Enhancing user experience has become more critical than ever in this saturated market. Therefore, to build a solid impression on the audience, businesses must stand out in terms of products or services and design to enhance user experience. This is also the reason why the demand for UX designers is growing around the world. Hence, building a career around UX design is lucrative. There are plenty of opportunities to learn and grow if you are serious about it. You can find many paid and free UX design courses online to learn the skills and prepare yourself for the challenges. It will help establish a solid foundation to build a successful career in UX design. So, do you love designing? Is the path of UX design seems interesting to you? Let’s discuss a few things about UX design before looking at some of the best UX design courses online.
What is UX Design?
User Experience (UX) is how a user feels while using a product or service. The products and services could be anything tangible or intangible such as a car, smartphone, mobile application, website, etc. UX can involve any interaction between a product or service and the user, like how the product/service looks, how the elements influence them, and their experience using or interacting with it. So, UX design is a process of creating a product or service so that the user can use it easily and enjoy interacting with it. It aims to enhance the user experience by improving usability, efficiency, and accessibility. UX design involves thorough research, planning, and data analysis. The process is driven by test results to make the product as user-friendly as possible to improve the overall user experience. It’s different from User Interface (UI) design which focuses on designing the interface of a product or service, such as a website, and is driven by opinions and aesthetics. On the other hand, UX design includes all the aspects of user experience like usefulness, ease-of-use, desirability, performance, and brand perception.
How does UX design fit in the development and design process?
The UX design process for one organization might differ from another. However, the key areas remain the same. Here’s how UX design fits in the development and design process. While creating a product or service, such as a website, there are mainly eight stages involved:
Understanding the requirements: This is to understand the client’s goal of creating a site or product/service and business. It requires you to research the target audience, their difficulties, how the product can solve those problems, and related brainstorming.Planning: Here, you will choose the software development methodology, technology stack, define deliverables, estimate resources, and the timeline for project completion. It will also include structuring and wireframing the website, the number of pages it would have, functions it must have, etc.Designing: UI and UX come into play here to design the website by converting the wireframes into graphics, colors, typography, buttons, animations, menus, branding, etc.Development: It includes both front-end and back-end development by transforming the designs into special effects and animations, integrating functions based on the chosen tools and technologies, integrating business logic, database, etc.Content: Adding content for the website based on the purpose and target audience to entice them.Testing: Checking the website for its performance, reliability, security, usability, etc., while ensuring no errors or bugs remain in it.Launching: When the website has passed the test and gets approval from the QA team, it is launched or deployed for the user.Maintenance: It involves periodic maintenance of the website to remove errors bugs and update its components to remove security vulnerabilities and outdated technologies.
The importance of a good UX Design
Increases Conversions
There’s a lot of competition around. Customers wanting to purchase something or seek information would have many options. And if they come to your website and can’t find what they are looking for or feel difficulty accessing some information due to poor design, they may leave your site for another. A good UX design with suitable CTAs would help you stand from the rest, attract more customers, and boost conversions. But if you design your site user-friendly, it’s easier for them to access information, purchase products without difficulties, etc. They will appreciate it and consider your site over the others.
Reduces Costs
Designing a site without a purpose or customer consideration could lead you to spend heavy bucks on resolving issues that may arise in the later stages. If you can ensure good design from the start, there would be fewer errors to encounter, and you would have to spend less time, resources, and money to fix them.
Improves SEO
User experience is not only to delight your customers but also to improve your SEO rankings. Search engines also emphasize user experience, and sites with good UX design can rank higher in their results. It also helps in PPC marketing (such as Google Ads) to optimize your campaign’s success.
Loyalty and credibility
Good UX design always weighs higher than the one with poor design elements and difficulty navigating and accessing information. And you know, “the first impression is the last impression”; good design will help build your credibility. It will also attract more visitors and boost customer loyalty through a seamless user experience.
Branding
With tailored UX design, you can retain more customers. Your happy customers will recognize you from a distance by looking at your solid designs and logos. They may also refer your products, services, or website to their friends and family. It helps increase your revenue. Combining all these benefits, UX design plays a vital role in the present business world. And if you want to build a career in it, you can learn UX design online with various programs and courses available. Here are some of the best UX design courses for developers and designers.
