The University of Barcelona’s new programme in User Experience and Digital Design, class of 2025–2027: design fundamentals, dark patterns, conversion rate optimization, ways of working, and web technology applied to artificial intelligence.
University of Barcelona · User Experience and Digital Design · Class of 2025–2027
With the 2025–2027 User Experience and Digital Design class at the University of Barcelona.
Hierarchy, layout, typography and usability: the basics every interface rests on.
Raising conversion without tricking the user.
How teams work, and how AI is changing what gets built for the web.
The University of Barcelona’s new programme in User Experience and Digital Design has welcomed its 2025–2027 class, and I teach in it with the approach I bring to every classroom: real examples from more than twenty years in eCommerce and digital business, and a focus on the decisions designers and marketers actually face at work.
We started with design fundamentals: visual hierarchy, layout, typography, consistency and usability heuristics. These are the principles that make an interface clear before anyone asks whether it converts.
From there we looked at dark patterns (confirmshaming, hidden costs, forced continuity) and at conversion rate optimization done properly: research, hypotheses, testing and measurement, so that a better number comes from a better experience rather than from pressure on the user.
We also worked on methodologies, how design, product and development teams organise discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery, and closed with web technology applied to artificial intelligence: AI-assisted prototyping and code, and interfaces that adapt to the person using them.
“Tools change every year. The questions don’t: what does this person need, and are we respecting them while we help them get it?”
Victor de la Fuente
More than twenty years in eCommerce sit behind this course. The interfaces these students will design decide whether customers find a product, trust a brand and complete a purchase. Fundamentals, ethics and the new AI tooling together are what let them build experiences that work for the business and for the user at the same time.
Leading eCommerce and digital strategy, now brought into a UX and digital design classroom.
It is tempting to think AI makes design fundamentals optional: generate a screen, ship it, test it. In practice the opposite happens. When producing an interface costs almost nothing, the scarce skill is knowing whether it is clear, honest and worth shipping.
That is why this programme puts design basics, dark patterns and methodology next to AI and web technology. A designer who understands hierarchy, ethics and process will use AI to go faster in the right direction. One who doesn’t will simply produce more of the wrong thing, faster.
More from Victor de la Fuente: Teaching & Speaking
Good digital design starts with fundamentals: hierarchy, clarity and usability. Conversion then follows from a better experience, not from dark patterns that add hidden pressure. In addition, clear methodologies help teams test ideas before they ship them.
AI is changing how the web gets designed and built. Even so, the judgment about what deserves to ship remains a human skill.
Learn more about user experience design on Wikipedia.
