Designing Solutions
(CPUX-DS)
The knowledge and skills you need, the industry recognition you deserve
Turn user needs and requirements into useful and usable designs
Learn how to translate user requirements into design solutions, from conceptual models and information architecture, to interaction design and prototyping. CPUX-DS will also teach you about information, interface and sensory design, stakeholder management, and how you can communicate and iterate your concepts and design approaches.
Exploring concepts introduced in our Foundation level certification in far greater detail, CPUX-DS also considers specific human needs, such as accessibility, design ethics and cultural diversity.
CPUX-DS will help you demonstrate your understanding of the terms and concepts used in specifying and visualising user interfaces. CPUX-DS will teach you how to apply techniques and methods for specifying and developing:
- Deliverables based on context of use descriptions and user requirements
- Conceptual models for user interfaces
- Information architectures and navigation structures
- User assistance, and
- Sketches, wireframes, wire-flows, low- and high-fidelity-prototypes for user interfaces.
Is CPUX-DS right for me?
If you are actively involved in designing interactive systems, Designing Solutions (CPUX-DS) is the perfect certification for you!
Based on international standards and authored by experts in the field of UX and human-centred design, the CPUX-DS certificate is perfect for anyone who wants to advance their knowledge and skills in the principles and processes of designing solutions.
CPUX-DS is an advanced level certificate; as it builds on the foundation level certification, you do need to be CPUX-F certified before you can take this exam.
Rebecca JauckWith the knowledge I gained from CPUX-DS training, I took control of the design process.
CPUX-DS
CPUX-DS training gave me a systematic approach to designing user interfaces in a targeted manner.
Andy Ackermann
CPUX-DS
What does the CPUX-DS curriculum cover?
CPUX-DS covers the “Produce designs to meet user requirements” activity of the human-centred design process, as outlined in ISO 9241-210 Ergonomics of human-system interaction. You will learn all of the activities for creating design solutions, including designing user tasks, user-system interactions, and user interfaces; making design solutions more concrete; changing design solutions in response to user-centred evaluation and feedback; communicating design solutions to those responsible for their implementation.
The CPUX-DS curriculum covers:
Refined design
- Design activity: Interface design
- Design activity: Information design
- Design activity: Sensory design
Specific human needs
- Accessibility
- Design ethics
- Cultural diversity
Important perspectives for design activities
- The baseline for Designing Solutions
- Overview of design activities
- Iterating as needed and as the project demands
- Considering the whole user experience across all touch-points
Early design
- Design of user interfaces for the achievement of goals
- Design activity: conceptual modelling
First drafts
- Design activity: information architecture
- Design activity: Interaction design
- Make design decisions tangible to get feedback
Aspects beyond the design activities
- Managing stakeholders
- Setting the frame for design work
- Attending to implicit design tasks
- Documenting design decisions
How do I get certified?
Certification in CPUX-DS is by passing both a theory and a practical exam. You can find further information and detailed descriptions about the theory and practical exams in the CPUX-DS exam regulations.
Theory exam
The theory exam consists of 40 multiple-choice questions, written by us, based on the content of the CPUX-DS curriculum. You have 90 minutes to answer the 40 questions and you need to score at least 28 points out of 40 (70%) to pass the exam.
Practical exam
The practical exam involves carrying out five exercises relating to designing solutions, over an 8-hour period:
- Create an interaction specification
- Derive and enrich three task objects
- Create an information architecture
- Create a low-fidelity prototype
- Evaluate card sorting results
The practical exam will be assessed using the CPUX-DS checklist; you need to score at least 70% to pass.
A complete practice practical exam can be found in the 40 practice theory exam questions and complete practical exam for Designing Solutions (CPUX-DS).
Choose what suits you
You can choose the level of CPUX-DS certification that best suits you. If you only want to demonstrate the knowledge you have gained you can take just the theory exam; if you want to demonstrate that you are able to put the theory into practice and be a practicing UX professional, capable of designing solutions then you should also take the practical exam.
Exams are carried out by one of our independent certification providers, who between them operate across the globe, meaning you can take your CPUX-DS exams pretty much anywhere.
