The 9 Best UX Design Courses for Beginners

Good applications don’t just have beautiful and fascinating user interface (UI) designs. They’re also highly usable and capable of facilitating excellent user experiences (UX). Such apps allow individuals to easily navigate from one page to another and find desired content.

Investing in UX design can lead to greater user satisfaction and retention. When users find an application easy and enjoyable to use, they’re likely to stay longer.

If you’re a beginner looking to create well-designed applications, you must first sharpen your UX designs. What better way to improve than enrolling in the best UX design courses?

Keep reading to discover top UX design courses that can help enhance your UX design skills.

The Top UX Design Courses for Beginners:

1. Google UX Design Professional Certificate (Coursera)
2. UX Academy Foundations (Designlab)
3. Introduction to UX Design (Udemy)
4. Beginner UX Design Course (My UX Academy)
5. UX Design (LinkedIn Learning)
6. Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide (Interaction Design Foundation)
7. UX Design Short Course (General Assembly)
8. UX Design Program (CareerFoundry)
9. UX Design Bootcamp (Springboard)

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1. Google UX Design Professional Certificate (Coursera)

Google UX Design Professional Certificate is a seven-course program offered by Google that helps you gain UX design skills, including creating prototypes, wireframes, and mockups. It also takes you through UX research and usability testing, ensuring you make highly functional digital products.

The program supports a flexible schedule where you go through a self-paced learning experience over six months, ensuring you master all the UX fundamentals. Plus, industry experts offer mentorship, guiding you in applying UX design skills in three real-world applications you can use in your portfolio. Apart from engaging in numerous hands-on projects, you earn a professional certificate on completion, which you can present to recruiters.

Curriculum:

• Foundations of user experience (UX) design
• Start the UX design process: empathize, define, and ideate
• Build wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes
• Conduct UX research and test early concepts
• Create high-fidelity designs and prototypes in Figma
• Build dynamic user interfaces (UI) for websites
• Design a user experience for social good and prepare for jobs

Duration: Six months at 10 hours per week

Best for: Beginners looking to quickly master UX design fundamentals

Price: Free trial for a week—then $49 per month

2. UX Academy Foundations (Designlab)

UX Academy Foundations takes learners through design principles, user research, and prototyping. You also collaborate 1:1 with professional mentors who provide helpful feedback and support to allow you to quickly master UX principles. What’s more, mentors can provide valuable career advice, which can help you establish yourself in the field upon course completion.

The UX Academy Foundations program is fully online, meaning you can learn anytime from anywhere. Besides mastering fundamentals, learners also get to experiment with industry-standard design software like Figma and upcoming AI tools to build fascinating user interfaces capable of delivering excellent user experiences.

Designlab provides technical training, including courses like Figma 101, Sketch 101, and Photoshop 101, to enhance your UX design experience. Successful completion of the UX Academy Foundations course gives you access to the UX Academy, where you dive deeper into the intricacies of UX design.

Curriculum:

• Visual design basics
• UI fundamentals
• Images, icons, and elements
• Color and typography
• Interaction and input
• Responsive design
• Final design challenge
• Intro to UX design (optional)

Duration: Four to eight weeks at 10–20 hours per week

Best for: Beginners looking to work closely with mentors

Price: $499

3. Introduction to UX Design (Udemy)

The Introduction to UX Design course on Udemy takes you through the entire UX design process, from the ideation stage to the product iteration phase. The program also provides tips and techniques experienced designers use to deliver an enjoyable end-to-end user experience to clients. As a result, going through this short course helps you develop the mindset for developing well-rounded digital products.

Apart from the course videos, you can access extra resources, including downloadable PDFs and design assets. Each lecture video also has a corresponding set of notes, ensuring you don’t miss any points.

Plus, you’re taken through practical tutorials on user interface design using various design tools, including Figma, to enhance your mastery of UX fundamentals. At the end of the course, you’re awarded a certificate on successful completion, which you can add to your resume.

