Teaching the afternoon group of the University of Barcelona’s User Experience and Digital Design programme, class of 2026–2027: design fundamentals, conversion rate optimization, dark patterns, web technology, ways of working and artificial intelligence.
University of Barcelona · User Experience and Digital Design · Class of 2026–2027 · Afternoon group
With the 2026–2027 afternoon class of User Experience and Digital Design at the University of Barcelona.
Design fundamentals and the web technology that turns them into working interfaces.
How to improve conversion, and where improving it turns into manipulating people.
How design teams work, and what artificial intelligence changes in that work.
After its first class, the University of Barcelona’s User Experience and Digital Design programme has opened its 2026–2027 edition, and I teach the afternoon group. The approach is the same one I bring to every classroom: real examples from more than twenty years in eCommerce and digital business, and a constant link between design theory and what actually happens inside a company.
We began with design fundamentals and web technology together: hierarchy, layout, typography and usability on one side, and on the other how HTML, CSS and the browser actually render those decisions, because a design only exists once it works on the web.
Conversion rate optimization and dark patterns came next, as two sides of the same question. We looked at how research, hypotheses and testing raise conversion honestly, and at the patterns (fake urgency, hidden costs, confirmshaming) that raise it by working against the user.
We closed with methodologies and artificial intelligence: how product, design and development teams organise discovery, prototyping and delivery, and how AI is changing each of those steps, from generating first drafts and code to testing ideas in hours instead of weeks.
“A screen is a decision someone made for somebody else. Good design makes that decision easier; a dark pattern makes it for them.”
Victor de la Fuente
Every point of conversion in an online store is a design decision: a product page, a filter, a checkout step. More than twenty years in eCommerce taught me that the teams who understand design, the web and their own ways of working ship better experiences, and that AI amplifies whatever judgment is already there.
In eCommerce and digital business, brought into the UX and digital design classroom.
Companies often treat conversion as something marketing fixes with more traffic or more pressure. In my experience, most conversion problems are design problems: unclear hierarchy, a confusing step, a form that asks too much. Fix those and the numbers move without anyone being tricked.
AI makes that lesson more urgent. It can produce ten versions of a page in minutes, but it cannot tell you which one respects the person using it. That judgment is what a UX and digital design programme should build, and it is what I try to leave in every class.
More from Victor de la Fuente: Teaching & Speaking
Design fundamentals and web technology belong together, because a design only works once the browser renders it. Conversion rate optimization works best when it removes friction; dark patterns only add hidden pressure.
Clear methodologies help teams test ideas early. AI speeds up every step, yet deciding what deserves to ship remains a human job.
Learn more about conversion rate optimization on Wikipedia.