The process is very straightforward:
- Get CPUX-F certifiedBefore you you can take any advanced-level CPUX certification you need to have passed the Foundation in Human-centred Design (CPUX-F) exam.
- Learn your stuffBook a training course with one of our recognised training providers, or, if you prefer to pace yourself you can self-study. Whilst we recommend attending a training course, due to the additional, valuable insight you will get from your training, all our curricula are completely free and available and contain everything you need to pass your exams.
- Choose a certification exam provider
If you attend a training course, your course administrator might already have helped you organise your exams; if you are studying by yourself, you just need to register with one of our independent certification providers. - Take the theory and practical certification examsYou can take your exams in person (if that is what your training provider has organised), remotely via a special exam app, or at a Pearson test centre. CPUX-DS includes both a theory and a practical exam.
- Tell the world you are a UX professional
After you have passed the exam, get on LinkedIn and tell everyone you are a Certified Professional in UX and usability. - Choose your next CPUX certification…
Once you have got your CPUX-F certificate you can take the advanced-level courses in any order, so why not start with the one that looks the most useful to you?
What is the CPUX-DS exam like?
The CPUX-DS theory exam consists of 40 multiple-choice questions. Each question has one, two or three correct answers. To pass the exam you need to score at least 70%.
Here are some examples of the questions, taken from the freely available CPUX-DS practice theory exam questions – this document also includes an example of the practical exam, which involves carrying out five exercises relating to designing solutions.
Which two types of information CANNOT be used as inputs for the development of an information architecture?
- Mental models of users
- High-fidelity prototypes
- Task objects and executable functions in currently used systems
- The content to be presented
- Style guides
- User group profiles, personas, task models, and use scenarios
The designer of an interactive system can influence user behaviour in several ways. Which two of the following options are examples of deliberately influencing user behaviour?
- When ordering on a website, clicking on the shopping cart displays an overview of the items that have already been placed in it.
- When registering on a website, the check mark for newsletter registration is already set.
- The logo of a company appears on the website in the upper left corner.
- The number of options for selecting an age range (for instance, 20–40) is increased from four to five.
- On a petition website created to collect signatures, the following note appears: 80% of the supporters of this petition leave a donation afterwards.
- After completing the order, you will receive an order confirmation by email.
CPUX-DS curriculum, practice questions and exam regulations
All you need to study and get certified in Designing Solutions
Designing Solutions (CPUX-DS) Curriculum
Version 1.01a, released June 2021
Exam regulations for Designing Solutions (CPUX-DS)
Version 2.1, August 2022
40 practice theory exam questions and complete practical exam for Designing Solutions (CPUX-DS)
Version 1.2b, released April 2021
Checklist for the Designing Solutions (CPUX-DS) practical exam
Version 1.2, March 2021
Sample Certificate (CPUX-DS)
released April 2025
CPUX-DS documentation and certification is also available in German language
How much does CPUX-DS cost?
Costs for studying
You can self-study by reading the CPUX-DS curriculum at your own pace, however, for a good deal more insight, lots of practical exercises, and the chance to learn from expert trainers and other delegates, we encourage you to take a training course with one of our recognised training providers.
Self-study will only cost you your time, training providers will naturally charge for attending their training courses.
Prices, locations and timings vary – choose from the list of upcoming CPUX-DS training courses below and see the training provider’s website for their prices.
If, after studying by yourself or having attended a training course, you want to become certified, you will need to take the CPUX-DS certification exam.
Costs for certification
CPUX-DS certification is a rigorous process designed to produce trustworthy results, so your certification has real value – CPUX certificates are far more than proof of your attendance during a training course – they demonstrate you know your stuff!
If you have attended a training course, your training provider may have organised this for you, if you need to organise your exam, take a look at the exam process and choose an exam provider that suits you.
Prices vary depending on exam provider, whether you are a student or member of a specific UX organisation, or if you are booking a retest.
CPUX-DS certification typically costs £xxx to £xxx. A 20% discount is available for members of our member organisations.
All our curricula are free!
If you just want to study the CPUX-DS curriculum without becoming CPUX-certified, you can do that for free! All our curricula are freely available – you can download them and start reading them now. You can also download a set of 40 practice theory exam questions, to help consolidate what you’ve learned.
