (melanie.watson@du.edu).