Udemy
UX Design Essentials – Adobe XD UI UX Design
Become a UX designer using Adobe XD and work on UX projects from start to end. The course covers many topics, from building to testing and sharing the designs with your connections. It will help you gain knowledge of everything a UX designer needs to perform in the real world. You will get 93 well-structured lectures step-by-step to gain more profound knowledge. You will also learn how to use premade kits, create a UX brief, and work with fonts and colors. In addition, you will learn shortcuts and workflow tricks to save time in completing a project. Upon course completion or during the course, you can choose a project, build a complete UX structure, and add it to your CV. Udemy teaches you to speak professionally with other experienced professionals regarding any project. It will also teach how to pick the perfect fonts for your design and applications and test them for mobile phones and websites. You will learn to build a prototype with the same features and actions but with micro-interactions to test efficiently. Furthermore, you can export the production-ready tools, learn to build quick wireframes, and make your work easier. It requires no previous experience in designing and using Adobe XD.
Adobe XD Masterclass
Adobe XD is the most widely-used and popular tool for UX design. In this course, you’ll find everything you need to know to master it like a pro. It will teach you all the software’s details and the tools and procedures that are part of it. It is not free, but for a few bucks, it offers you 2.5 hours of on-demand video tutorials, lifetime access to its materials, and a certificate of studies. With a star rating of 4.2 out of five, this course is aimed at anyone who wants to start designing user interfaces. Students have put to work around two examples: a full app with six pages and a car selling website interface.
Coursera
Introduction to User Experience Design
Coursera introduces a User Experience (UX) design course which is user-centered. You will learn to design artifacts that ensure users satisfaction and a better experience. Learn the cycle of discovery to evaluate and set your techniques to give effective service to the users. It will teach you the disciplines of UX design much more effectively. Upon completing the course, you can call yourself a professional UX designer. You will learn from beginning to end in 5 weeks, including introduction, overview, requirement, alternatives, prototyping, and evaluation. Share your certificate with others to get noticed by employers.
Google UX Design Professional Certificate
Coursera offers a Google UX design certificate to help you build a promising career. Coursera teaches you the design process by brainstorming ideas, defining pain points, idealizing solutions, creating wireframes, prototyping, testing, iterating, and evaluating. Learn to apply foundational concepts based on UX like accessibility, equity-focused design, and user-centered. It helps you understand things better, from planning research studies to usability studies and synthesizing results. Create an extraordinary portfolio with at least three end-to-end satisfied products, a well-responsive website, application, and more. Gain knowledge on how to make everyday interactions of users with devices enjoyable, accessible, and valuable. It requires no previous degree or experience.
Udacity
Become a UX designer with Udacity’s design courses and build helpful user experiences for the products in the real world. Allow the world to see your ability to transform user research into high-quality interactive designs. The estimated time for the UX design course is three months, and you will need 10 hours every week to learn. Anyone interested in UX design can enroll themselves without prior experience and immediately access the course. Gain skills in creating the user experience from the beginning to the development stage. You will learn to brainstorm your ideas according to the users’ needs and use your idea to design a small prototype for testing. You will also learn the final process, i.e., turning your prototype into the main design. The course will teach you to create engaging UX for our digital world like digital interfaces, web-based platforms, web and mobile applications. Udacity includes real-world projects from experts, technical support, career services, and a flexible learning program in every course.
Advance your knowledge and enhance your skills in UX design with LinkedIn Learning to build a better portfolio. It will help you explore validation techniques, mobile design considerations, prototyping, and more so that you can expand your skills. There are many videos on various courses related to UX design, such as:
Sketch for UX designInVision for UX designCreating a design system with Adobe XDIllustrator for UX design, mobile prototypingUX design portfolioSketch essential training
Upon completion of the full training, you will earn your badge. LinkedIn Learning includes seven courses and a total of 10 hours of content. So, start your 1-month free trial now.
FutureLearn
Enhance your digital skills in designing user experiences with FutureLearn by understanding the importance of UX design, how to research, design basics, tools, techniques, and final tests. The course is developed by Accenture. Its duration is three weeks with 2 hours of weekly study. You will learn:
UX and its importantanceFoundations of UX designGood UX vs. bad UXUX design processVarious techniques in testing and developmentReleasing the final product in the market
Enroll yourself based on its availability and learn at your speed. You can meet other learners during the course to share ideas, discuss the project, and more. You do not need any previous skills or qualifications to enroll yourself. Once you join, you will get unlimited access to the UX design course, articles, peer reviews, quizzes, and videos. Keep track of your progress and assessment scores to know your performance level. When you are ready with the step, mark that as complete. To earn your badge, you need to complete at least 90% of the steps and assessments.
