If you’re interested in pursuing a career in the area of UX/UI Design I definitely recommend enrolling in at least a few courses to get you started. Whether they are online programmes, courses or even just tutorials, it is extremely important to get acquainted with the domain, the terms and the tools that you can use in this type of creative process.
I gathered some of the courses I found offer great information and resources, but also have high reviews from users that completed them. You can find them all listed below, along with a small introduction about each of them so that you can have a first impression as of which would be better suited for your needs.
1. Coursera
The grandaddy of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), Coursera works with some of the world’s most renowned universities and companies to bring their courses to the masses. You’ll find UI-UX design courses such as Google UX Design, IBM and many more.
- Course duration: 4 weeks
- Pricing: Free
2. Udemy
Udemy is like a hive-mind of all things tech and professional development. Instead of culling UI-UX design courses from established universities, the platform allows experts to create and offer their own courses, either for free or paid.
Their education model means you have to be careful which course you plump for, but reactions from Forbes, Mashable and Fast Company have been positive.
Udemy’s UI-UX design courses provide arching overviews of user experience, intended to set you up for a professional start in the industry. You’ll find a broad range of UI-UX design course topics, all diving into various depths of study, from design strategy to mobile app design.
- Course duration: around 15 hours
- Pricing: pay per course, from $19 and skywards
3. Skillshare
Less a traditional course provider and more a community for mutual learning, Skillshare allows you to be both teacher and student.
Platform members attend online classes, create online portfolios of their work, take part in discussions and debates, and can even earn cash by stepping into the teacher role. Classes cover subjects such as HTML, web development, prototyping and, of course, UX Design!
- Course duration: 40 minutes – 4 hours
- Pricing: $12 a month or $8 for the annual membership
4. Interaction Design Foundation
There’s a lot of buzz around the IDF‘s UI-UX design courses and resources. Even Don Norman describes the Scandinavian-based outfit as “a goldmine of information on interaction design”. The numbers are just as compelling: over 1,000 universities use IDF resources and almost 140 companies are signed up to their learning materials.
So what do they do that attracts so many people? Variety and depth. IDF offers 34 UX design courses, all online and self-paced, in a range of user experience-based topics.
- Course duration: around 10 weeks
- Pricing: IDF courses are “free to members”; IDF annual membership starts out at around $13 a month. Get your online UX certification now!
5. CareerFoundry
CareerFoundry claims to be able to take you from UX zero to hero in 3 months, with UI-UX design courses that convert you “from beginner to working professional”. They even offer you a 100% refund if you don’t get a job you love within 6 months of graduation!
With that kind of safety net, it’s definitely worth checking out their course offerings which include courses like UI Designer and UX Designer. The UX Design course provides you with access to both a tutor and a mentor, who help you work through 60+ practical challenges and teach vital skills in prototyping, user testing and design.
- Course duration: 10 months
- Pricing: 1 course of 6 months comes home at $2,499