Design · Beginner
Human-Computer Interaction
Design interfaces for people who scan, guess, get interrupted and use a mid-range phone in bright sunlight — with usability testing that finds the problems before your users do.
Design program
- Lessons
- 4
- Study time
- 40m
- Level
- Beginner
- Program
- Design
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4 lessons
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About this course
People do not read interfaces; they scan, guess and get interrupted. This course treats that as the specification, and designs for the conditions most users actually have: a mid-range phone, bright sunlight, one hand and data that costs money.
You will learn the heuristics that predict usability problems before any testing, the interaction design process from task analysis to the cheapest possible prototype, accessibility as engineering rather than a courtesy, and mobile-first, low-bandwidth design. Testing with five people finds most of what is wrong, and you will run that test yourself rather than reading about it.
The project is one real form or flow, redesigned and tested, with before-and-after numbers you can defend in a meeting.
Who this is for
- You design or build products and want evidence instead of opinion about what works.
- You are a developer who ends up making interface decisions by default.
- You work on a product whose users have different devices and data conditions than you do.
Before you start
- No design or coding experience required.
- Access to an interface you are allowed to change or redesign — your own product, or a public service form.
- Five people willing to spend twenty minutes being tested; colleagues and family are fine.
Where it leads
- Web Designing covers the visual and client-facing side of website work.
- Graphic Design sharpens the layout and type decisions every interface depends on.
- Usability and accessibility skills are scarce in Ghana's market, and government, banking and NGO digital projects ask for them by name.
Tools you will use
What you will build
- 1A task analysis and a scenario for one real flow
- 2Low-fidelity wireframes of at least two alternatives
- 3A tested prototype with five recorded sessions
- 4A redesigned flow with before-and-after task success and time
- 5An accessibility pass: contrast, labels, focus order and text alternatives
Curriculum
2 modules · 4 lessons · 40m
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01 · Designing for people
How people actually use interfaces, and the principles that follow from it.
1. How people actually use interfaces
People do not read interfaces; they scan them, guess, and use the first thing that looks right. This lesson covers the human side of HCI — perception, memory, attention and error — plus Norman's principles of discoverability, feedback, constraints and mental models, and the difference between a usable product and a usable product under pressure: on a shared phone, in a noisy market, with intermittent data.
2. The interaction design process
Good interfaces come from a process, not a flash of inspiration: understand the people and the task, design alternatives, prototype at the cheapest fidelity that answers the question, evaluate with real users, and iterate. This lesson covers user research methods that work with small budgets, personas and task flows as design tools rather than decoration, the levels of prototyping from paper to working code, and how to run a usability test with five people that finds the majority of serious problems.
02 · Accessible and mobile interfaces
Designing for every person, every device and a real network.
1. Accessibility as engineering
Accessibility is not a feature for a minority; it is what happens when an interface works for people with different sight, hearing, movement, cognition and devices — including the many people using a cheap phone in bright light with one hand. This lesson covers the four WCAG principles, contrast and target sizes as arithmetic, keyboard and screen-reader support, forms and error handling, and how to test on a budget without ever claiming compliance you have not verified.
2. Mobile-first and low-bandwidth design
Designing mobile-first is not a smaller version of desktop design; it is starting from the hardest conditions: a small screen, a thumb, one hand, an intermittent connection and a data budget the user is paying for. This lesson covers touch ergonomics and layout, responsive and adaptive design, progressive disclosure, offline behaviour and data-cost-awareness as design constraints — the conditions that describe most of the audience for anything built in or for Ghana.
4 lessons, including the one real form or flow redesigned and tested with five people, with before-and-after numbers project. Sign in and buy the program to open them. Create an account to track progress and earn the certificate.
Taught by a working engineer
Efua Sarpong — Product Designer. Every lesson is written to be used, not just watched.
A verifiable certificate
Complete every lesson and you get a certificate with a code and QR that an employer can check in seconds.
Practice in the Code Lab
Write and run code in the browser while you learn, with your work saved to your own account.
Still have a question?
Email hello@codemasterghana.com or send a message from the contact page — we answer within two working days, in English or Twi.