A technically well-architected system that's confusing to use, and a beautifully designed interface built on a fragile architecture, both fail their users in different ways — IT3249 teaches students to consider both dimensions together.
Software architecture patterns
IT3249 covers common architecture patterns — layered architecture (separating presentation, business logic, and data layers), client-server architecture, and the basics of microservices vs. monolithic design — and the trade-offs each pattern makes between simplicity, scalability, and maintainability.
User experience design principles
The course covers core UX design principles — usability heuristics (like Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics), user-centered design processes (understanding user needs before designing a solution), and wireframing/prototyping techniques — along with basic usability testing methods for evaluating whether a real interface genuinely works for real users, not just its designers' assumptions.
Key topics in IT3249
- Layered architecture: separating presentation, business logic, and data layers
- Client-server architecture and monolithic vs. microservices trade-offs
- Nielsen's usability heuristics and core UX design principles
- User-centered design: understanding user needs before designing solutions
- Wireframing and prototyping techniques
- Basic usability testing methods for evaluating real interface performance
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Worked example: a usability heuristic violation and its fix
- Heuristic violated: Nielsen's "visibility of system status" — users should always know what's happening
- Problem observed: A file upload feature gives no progress indicator, leaving users unsure whether it's working or frozen
- Usability testing finding: Multiple test users clicked the upload button repeatedly, assuming it had failed silently
- Fix: Add a visible progress bar and a clear "Upload complete" confirmation message
- Lesson: A technically functioning feature can still fail users badly if it doesn't communicate its status clearly
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Frequently asked questions
Layered architecture organizes a software system into distinct layers — typically a presentation layer (the user interface), a business logic layer (the core rules and processing logic), and a data layer (database access and storage) — with each layer only communicating with adjacent layers through defined interfaces. IT3249 teaches this pattern as good practice because it creates separation of concerns: a developer can change the visual interface (presentation layer) without touching the underlying business rules, or swap out the database technology (data layer) without needing to redesign the business logic that depends on it, as long as the interfaces between layers remain consistent. This separation makes a system significantly easier to test (each layer can be tested somewhat independently), maintain (changes are localized to the relevant layer), and evolve over time (technology in one layer can be upgraded or replaced without a complete system rewrite).
Designers and developers who have spent extensive time building an interface develop deep familiarity with how it works, which makes it genuinely difficult for them to accurately judge how confusing or unintuitive that same interface might be to someone encountering it for the first time — a phenomenon sometimes called the "curse of knowledge." IT3249 teaches that usability testing with real, representative users — observing them attempt actual tasks with the interface and noting where they hesitate, make errors, or express confusion — surfaces genuine usability problems that a designer's own internal judgment, however well-intentioned, often misses precisely because the designer already knows how the interface is supposed to work. This is why usability testing is considered an essential, non-optional step in a rigorous UX design process, not a redundant check on a designer's already-confident assessment of their own interface.