User Experience: The Beginner's Guide
How This Course Will Help Your Career
User experience, or UX, has been a buzzword since about 2005. Chances are, you’ve heard of the term, or even have it on your portfolio. But your understanding of what the term “user experience” means might be wrong—or, more accurately, insufficient.
“[User experience] is used by people to say ‘I’m a user experience designer, I design websites’, or ‘I design apps.’ And they have no clue as to what they’re doing, and they think the experience is that simple device, the website, or the app, or who knows what. No! It’s everything—it’s the way you experience the world, it’s the way you experience your life, it’s the way you experience the service. Or, yeah, an app or a computer system. But it’s a system that’s everything.”
— Don Norman, pioneer and inventor of the term “user experience”1
Most people fail to see the whole picture of “user experience.” And when you can’t see the forest for the trees, you’re missing a lot of factors that help to create an optimal user experience. That’s why having a comprehensive understanding of the entire umbrella of “user experience” is critical, backed with solid theory—especially since customer intelligence agency Walker predicts that experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator by 20202.
Through this course, you will gain a thorough understanding of the various design principles that come together to create a user’s experience of using a product or service. Through this, you’ll learn how to design a product or service properly, one that will avoid any design pitfalls that blight your competitors’ offerings.
What you will learn
- Areas of study categorized under the umbrella of “user experience”
- The separately conceived yet converging design principles established over the last four decades
- Some of the psychology underlying these principles
- Key concepts within the subject
- A number of the cognitive processes underlying human-computer interaction
- The role of visual perception in the viewing experience
- Examples of good and bad design to help you avoid common mistakes
- The importance of usability over aesthetics
Who should take this course
This is a beginner-level course suitable for newcomers and experienced practitioners alike:
- UX designers looking to boost their work experience with evidence-based theoretical knowledge
- Project managers who want to build user-centered products that stand out from the competition
- Software engineers interested in understanding important design concepts such as usability and human-computer interaction
- Entrepreneurs who want to gain a deep understanding of “user experience” in order to ship the best products
- Marketers looking to gain a holistic view of what constitutes a user’s experience with a product or brand
- Newcomers to design who are considering making a switch to UX design
Courses in the Interaction Design Foundation are designed to contain comprehensive, evidence-based content, while ensuring that the learning curve is never too steep. All participants will have the opportunity to share ideas, seek help with tests, and enjoy the social aspects afforded by our open and friendly forum.
Learn and work with a global team of designers
When you take part in this course, you will join a global multidisciplinary team working on the course and the exercises at the same time as you. You will work together to improve your skills and understanding. Your course group will be made up of an incredibly diverse group of professionals, all of whom have the same objective—to become successful designers. It’s your chance to learn, grow, and network with your peers across the planet.
1 Don Norman: The term “UX”, YouTube
2 Customers 2020, Walker
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Lessons in This Course
- Each week, one lesson becomes available.
- There’s no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
- Estimated learning time: 18 hours 12 mins spread over 10 weeks.
Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 38 mins.
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0.1: A Beginner's Guide to User Experience (7 mins)
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0.2: An introduction to courses from the Interaction Design Foundation (37 mins)
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0.3: Let our community help you (1 min)
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0.4: Meet your peers online in our discussion forums (6 mins)
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0.5: Meet and learn from design professionals at an upcoming meet-up (1 min)
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0.6: Gain Timeless Knowledge Through Courses From the Interaction Design Foundation (21 mins)
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0.7: How to Earn Your Course Certificate (16 mins)
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0.8: Mandatory vs. Optional Lesson Items (7 mins)
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0.9: A Mix Between Video-Based and Text-Based Lesson Content (8 mins)
Lesson 1: User Experience: An Introduction and Key Concepts
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 17 hours 25 mins.
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1.1: The Subject of User Experience (1 hour 46 mins)
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1.2: What Is Usability? (1 hour 18 mins)
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1.3: What the #$%@ is UX Design? (20 mins)
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1.4: Interactive Experience (6 mins)
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1.5: The Principle of 'Visibility' (37 mins)
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1.6: The Principle of 'Findability' (37 mins)
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1.7: The Principle of 'Learnability' (1 hour 8 mins)
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1.8: Following the Information Scent (47 mins)
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1.9: Affordances (41 mins)
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1.10: Mapping (34 mins)
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1.11: Constraints (33 mins)
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1.12: Feedback (1 hour 7 mins)
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1.13: Hick's Law (37 mins)
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1.14: Fitts's Law (36 mins)
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1.15: A Summary of UX Concepts (6 hours 8 mins)
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1.16: User Experience - Marc's introduction to User Experience and Experience Design (33 mins)
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1.17: Design Principles (6 mins)
Lesson 2: User Interface Design Guidelines
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 13 hours 22 mins.