Interaction Design Foundation
Grow your career in UX design by learning from the Interaction Design Foundation. You will get an industry-recognized certificate upon completion of the course. Enroll yourself with a flat fee and go at your own pace to never lose the class. Interaction Design Foundation offers 14 courses in four parts to be a great UX designer. Becoming an expert in UX design is just one step ahead. Let’s look into the four parts of the course in detail: Foundation (includes two courses):
The beginner’s guideThe ultimate guide
UX Designer Beginner (5 courses): Here, you will learn:
The basicsHow to run the user-centered design projectBuild a portfolioHuman-Computer InteractionBecome a UX designer from scratchJourney mappingData-driven designDesign for the 21st century
UX Designer Intermediate (3 Courses): Gain skills with the essential tools from the UX design toolbox.
UI design patterns for successful softwareUser research-methods and best practicesAgile methods for UX design
UX Designer Advanced (4 courses): It will teach you:
Mobile user experience designEmotional designUX Management: Strategy and TacticsAccessibility: How to design for all
Access all the courses easily related to UX design and advance your knowledge to build your great portfolio. View your preferred course, go with it, and earn your certificate.
General Assembly
General Assembly offers the best UX design course for you, along with on-campus training. Choose your suitable time from the available durations and start developing your ideas on UX. It will help you grow your universal skills to solve even complex problems. Build a future-proof career in UX designing to provide a great experience to the end-users and showcase solo projects as well as group and client projects. Connect with experienced instructors from across the globe via Slack and Zoom. No worries if you are a slow learner; the General Assembly thinks beyond and gives you extra hours to get additional guidance, technical assistance, feedback, and more. Get in touch with technologists and UX designers via virtual sessions, such as guest talks, hiring panel discussions, and studio hours. Check the complete syllabus of your course, starting from UX fundamentals to UX career planning.
CareerFoundry
Become a professional UX designer within ten months with CareerFoundry. It allows you to learn flexibly without disturbing your daily routine. Get the chance to work with experts and build a good-looking, professional portfolio. This UX design course is for six months or ten months at 30-40 hours/week or 15-20 hours/week, respectively. CareerFoundry provides human-centric learning, flexibility, satisfaction, and surety of success. In the UX design course, you will:
Learn all the skills, processes, and tools related to UX designWork with an expert or tutor and get personalized feedback as well as complete insight into your progressGet tailored coaching to ensure you will be at the top of your careerBuild an excellent portfolio out of the projects you completeGet help from career specialists to land as a UX designer
No background qualification or technical knowledge is required. Enroll yourself by paying $650/month for ten months with an upfront payment of $1,400 or pay $7,505 at a time to avail yourself of a discount.
Springboard
Springboard gives you a flexible UX design course that fits your schedule. Enhance your skills at your own pace with 1:1 mentorship from experts. Collaborate with your mentor weekly to share your views and get feedback. You can gain real-world knowledge to become a professional UX designer and build an impressive portfolio. The course consists of more than 350 hours, including in-depth articles, videos, career-related coursework, and hands-on design projects. The first step includes design thinking, user research, synthesis, presentation, ideating, designing, sketching wireframes, UI, prototyping, design sprint, and special topics. You will learn to identify customers’ problems, conduct comprehensive research, sketch and build a prototype, and perform tests to improve. Get the chance to work on an industry project where you collaborate with a client directly, dig deeper, and become an expert in the field. Springboard offers flexible pricing options. If you want to pay after getting a UX job, it would cost you $389/month for 36 months. Pay at the beginning of the course at $7,900 or pay monthly at $1,590/month for six months. You can also finance your education. If you are not happy with the course, apply for a full refund within seven days of enrollment.