Curriculum:

• Introduction to the course
• What exactly is product design?
• User research
• Competitor research
• The business and product managers
• Who are we designing for?
• Interaction design
• User stories and problem statements
• Ideation and storyboarding
• User flows
• Introduction to wireframing
• Creating a prototype
• Usability testing
• Case studies and portfolios
• Next steps

Duration: 1 hour of videos. Flexible timing—there’s no set duration

Best for Enthusiasts and intermediate designers looking to update their UX design skills

Price: $24.99 for full-time access

4. Beginner UX Design Course (My UX Academy)

The Beginner UX Design course takes students through in-depth learning sessions where they explore different UX phases, from user research to creating prototypes and wireframes to product testing. The program also highlights how to identify pain points and opportunities in the user journey and how to take advantage to deliver a great experience.

With full-time, part-time, and self-paced learning options, the Beginner UX Design course is a good fit for different students, including those on a tight schedule.

The program also has numerous mentorship opportunities, allowing students to be guided by industry experts in applying UX design skills to real-world projects. Plus, students can work in teams where they learn not only how to design but also to communicate with colleagues.

Curriculum:

• UX principles
• User-centered design
• Discovery research and user interviews
• Design workshops and mapping
• Interaction design, wireframes, and prototyping
• User testing and project iteration

Duration: Eight weeks

Best for: Individuals interested in starting a career in design or designers looking to sharpen their skills

Price: Around $1,900 for the full course (can vary depending on the exchange rate)

5. UX Design (LinkedIn Learning)

Available on LinkedIn Learning, UX Design is a short program that focuses on UX design, UX research, and prototyping skills. The program is molded around a user-centered design approach, allowing users to create applications that are truly enjoyable to use.

The UX Design course also features an integration of multiple quizzes and real-world projects, which facilitates a comprehensive and fun learning experience. For instance, learners get to know how to create multiple personas to satisfy different user needs.

At the end of the course, you’re awarded a certificate of completion, which you can download and share with others. Or, enhance your online portfolio by displaying it on your LinkedIn profile.

Curriculum:

• User-centered design
• UX techniques

Duration: This series takes about 20 minutes to introduce core UX design aspects

Best for: Enthusiasts looking for a quick introduction to UX design

Price: $39.99 per month for access to all LinkedIn Learning courses

6. Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide (Interaction Design Foundation)

The Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide course teaches learners how to apply design thinking to develop user-centric solutions. It covers a wide range of courses, including interaction design, user testing, and research.

Apart from the course, Interaction Design Foundation members also have access to in-depth articles, tutorials, and hands-on projects. Some of the lecture videos are created by industry experts and mentors who provide guidance on applying design principles to produce human-focused applications.

Curriculum:

• What is design thinking?
• How to build empathy with the people you design for
• How to define the problem
• How to ideate for solutions
• Prototyping your ideas
• Testing design solutions
• Course certificate, final networking, and course wrap-up

Duration: This is a self-paced online course, about 28 hours over eight weeks

Best for: UI/UX graphic designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and software engineers

Price: To become a member of the Interaction Design Foundation, you can subscribe to the Professional plan ($22 per month paid yearly) or the Design League ($240 per month paid monthly).

7. UX Design Short Course (General Assembly)

The UX Design Short Course equips you with the skills to research and understand user needs and create intuitive digital experiences. It also focuses on aspects like design thinking and prototyping and taking learners through hands-on exercises, allowing students to gain real-world experience.

General Assembly also provides Front-End Development for Designers to help them create responsive websites. For instance, UX designers can understand how HTML and CSS work behind the scenes to design better products. The course helps them bridge UX design with front-end development for more cohesive product design.

With individualized instructor support, you get feedback, support, and guidance from industry leaders to sharpen your design skills. Plus, you can connect with other peers and alumni to grow careerwise.

Curriculum:

• Introduction to UX design
• User research
• Insights and personas
• Sketching
• Feature prioritization
• Maps and flows
• Wireframes and prototyping
• Usability testing
• Visual design
• Design systems and patterns

Duration: 10 weeks, two 2-hour sessions weekly

Best for: Individuals with no prior UX and UI design

Price: $4,500

8. UX Design Program (CareerFoundry)

Whether you’re a beginner or a professional looking to transition into UX design, CareerFoundry’s UX Design program equips you with the skills and knowledge to launch your career.

