Finding the best UX courses

As such, there are now a wide range of online courses that aim to teach you the core elements of UX design. By taking one of these courses, you’ll learn how to incorporate the key features of UX design to ensure that users find your site useful, usable and enjoyable.

There are UX courses that cater to a wide variety of needs. From newcomers to UX design who are learning the fundamentals of this theory, to those who are already involved in developing or marketing, there are many reasons why you may wish to boost your UX knowledge.

This is something that’s been mirrored in the rapid growth of UX design courses. All of these will aim to give you a comprehensive overview of what UX is all about, and how to put this knowledge into practice.

Despite this, it can sometimes be difficult to know which UX course suits your needs best. So we’ve compiled a guide to the kinds of UX courses currently available. This will help you find a basic UX course for beginners, or hunt down an advanced course in UX design that can take your knowledge to the next level.

The best UX design courses for beginners

These courses are perfect for those just getting started in UX design. You could be a web entrepreneur looking to give their site a facelift or a marketer wishing to upgrade your next campaign. The following courses will outline the fundamentals of UX design at a competitive or even free price point.

SuperHi - Introduction to User Experience Design

This course is aimed firmly at those with little pre-existing knowledge of UX design. Here you’ll get  to learn the fundamentals of what UX design is all about. This will be accompanied by a walkthrough of the classic UX design process. As such, you will discover important aspects of the UX ethos such as wire-framing, creating prototypes and testing your site.

This course might only cover the basics of UX design, but it will feature enough practical applications to make your next project a lasting success.

FutureLearn: Digital Skills: User Experience

This is another popular course that teaches you the basics of UX design. The course will start with a broad outline that highlights what constitutes good UX design along with outlining bad UX practices. The majority of this course will follow a series of video tutorials that will cover a range of topics including testing methodologies and customer research.

You’ll also benefit from a series of exams that will help you monitor your own progress in learning UX theory. It’s expected that users will put in at least two hours of work each week to keep up with the tutorials. But the best part is that the FutureLearn course is completely free, so it won’t eat into your budget.

SkillShare: Intro to UX: Fundamentals of Usability

Many people have signed up to the SkillShare courses as they offer a free series of tutorials that you can access to learn from a computer or mobile device. The introductory lessons on UX design will give you the chance to learn via a series of five-minute long videos. These are all created by users on the SkillShare site, so the quality of these tutorials can vary significantly.

However, they are all good ways to improve your overall knowledge of the UX framework. Plus by upgrading your SkillShare membership to the Premium option, you can get access to the full library of courses.

Coursera: Introduction to User Experience Design

Coursera offers a range of paid and free tutorials relating to UX design. The paid courses will give you certificates and additional benefits, but the free lessons can provide a clear and effective way to learn the basics of UX design. The Coursera courses will take place via video tutorials and there will be a range of graded assessments to make sure that the knowledge is taking hold.

The only drawback to taking these Coursera classes is the fact that they are kept to fixed schedules which means that you can’t work at your own pace. But for anybody looking for a free way to learn about anything from prototyping to user research, the Coursera tutorials are hard to beat.

Lynda: UX Foundations

This popular professional learning resource features a range of five-minute video tutorials that will clearly explain how to apply UX design to your projects. There is no timeframe by which you have to follow these tutorials and they manage to give you the basics of the UX theory. You’ll get to learn about how a site’s usability can be effectively tested and discover how a good content strategy is critical for the success of any marketing project.

Once you’ve got the basics in place, Lynda also offers you the chance to upgrade your knowledge with the Advance Your Skills In UX Design tutorials. You get a one month free trial period to see whether Lynda works for you. Beyond these, there are basic and premium packages for anybody who wishes to take things further.

Taking it to the next level - Top intermediate UX courses

Once you’ve mastered the key elements of UX theory, it could be time to tackle some of the more demanding features of UX design. Take a look below to see some of the best intermediate UX courses currently available.

UX Academy: Intermediate UX Course

This is a paid online course that aims to further your knowledge of UX design. You’ll benefit from live online teaching that reveals the many practical skills required to succeed in this increasingly specialised field. It’s a part-time course that can be tailored to meet the needs of anybody with a full-time job. The classes are small so that you can benefit from the experienced UX design teachers and learn from the specialised mentorship sessions. You will also be able to work on UX design projects for real companies and see the effects of your hard work.