Find a CPUX-DS training course
| Level | Country | Location | Date | Length of time | Course Language | Training provider |
|---|
Germany
Switzerland
Canada
Austria
DenmarkFrequently asked questions about the CPUX-DS
Many people struggle with the task, to design solutions, which fit to identified user needs or derived user requirements instead of building solutions without any relationship to the context of use.
Designing solutions progress the methodological approach “User requirements engineering”
- by using task models and user requirements as basis
- by creating ideas to support users along tasks to achieve goals by fulfilling user requirements (and because of that satisfying user needs),
- to concretize the necessary information exchange regarding those ideas in the most possible way (describing detailed information flows between user and system in dialogue steps along a task, assuming we could find a solution to support that way)
- to identify the necessary amount of information to exchange between user and system and structure them in task objects with attributes, executable functions and signposts
- to prototype views as part of the user interface to support user flows along their tasks to achieve their goal.
If you simply generate alternative prototypes and only one variation survives based on user feedback, the question is whether it actually addresses the specific goals and needs of the users in their context in the best possible way.
The approach in Designing Solutions allows ideas and alternative solutions to be concretised in such a way that these specific goals and needs of users are actually supported by the future solutions that can be experienced in prototypes.
This systematic and time-consuming approach can often not be followed completely for all user tasks and in every detail in everyday project work, but it is particularly helpful when the solution is not obvious and the simple use of existing style guides and design patterns is not enough. UX designers must decide for which user tasks it is necessary to follow such an approach, minimally when developing and formulating their own design decisions that are not immediately obvious and which of these must be documented in as much detail as described in the curriculum during the work. Certification is about knowing this complete and detailed path and being able to demonstrate that you can realise it. Based on this, you can then tailor your own approaches to everyday project work more competently.
Task flows and user flows are often used synonymously to describe the interaction of a user with a solution along a task. These are often presented in flowcharts, which depict the process along the task, but do not specify the interaction in terms of the actual information/resources to be exchanged.
In the CPUX-DS curriculum, the work result interaction specification is used for the same purpose, but with more specificity. It describes the concrete exchange of information between the user and the supporting solution along the subtasks of a task, taking into account existing user requirements.
Experienced designers often make design decisions in these design activities rather implicitly. Often the individual approach is tailor-made, in relation to
- the designer’s usual working methods
- the task allocation within teams,
- the creation of deliverables for oneself,
- necessary deliverables for communication, or
- the focus of design activities in a specific way
- the current phase of the project.
The systematic procedure described in CPUX-DS does not aim to formally fill tables and templates. Instead, the aim is
- to be able to evaluate and formulate implicitly made design decisions and use them explicitly for argumentation,
- to be able to make certain design decisions more explicit and to be able to use them more sustainably and across projects or products.
In the practical examination you have to demonstrate, that you are able,
- to create and develop an interaction specification for a given task, based on understanding the context of use, especially the given task model and user requirements
- to identify task objects, their attributes and executable functions from a given interaction specification
- to name signposts
- to structure task objects
- to identify deviations between an information architecture and a card sorting result
- to create views in a low-fidelity prototype along a task using results, like interaction specification and information architecture.
Got a question about CPUX-DS?
If you have any questions, please contact Knut, the CPUX-DS editor.
Knut Polkehn
editor-cpux-ds@uxqb.org
Further reading recommendations from the editor
Knut says, “The CPUX-DS exam will only test you on what is in the CPUX-DS curriculum; no further reading is required. However, you may be interested in the following recommendations which may help your understanding of the material covered in CPUX-DS.”
Conceptual Models: Core to the Design of Interactive Applications
by Jeff Johnson & Austin Henderson
UX Magic
by Dan Rosenberg
What’s next, after CPUX-DS?
It’s on to the next curriculum! We have another two advanced-level curricula that cover User Requirements Engineering and Usability Testing and Evaluation.
If you are a CPUX-F certified UX professional, you are eligible to take any of these exams – good luck!
Advanced Level
User Requirements Engineering
(CPUX-UR)
Advanced Level
Usability Testing and Evaluation
(CPUX-UT)
CPUX CERTIFICATION IS OFFICIALY RECOGNISED BY
