Improve user experiences with Brandeis Online’s new UX master’s certificates

January 6, 2025

Person placing sticky notes on a table, sketching out a product

As e-commerce and mobile technologies continue to expand, businesses across industries are looking for professionals who are experts at creating intuitive, engaging and customer-centered digital experiences.

An education in user experience design can prepare you to do just that. A growing field, UX design combines elements of design, psychology, project management and more to help businesses and organizations develop products and services that meet user needs.

While you may have experience using different aspects of UX design, pursuing graduate education in the field can help you to validate and sharpen your skills. With Brandeis Online’s new UX master’s certificates — the UX Research Master’s Certificate and the Digital Accessibility Master’s Certificate — you can gain valuable credentials without committing to a full degree program.

UX Research Master’s Certificate

The UX Research Master’s Certificate is a four-course master’s certificate that introduces core principles and methods for designing with the user in mind. Focused on techniques for gathering and analyzing user data, this master’s certificate will give you the tools to advocate for user needs and design products that prioritize the user experience throughout the design process.

Courses in this program cover the basics of user experience design while also diving deep into user research methods, contextual research and survey methods. You’ll become an expert in both quantitative and qualitative research methods — and with hands-on projects, you’ll also gain experience applying these methods to real-life problems. By the end of the program, you’ll have a peer-reviewed portfolio of UX deliverables demonstrating your ability to conduct user-centered research, develop user personas and implement digital design ethics.

The demand for UX practitioners is expected to increase in the next decade, with professionals in this field earning an average base salary around $91,600 per year. By pursuing a master’s certificate in UX Research, you’ll demonstrate your expertise — thus opening the path to even higher pay. Not only this, but you’ll show your commitment to continuous learning — a commitment that’s essential as new tools and practices continue to change this evolving field.

Digital Accessibility Master’s Certificate

The Digital Accessibility Master’s Certificate is a 12-credit program for professionals seeking to deepen their expertise in inclusive design. Perfect for digital designers, product managers, content creators or anyone interested in building inclusive user experiences, this master’s certificate will prepare you to create accessible digital products that meet legal standards and ethical guidelines.

With four courses centered around user experience design principles, inclusive design and digital accessibility, digital design and marketing ethics and user research methods, the Digital Accessibility Master’s Certificate will teach you to consider accessibility throughout all stages of the design process. In addition to becoming an expert on design standards and best practices like W3C Standards, Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and Google’s Material Design System, you’ll also learn how to implement plain language and gain a deep understanding of the ways that disability, stress and context of use affect accessibility. Ultimately, you’ll walk away with the knowledge and skills necessary to articulate the benefits of inclusive design and incorporate it into your own work.

All businesses in the U.S. are required by law to meet digital accessibility requirements. This means that there’s a high demand for professionals who are trained in digital accessibility — especially in fields like fields like web development, digital design, and compliance management. A master’s certificate in Digital Accessibility will make you a valuable member of any team.

Master’s Degree Pathways

Our master’s certificates don’t just open doors to greater career opportunities — they also create pathways to higher education. All courses in both the UX Research Master’s Certificate and the Digital Accessibility Master’s Certificate are stackable towards an MS in User-Centered Design — so if you decide to complete a full degree later on, you’ll only have six more courses to go. Paired with our fully online, asynchronous learning model, these degree pathways make our master’s certificate programs a great choice for working professionals in need of flexibility.

To learn more about our 100% online master’s certificates, please visit our master's certificate page.