As for now, breaking into the tech industry is easier than ever. Even without an extensive knowledge of code, there are many opportunities to begin a new career in tech. One of these sectors looking to hire is the high-growth field of UI/UX. There are currently 99,000 job openings for UI/UX in the United States alone. With a median entry-level salary of $92,000, the UI/UX field is one to consider if you are looking for a job or career change.
UI/UX design stands for User Interface and User Experience design. UI/UX designers are responsible for the aspects of digital products that users interact with. They do not code how digital products work, but rather design how they look and how users use them.
Luckily, the UI/UX field is rather easy to break into as a college degree is not required. However, aspiring designers need to have a professional-grade portfolio and working knowledge of key design concepts. We have compiled a list of the top UI/UX courses that can help you learn UI/UX design online and also help you get started building your portfolio.
For more like this, check out these articles: Best Business Skills and Courses for Tech Geeks and Highest Paying Programming Languages.
Principles of UI/UX Design
Principles of UI/UX Design is a course deliberately structured to introduce beginners to the basic concepts of UI/UX. This course is offered by Meta and counts as an elective for the following professional development certificate programs:
- Meta iOS Developer Professional Certificate
- Meta Front-End Developer Professional Certificate
- Meta React Native Specialization
- Meta Android Developer Professional Certificate
This five-week course is perfect for beginners, with no more than 6 hours of content being introduced a week. Upon taking this course, users will learn to conduct empathy-based UX research and create Minimum Viable Product (MVP) mockups for digital products in Figma, the premier UI software. They will learn the best practices for interaction design methods and evaluate existing interfaces for design consistency and quality.
Create Your UI/UX Portfolio with GitHub
A portfolio is the most important asset for every UI/UX Designer. A portfolio helps designers to showcase their capabilities and attract clients. Clients use portfolios to determine whether or not a particular designer’s work fits with the brand aesthetic of the client.
Create Your UI/UX Portfolio with GitHub is a short course offered by Coursera and is the perfect way for UI/UX Designers to get a head start on crafting a professional-grade portfolio. Instructor Rochelle Deulley, a former educator turned software designer, will walk students step by step through the process of setting up their portfolio on GitHub. GitHub is a cloud-based service, that many software developers and UI/UX designers use to store their projects. You can think of it as the Google Drive of the tech industry. The course breaks down the portfolio creation process into the following steps:
- Set up GitHub and Visual Studio Code
- Download a Bootstrap Template
- Customize your Navigation Bar & Hero Section
- Import Images onto your Site
- Write an About Me Section
- Configure GitHub & Customize your Skills Section
- Customize your Portfolio
- Customize the Testimonials & Contact Section
UI/UX Design Specialization
The UI/UX Design Specialization is a series of courses designed to help students master their UI/UX skills. This project-based learning program consists of four courses:
- Visual Elements of User Interface Design
- UX Design Fundamentals
- Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture
- Web Design: Wireframes to Prototypes
This specialization is led by the California Institute of the Arts and taught by faculty members Michael Worthington and Roman Jaster. Upon completion, students will be able to summarize and demonstrate all stages of the UI/UX development process.
These courses allow students to learn how to define a project’s strategy and information architecture and practice developing sitemaps and wireframes.
Once enrolled in this specialization, students gain access to every course. Upon completion, they will also receive a professional certificate that will help them boost their resume. Furthermore, students are eligible for a free month-long trial for Optimal Workshop’s full product suite of UX tools.
Google UX Design Professional Certificate
Run by Google Career Certificates, the Google UX Design Professional Certificate program promises to prepare any student for any entry-level UI/UX career. 75% of Google Career Certificates Graduates have reported an improvement in their career trajectory within six months of completion. Comprised of seven comprehensive courses, this program will teach students how to complete the UX design process from beginning to end. The seven courses are as follows:
- 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
- Responsive Web Design in Adobe XD
- Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs
Over the course of six months, students will have built a professional portfolio comprised of three end-to-end projects: a mobile app, a responsive website, and a cross-platform experience. They will have gained experience using Figma and Adobe XD and knowledge of the entire design process from research.
Designing a Low Fidelity Prototype in Figma
A low-fidelity prototype (lo-fi) is an easy way to translate high-level design concepts into testable products. It is concerned with the app or website’s function rather than its aesthetics and serves as a way to prove the functionality of the app or website. Low Fidelity Prototypes are one of the most important parts of the UI/UX design process.
Designing a Low-Fidelity Prototype in Figma is a course run by Coursera. Taught by Grace Okubo, a project manager with expertise in marketing and UI/UX design, this course is designed to walk students through the lo-fi process. Although a simple walkthrough, the course does require some background knowledge of key UI/UX principles.
This is a quick 1-hour long course that reviews the lo-fi process in the following easily digestible steps:
- Create an account in Figma
- Explore the Figma Interface and Add a Frame
- Draw UI elements on Your Screen
- Practice Task: Draw UI Elements on Your Screen
- Make Components
- Build your User Interface with Components
- Use UI Kits to Create Designs in Figma
- Practice Task – Design a User Interface with Simple Elements and Components
- Present and Export Your Prototype
- Designing a User Interface for an A/B Test.