Through the program, you learn how to perform user research, build sitemaps, and create wireframes and prototypes. You also acquire technical skills in how to use design tools like Figma, InVision, and Sketch. The course also connects you with industry mentors and experts who guide you in designing apps and conquering the job market.

The UX Design program also includes projects involving multiple stakeholders, personas, and technical steps like user testing and research to help learners gain practical experience.

Curriculum:

• Introduction to UX and design thinking
• User research
• User personas
• Information architecture
• Wireframing and prototyping
• Usability testing
• Presenting your design process

Duration: Between six and 10 months depending on the hours per week you choose

Best for: Individuals wishing to transition to UX design

Price: $7,900

9. UX Design Bootcamp (Springboard)

UX Design Bootcamp is a self-paced, mentor-led online course that takes learners through a career-focused curriculum. Students get to collaborate with peers to build real-world projects to build their skills. You can add the projects to your online portfolio and showcase them to potential employers.

While the boot camp offers numerous design courses, you must meet specific requirements to qualify. For starters, you need at least a degree or experience in areas like understanding users, developing digital products, and managing visual content. You also require excellent communication, problem-solving, and collaboration skills.

Curriculum:

• Introduction to UX design
• Design thinking
• Understanding the problem
• Understanding your user
• Synthesizing your research
• Intro to design tools
• Design and ideate
• Information architecture
• Sketching and guerilla usability testing
• Wireframing and interaction design
• User interface (UI) design
• Psychology principles and special topics
• Prototype and test
• Communication skills
• Portfolio projects

Duration: Six months

Best for: Beginners looking to work closely with mentors

Price: $11,900

Choose the right course for you

While numerous UX design courses are available, not all are the right fit for you. Here are tips for finding the best course based on learning style, availability, cost, and career goals.

• Learning style. If you’re self-driven and capable of working independently, a self-paced course is suitable. But if you prefer a more structured environment, consider full-time or instructor-led courses.
• Availability of mentorship. Mentors and industry experts can help you acquire the necessary skills to thrive in a UX design career. It's a good idea to select courses where you can interact 1:1 with mentors.
• Consider the course curriculum. Each course features a curriculum that it follows. Before signing up, review the curriculum and determine if it aligns with your career goals.
• Cost. When you’re exploring UX design as a career option, start with inexpensive introductory courses. Once you’re committed to pursuing a UX design career, invest in an intensive course that truly builds skills clients will pay for.
• Duration. Design courses also have different durations. Some take a week, while others span a month or longer. Ensure that the course duration works for you.

Popular UX design tools

• Figma. Figma stands out for its collaborative interface, allowing multiple users to work on the same project simultaneously. It's cloud-based, making it accessible from anywhere, and offers powerful features for designing, prototyping, and gathering feedback.
• Sketch. Primarily favored for its simplicity and focus on UI/UX design, Sketch is a vector-based tool available for Mac users. It offers an extensive library of plugins and integrations, making it versatile for designing interfaces and creating prototypes.
• InVision. InVision is a prototyping tool that excels in enabling designers to create interactive mockups for their projects. Its strength lies in facilitating teamwork and feedback collection, integrating seamlessly with other design tools to streamline the design process.
• Marvel. Marvel is a user-friendly platform that provides a straightforward way to create prototypes, design interfaces, and test user experiences without coding. It's versatile, supporting direct design or importing from other tools, and offers tools for user testing and feedback.

Find UX design projects on Upwork

UX design skills are valuable when it comes to developing well-rounded digital products. Excellent UX design skills can help you stand out among the many apps in the market, providing a more engaging user experience, thus attracting and retaining more users.

Enrolling in any of the courses discussed can place you on the right path toward being a successful UX designer.

Once you’ve gained the skills, Upwork can connect you with various UX design jobs, allowing you to grow your portfolio while earning extra income. Get started today!

If you’re a client looking for support, find talented UX design professionals on the Upwork platform.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the services discussed in this article. These services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the services that would best fit their specific needs and situation. Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service’s offerings.