Computer Science

Computer science with a user experience focus is a degree for people who want to understand how software systems are built and how they are experienced by the people who use them. User experience design is concerned with the quality of interaction between humans and digital systems, addressing how interfaces are structured, how information is presented, how people navigate complex tasks and how design decisions affect usability, accessibility and the emotional quality of a digital product. Combining this with computer science creates a degree particularly well suited to a sector that increasingly recognises that technical capability and design intelligence must go together.

Goldsmiths, University of London offers this three-year full-time programme, developing core computer science content alongside specialist user experience theory and practice. The computer science strand covers programming, algorithms, software engineering, databases and the foundations of computing, while the user experience strand introduces you to interaction design, usability research and evaluation, human-computer interaction theory, prototyping and the design process. Goldsmiths' creative and cultural character gives the curriculum a distinctive flavour, connecting UX to broader questions of design, culture and human experience that pure technical programmes do not typically engage.

A sandwich year in industry gives you the opportunity to work in a technology or design environment, experiencing professional UX and product development practice before your final year.

The combination develops technical programming competence, design thinking, the ability to conduct user research, skill in prototyping and iterating digital interfaces, and the communication skills to advocate for users within technical teams.

Graduates pursue careers as UX designers, product designers, interaction designers, user researchers, UX engineers, front-end developers and product managers in technology companies, digital agencies, the public sector and organisations across all sectors that are developing digital products and services. Postgraduate study in interaction design, UX or human-computer interaction is a natural option for those wishing to develop further.