The Best UX/UI Design Courses Online

Jacob Cass
JUST Creative
Published in
9 min readJan 6, 2020

Having skills in either UX or UI design can go a long way towards having a successful and rewarding career. As with most skills, taking a class is a great way to earn the knowledge you need to be able to enter the field and get to work. That led us to recommend our choices for the Best UX/UI Design Course available online.

When choosing your course, take into consideration the value, cost, length and content of each course, and the fact that some options are subscriptions, meaning you will get access to multiple courses and instructors.

Before we get to our list however, we felt that we should start with something simple. What do UX and UI mean and what do they do?

So, let’s start there.

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What exactly are UX and UI design?

For some people, the terms UX and UI are as confusing as trying to understand someone speaking in another language. We thought that before we moved forward, we should explain as simply as possible, what UX and UI design is exactly.

UX Design

UX stands for user experience. UX design is the process that design teams use to create a product that provides a meaningful and relevant experience to the end-user. To accomplish this, it can include the entire process including the acquisition and integration of the product. This can also include aspects of branding, design, function, and usability.

  • Real-World Example — Paypal

A great example of quality UX design is Paypal. Before going through a redesign in 2014, Paypal was a very confusing site and process. By simplifying things and making things easy for end-users to navigate, they have never been more successful. They still have annoying interstitial ads they could remove to improve the overall experience, and be more transparent with their fees & exchange rates.

UI Design

UI stands for User Interface. Essentially, the user interface is the layout of how a website or an app looks when you use it. It can consist of the buttons you click on, the way the text appears on the page, the images, sliders, and all the rest of the items that the user can interact with. This can also include the layout, transitions, any animations that may occur on the interface, as well as any micro-transactions. Any visual element, interaction, or animation on a website or application needs to be designed and that is what UI does.

  • Real-World Example — Mailchimp

A very good example of quality UI design is the website for Mailchimp. Creating newsletters and email campaigns can be a very tedious and confusing process, especially when you’re first starting. To make this simpler, Mailchimp provides users with a beautiful interface that is easy to navigate and understand. There are plenty of user guides if you get stuck and clear calls to action to help new users.

Best UX Course Providers

Course Provider Cost (USD) Length Springboard $5900-$8200 9 months Coursera Free 7 hours Coursera 7 day free trial then $49/month 3–5 months LinkedIn Learning 1 month free trial then $49/m 12 hours CreativeLive $20 class or $39 subscription 12 hours Skillshare 1 month free trial then $10/m 1–3 hours Udemy $10/course 2–4 hours LearnUX.io $12/m 3.5 hours Mike Janda $299 16 hours

The Best Online UX/UI Design Courses

Springboard: UX/UI Design Path (Comprehensive Course)

UX UI Bootcamp

Created by: Springboard | Cost: $5900-$8200 | Duration: 9-months (15–20 hours a week)

Unlike some other courses on our list, the UX/UI offered by Springboard, you’ll build your project. This means that at the end of the course, you will have a multi-page design that you can add to your UX portfolio. Through this course, you’ll learn the whole design process from conducting interviews, to producing wireframes and building a testable prototype. Along with the course, you have a personal mentor that you will have weekly meetings to help you through the course. While the cost of the course is high, the mentoring and completed project at the end may make it worth it for many people. It’s one of the most comprehensive UX courses on the market and you can choose between UX and UI or just UX.

COUPON DISCOUNT CODE: Get $500 off with code ‘CASSCREATIVE500’

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Coursera: Introduction to User Experience Design

Coursera: Introduction to User Experience Design

Created by: Georgia Insitute of Technology | Cost: Free | Duration: Approx. 7 hours to complete

Developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Introduction to User Experience Design is an easy-to-understand course led by Dr. Rosa I. Arriaga and covers the very basics of UX design including the basic principles and the four-step design circle. The lectures are easy to follow and the syllabus for the course is very straightforward making it easy to understand. If you are just getting started in UX, this could be a great course for you.

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LinkedIn Learning: User Experience Path

LinkedIn Learning UX Class

Created by: Chris Nodder | Cost: 1 month free trial then $49/m | Duration: 12 hours

A modern user experience designer understands modern design concepts. They also have the research and analysis skills to design effective, compelling digital experiences across different mobile platforms, the web, and the Internet of things. This path will help you build the foundation for a solid career in UX design.

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CreativeLive: Introduction to UX

CreativeLive UX Class

Created by: Jamal Nichols | Cost: $20 or $39 for Creators Pass subscription | 10 Video Lessons

User Experience or UX is one of the fastest growing and highest paying professions around. Whether you’re a seasoned designer, or just looking to speak the language of your colleagues or clients, the principles of UX design help you better connect with the users of your product or service. In this beginner class, industry expert Jamal Nichols will explain what UX is and how to incorporate it into your work to create more meaningful experiences. Designers tend to focus on how things look, when the focus should equally be on how things work.

