Sr. User/Design Researcher / Information Architect Specialist
User Experience Designer
MAIA
Synopsis of Program (Cont’d.)
Education—Credentials—
Professional Qualifications
Additional Information
Graduate Degree
College of Liberal and Creative Arts
School of Design Graduate Program
MAIA Focus
The focus and specialization of the MAIA graduate program was in user/design research, information architecture, user experience design, navigation design, interaction design, user-centered design, Web design and management, project/product management, technical communications, including usability testing—geared for high-tech employment.
MAIA Unique Major
All of these programs centered specifically and precisely around the topics of:
User/design research, information architecture, interaction design, user experience design, navigation systems design, user-centered design, drawing, graphic design, typography, multimedia, product design, drafting and sketching, conceptual design, prototyping, information design, computer/Web programming, Website design, project/product management, and usability testing.
The NS Model
Hierarchical Navigational Systems
Global Navigational Systems
Local Navigational Systems
Integrated Navigational Systems
Remote Navigational Systems
Ad Hoc Navigational Systems
Search Engines in Websites
The graduate program and undergraduate program at SFSU provided a strong background in: professional work experience and education specific to user/design research, information architecture, user experience design, interaction design, user-centered design, animation, multimedia, interface design, social media, Website design and management, usability testing, and project/product management skills.
The ID&T Cert program also provided an additional—very strong—unique specialization and vocational training; internships successfully completed.
MAIA Letter of Recommendation
“ The Youth Law Center is indeed indebted to Steven Heitman for all his hard work as the project manager and his knowledge of information design [Information Architecture; Information Architect internship]. If not for Steven’s involvement with our website, we would not have as comprehensive a site as we now have. ”
Ms. Yee, M.A.
Paralegal
Supervisor
National Center for Youth Law
MAIA Campus
The MAIA School of Design Graduate Program at San Francisco State University provided great courses—very specific to-the-point-relevant curricula (from both the MAIA and BAIA programs)—for doing:
User/design research, information architecture, user experience design, interface design, user-centered design, social media, usability testing, and management. I enjoyed doing all my projects and working with many excellent Professors.
Introduction about the mission of the College of Creative Arts
Dean of the College of Creative Arts Kurt Daw talks about plans for the new building.
MAIA Featured with Excellent Review
Addressing the role of the designer in the 21st century, the symposium featured a discussion on the impact of design, technology and information applications on social and culture identities in the emerging global society—a newspaper article about the Design Program and cutting-edge ideas.
Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling Websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.
Typically, it involves a model or concept of information that is used and applied to activities which require explicit details of complex information systems. These activities include library systems and database development.
Information architecture is considered to have been founded by Richard Saul Wurman. Today there is a growing network of active IA and UXD specialists who constitute the Information Architecture Institute.
The field of user experience design has roots in human factors and ergonomics, a field that, since the late 1940s, has focused on the interaction between human users, machines, and the contextual environments to design systems that address the user's experience.
With the proliferation of workplace computers in the early 1990s, user experience became an important concern for designers. It was Donald Norman, a user experience architect, who coined and brought the term user experience to wider knowledge.