Digital Service Design MSc

Digital Design Methodologies

You will be introduced to digital service design. You will be taught by industry experts and will learn methodologies and approaches currently used as best practice. You will learn how to select and apply the most appropriate method for any given project or challenge.

Part of this module will be the opportunity to engage with a three-week internship with a digital design team/project/company. This will help you to develop core design and communication skills, as well as how to work effectively in multidisciplinary digital teams.

Example topics include:

• market and user research methodologies
• journey mapping
• design thinking
• storytelling
• designing omni-channel experiences
• portfolio building.

Digital Innovation

You will develop the knowledge and skills necessary to implement digital business models and technologies that help organisations to capitalise on business opportunities.

Example topics include:

• understanding and justifying change
• change management
• digital business models
• managing technology risks
• ethical issues in change.

Systems Project Management

This module will help you develop a critical awareness of the central issues and challenges in information systems project management.

Example topics include:

• traditional project management techniques and approaches
• the relationship between projects and business strategy
• the role and assumptions underpinning traditional approaches
• the ways in which the state-of-the-art can be improved.

Digital Service Applications

This module will develop upon the methods and skills learned in the Digital Design Methodologies module studied in term one, with the added context of a variety of projects based on real-world briefs.

Example topics include:

• prototyping
• understanding product life cycles and building effective roadmaps
• product design
• how to move design into production
• behavioural design.

Research Methods

This module looks to support students in developing and using the skills necessary to design a scholarly piece of research work to address an identified problem area within a chosen field of study. This module will introduce methods of data collection and analysis when conducting empirical research, in both private and public sector environments. Example topics include:

• questionnaire and interview design
• qualitative and quantitative analysis

This module is essential preparation for the dissertation.

Data Visualisation

You will learn how to visually present insight drawn from large data sets to communicate your findings. You will gain an understanding of human visual perception, data visualisation methods and techniques, dashboard and infographic design and augmented reality. An emphasis is also placed on visual storytelling and narrative development.

Example topics include:

• understanding human visual perception
• data visualisation methods and techniques
• dashboard and infographic design
• augmented reality
• visual storytelling and narrative development.

Dissertation

Your dissertation is an opportunity to showcase your enthusiasm and subject skills to potential employers, and also serves as valuable experience and a solid building block if you choose to undertake an industry-based dissertation project.

You will be encouraged to critically examine the academic and industrial contexts of your research, identify problems and think originally when proposing potential solutions.

As preparation for the dissertation, you will be given a grounding in both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis to enable you to conduct empirical and/or experimental research.

Some of our digital design partners may offer final project opportunities.

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