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Skillshare: Introduction to Axure RP for UX/UI Designers

Skillshare: Introduction to Axure RP for UX/UI Designers

Created by: Sarah Khan | Cost: Skillshare subscription (one-month trial available) | Duration: 1h 3 min

If you already work as a UX/UI designer, from time to time, taking a course to help enhance your skillset can help. Courses like the Introduction to Axure RP for UX/UI Designers on Skillshare, which allows creators to post short lectures that focus on a single skill. Created for those who have never used Axure before, Sarah Kahn helps viewers learn about text properties, adding elements, layers and more. The course even covers how to save RP files and what you should do when you publish and collaborate using Axure. This is a great course for anyone interested in Axure but wants to know more about it before taking a full course.

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Udemy: UI/UX design with Adobe XD: Design & Prototype a Mobile App

Udemy: UI/UX design with Adobe XD: Design & Prototype a Mobile App

Created by: Luca Vavassori | Cost: $10 | Duration: N/A

Adobe XD is one of the newer programs out there that can be used for UI/UX design and many believe like many other Adobe apps, it will be a preferred tool for designers as it blends both UI design and prototyping in one application. With this course, you’ll learn all about how Adobe XD works by doing it. You’ll design a simple app all within the Adobe XD program.

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Skillshare: Mobile App Design from scratch with Sketch 1, 2, 3

Skillshare: Mobile App Design from scratch with Sketch 1, 2, 3

Created by: Maxime Cormier | Cost: Skillshare subscription (one-month trial available) | Duration: 43 min, 59 min, 1 h 17 min

A three-part class, the Mobile App Design course shows you the entire design journey from start to finish. Starting with ideation, the course goes through prototype creation and iterating it. It even covers the creation of the app’s icon. Maxime Cormier and fellow teacher, Adrian promise students that they will not only help familiarize us with Sketch but also help us learn how to think like a professional designer by the time the course is over. If you have a Mac and want to know how to use Sketch, this is a great course for you to take

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Learnux.io: Usability

Learnux.io: Usability

Created by: Michal Mazur | Cost: $12/mo | Duration: 3 h 30 min

Taught by author Michal Mazur, the Usability course is for those who are eager to learn what UX involves. Mazur explains the concept of usability in this course and also touches on basic ergonomy as well as cognitive psychology. Covering 18 lessons which also help to define usability, what the best practices of designing interfaces are, and use findings in cognitive psychology that show how our brains perceive objects and how that affects the way we understand the world around us. Usability is one of the most important things to accomplish in UX/UI design and this course can help get you closer to that goal.

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Udemy: Design for Humanity: A New Perspective on User Experience

Udemy: Design for Humanity: A New Perspective on User Experience

Created by: Eric A Meyer | Cost: $10 | Duration: 4 h 12 min

The Design for Humanity course is built on research and design thinking which teaches how to design by learning how to challenge the vision you have, using stress cases to test, and analyze the real design. This course provides students with the knowledge and tools they need to come up with fun original ideas and exercises that they can use to test their designs.

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UX Design by Michael Janda

UX Design by Michael Janda

Created by: Michael Janda | Cost: $299 | Duration: 15 hours of content

Michael Janda, author of Burn Your Portfolio has more than 20 years of experience as a UX designer, working with some of the biggest companies in the world. In his course, Janda offers his years of knowledge to help students, art directors, and even UX designers learn something new and apply it to where they are in their UX/UI journey. With 15+ hours of content, 16 modules and 58 lessons, having the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the industry is well worth the price.

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Coursera: UX/UI Design Specialization

Coursera: UX/UI Design Specialization

Created by: California Institute of Arts | Cost: 7 day free trial then $49/month | Duration: Approx 4 months (4hrs/week)

Broken down into four separate courses, the UX/UI Design Specialization covers the entire design cycle from the basics of user research to defining a project’s strategy and scope as well as creating wireframes and sitemaps. While this isn’t a quick course at all, the amount of information that it provides should be taken by someone who has the time and the dedication to learn.

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More UX Courses:

The Best UX/UI Design Courses

Working in either UX or UI can be an exciting and rewarding field to get into. Before you start though, learning the processes and the details behind what makes UX and UI important is critical. We hope that our list of the Best UX/UI Design Courses to help you learn web design has piqued your interest and helped you considering adding this skill to your repertoire.

Is there a UX course out there you’ve taken that you recommend? Let us know in the comments below!!

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Jacob Cass
JUST Creative

Helping brands grow & get results with strategic branding & distinctive design. Founder of agency, JUSTCreative.com — Clients: Nike, Disney. TEDx speaker. Dad.