While it is a paid course, UX Academy provides a variety of flexible payment methods to suit your budget. Plus you can graduate with a signed course certificate to show that you have mastered the essential features of good UX design.

Interaction Design Foundation:

When the godfather of UX design Don Norman says that the Interaction Design Foundation features ‘a goldmine of information on interaction design’, you know that this resource is doing something right. This Swedish non-profit site allows you to get an industry-recognised certificate in UX design for dozens of different courses.

It may be wise to start off with the User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide course, but from here, you’ll find plenty more interesting topics to learn. These cover a range of different issues that include the likes of visual design and the basic principles of usability. Alongside the video tutorials, Interaction Design Foundation members can benefit from a vast range of textbooks and professional forums. There’s an annual membership fee to access these courses, but they can all be carried out at a pace that suits your needs.

Springboard: UX Design Course

Looking to get a job incorporating UX design, but don’t have time to take a lengthy course? Then be sure to take a look at the Springboard UX Design Course. This aims to get you up to speed in UX theory to be employment-ready in less than one month.

You’ll have to work hard to take advantage of this UX course. With 100+ hours of content to master that includes case studies and practical applications, there’s a lot to take in. But it offers you an excellent way to learn everything from creating prototypes to making mobile-optimised sites. This is because Springboard features a unique mentorship scheme where you’ll get the help you need to tackle even the most oblique UX concepts. This comes at the cost of some monthly fees, but the benefits of taking this course can be impressive.

General Assembly: User Experience Design Immersive

General Assembly has put together a user-friendly series of online courses that cover all aspects of UX design. These will require full-time attendance between Mondays and Fridays, and the course will last for nearly three months. Here you’ll get to learn about areas like testing, collaboration, design leadership and work on real life design tasks.

While it will cover the basics of UX design, it’s more geared towards those professionals who are looking for in-depth UX training. As such it comes with a fairly hefty price tag, but this is balanced out by a variety of networking options, along with the potential of meeting key employers in this rapidly growing field.

Mastering UX: The best advanced UX design courses

If you are determined to make yourself as employable as possible with your UX design knowhow, you may wish to enter higher education. Such is the demand for UX design skills, that a number of colleges and universities now offer courses that specialise in this area. Here is a quick overview of the higher education establishments that feature advanced UX design courses.

University of Arts London: BA in User Experience Design

This year-long course offers an in-depth theoretical and practical approach to learning all areas regarding UX design. It will aim to give you the tools you need to see how computer technologies can be used to build prototypes and user interfaces.

There will even be looks at how innovative new technologies such as wearable technology and extended reality are pushing the boundaries of UX research. This will be supplemented by opportunities to work in industrial settings and learn how technology sectors are constantly pushing UX design to new limits.

Hyper Island Manchester: MA in Digital Experience Design

This is part of an international business school that aims to give you the real-world training you need to take your UX design to the highest standards. You’ll spend half a year on the campus in Manchester learning the analytical tools necessary to cope in this fiercely competitive industry.

This will be followed by six months at an industry placement where you’ll get to put your UX knowledge to the test. Hyper Island has previously worked with everyone from the BBC to Adidas, and this MA course offers one of the most progressive ways in which you can learn about the latest advances in UX design.

Picking your perfect UX course

We’ve illustrated the basic fact that there is an ever-growing number of UX courses currently available. As such, it can be tricky in working out which UX course is right for you. There are ultimately a handful of criteria by which you should pick your preferred UX tutorial. Obviously, cost can be a big factor, but we have shown that there are many excellent courses that can be enjoyed for free.

Similarly, you might feel that you simply don’t have enough time to dedicate yourself to learning the complexities of UX design. Thankfully a number of these courses feature tutorials that you can pick up and put down as and when you please. This means that you can simply watch a five-minute video tutorial at a time that suits you.

Furthermore, the above courses have all been developed by industry experts so you can be sure of learning the key components of UX design that are actually in demand from the workplace. Plus with many of these educational resources offering industry-recognised certification, it shows that there are plenty of ways in which you can improve your employment prospects by signing up for one of these approved UX courses.