Ironhack
Join Ironhack’s UX design Bootcamp and gain UX designing skills. Without prior experience or IT background, this course will help you become a UX designer in 9 weeks if full-time or 24 weeks if you do it part-time. The course includes online prework, module 1, module 2, and module 3, where you will learn from basics to advance and how to design a prototype for testing before final development. You can learn online, with the community, or in person. Anyone interested in tech can easily take the course and enhance their skills in the design field. Get in touch with UX design instructors to cross the boundary.
Designlab
Learn UX design with Designlab and land your design role in the leading industries. It has a robust network of mentors which is its secret weapon. Just enroll in the course, pair with an experienced designer within minutes, and enhance your knowledge. They will prepare you and guide you for your career. Join hands with the community to learn more extensively through community feedback. You can also expect some interactions from Designlab, such as 1:1 mentor calls to improve your skills, regular feedback on the work, 12 group credits, and unlimited access to Slack. Spend your 480 hours during the training and become a full-time UX designer. Build a stunning portfolio out of the projects during the training to showcase your skills to employers. You will also learn communication and design basics, along with an intro to UX design, different research techniques, and the ways of using them. Moreover, you will learn information architecture, interaction design, interaction, implementation, portfolio set up, and capstone projects like adding a feature, responsive web design, and end-to-end application. Enroll yourself now at just $6249 one-time payment or $1041/month.
Weekly Design
Tutorials, Assets, Interviews
Punit Chawla runs this channel with lots of videos about UX Design. It is a bit Adobe XD-centered, but it also has information about other tools and interesting interviews with discussions about all kinds of design topics. Check out the “Design Sucks” section, where you’ll find analysis and judgment of popular UIs, along with their flaws and strengths.
UX Design Books
Books? Who reads books when there’s so much content in online courses, videos, and blogs, right? Wrong. A lot of people still use books as a learning tool, because they are easy to take them with you and learn at your own pace, while you are on a long trip or whenever you have some time to read. There are a lot of great learning materials in books written by renowned experts in UX design. And we’re going to tell you about the ones you really should read, even if you are taking a course or watching training videos.
#1. About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design
As its name says, this is an essential interaction design guide. This is the book that shaped the landscape of interaction design. Its 4th edition is completely updated and revised for the mobile age, taking into account the shift to smartphones and tablets. Thanks to this book, the interaction design escaped from research labs and broke into the daily lives of many people. It is a comprehensive guide that includes discussions on touch interfaces, screen sizes, mobile apps, and much more. The authors are renowned professionals in the fields of computing, programming, and design, which allows them to provide a broad view of the UX design field.
#2. Adobe XD Classroom in a Book
You want to take a course on Adobe XD but don’t have room in your schedule for it? No problem. This book is an Adobe XD classroom you can take with you. It’s a best-seller from Adobe Press, so you can’t go wrong with it. It has 11 lessons that guide the readers through all the necessary steps to learn the key techniques of Adobe XD. They are project-based lessons for designing and prototyping real content for real apps and websites. Together with the book, you get plenty of companion files that provide all the necessary materials for the reader to complete the projects featured in each chapter.
#3. The Ridiculously Simple Guide to Sketch App
The name tells you almost everything you need to know about this book. If you simply want to learn about Sketch in a ridiculously simple way, this is the book for you. The Ridiculously Simple Guide to Sketch App is written for non-coders and non-designers, that is, regular people who need to pitch an idea to potential investors but don’t have the knowledge to materialize it. With this book, you’ll learn how to use Sketch to effortlessly generate mockups that look and feel like the real thing. After that, if you get the funds, then you’ll have to seriously think about how you will turn your idea into a working thing.
#4. Presentation Zen
I wouldn’t recommend Presentation Zen book to people seeking practical information to start working on UX design quickly. But if you have some spare time, please read it. It will teach you valuable lessons on how to present your ideas. Because the difference between an average UX design and an awesome one may not be in the design itself –it may be in the way it is presented. Its author, Garr Reynolds, shares his experience in turning a simple bunch of slides into an illuminating, provocative, educational, and inspirational presentation. You could check his site, presentationzen.com, to get a grasp of his ideas before you buy the book.
Conclusion
Good UX design offers many benefits such as increased conversions, customer loyalty, brand recognition, improved SEO wrangling, and more. Since UX designers’ are in high demand today, making a career around it is advantageous. Thus, if you are serious about it, consider the UX design courses mentioned above to learn the skills and build a lucrative career. 12 Courses to start your career in Conversation Design.