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2.1: Shneiderman’s Eight Golden Rules Will Help You Design Better Interfaces (52 mins)
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2.2: User Interface Design Guidelines: 10 Rules of Thumb (52 mins)
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2.3: Principle of Consistency and Standards in User Interface Design (52 mins)
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2.4: Visibility of System Status (37 mins)
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2.5: Match System to Real-World (37 mins)
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2.6: User Control and Freedom (36 mins)
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2.7: Error Prevention (33 mins)
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2.8: Recognition Vs. Recall (33 mins)
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2.9: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use (37 mins)
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2.10: Aesthetic and Minimalist Design (36 mins)
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2.11: Aesthetic and Minimalist Design - More Needed Than Ever (32 mins)
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2.12: Offer Informative Feedback (32 mins)
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2.13: Help and Documentation (32 mins)
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2.14: 'Permit Easy Reversal of Actions' (35 mins)
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2.15: Provide Informative Feedback (36 mins)
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2.16: Reduce Short-Term Memory Load (33 mins)
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2.17: Support Internal Locus of Control (40 mins)
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2.18: The Psychological Basis for UI Design Rules (2 hours 31 mins)
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2.19: The Ten User Experience Design Principles A La Wordpress (5 mins)
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2.20: Designing the User Experience (5 mins)
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2.21: UI Design Failures (6 mins)
Lesson 3: The Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organisation
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 9 hours 49 mins.
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3.1: A Valuable List of Gestalt Principles (11 mins)
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3.2: 'Law of Pragnanz' (39 mins)
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3.3: Applying the Laws (37 mins)
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3.4: 'Law of Similarity' (37 mins)
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3.5: 'Law of Proximity' (38 mins)
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3.6: Law of Familiarity/Meaningfulness (41 mins)
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3.7: 'Law of Common Fate' (7 mins)
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3.8: 'New' Grouping Laws (33 mins)
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3.9: Gestalt Principles: 'New' Grouping Laws (40 mins)
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3.10: The Law Of Element Connectedness (37 mins)
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3.11: 'Law of Synchrony' (33 mins)
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3.12: 'Law of Common Region' and The Origin of The Gestalt Laws (1 hour 36 mins)
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3.13: Figure/Ground Organisation (40 mins)
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3.14: 'Figure/Ground': Gestalt Psychology (38 mins)
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3.15: Figure/Ground Organisation: An example of Figure/Ground (32 mins)
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3.16: Design Considerations (34 mins)
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3.17: Gestalt Principles in Practice (7 mins)
Lesson 4: Visual Perception and Colour Vision
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 13 hours 36 mins.
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4.1: Understanding Human Vision (42 mins)
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4.2: The Fovea and Design (8 mins)
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4.3: Anatomy and Function of the Eye (9 mins)
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4.4: Colour Vision (40 mins)
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4.5: Vision and Design: Using Colour (1 hour 9 mins)
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4.6: Theories of Human Colour Perception (37 mins)
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4.7: Colour Blindness (44 mins)
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4.8: Photoreceptors fovea (1 hour 0 mins)
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4.9: Object Perception (45 mins)
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4.10: Visual Perception: Vision and Design (1 hour 13 mins)
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4.11: Vision and Design: Using Images (40 mins)
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4.12: Context and other influences (1 hour 44 mins)
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4.13: Vision and Attention (50 mins)
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4.14: Vanishing Head Illusion (32 mins)
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4.15: Vision and Design (40 mins)
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4.16: Visual Perception: Icon Design (1 hour 4 mins)
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4.17: 25 Excellent Websites Using Bold Vibrant Colours (32 mins)
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4.18: Color Vision 1: Color Basics (31 mins)
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4.19: Visual Design: Positive and Negative Experience (6 mins)
Lesson 5: Usability Considerations
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 14 hours 55 mins.
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5.1: Simply Simplify (31 mins)
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5.2: Simplicity in Design (34 mins)
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5.3: Simplify Task Structure (7 mins)
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5.4: Simplify Navigation (38 mins)
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5.5: Consistency (40 mins)
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5.6: Avoid 'Tech-Speak' and Negative Affect (39 mins)
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5.7: Don Norman: The Three Ways That Good Design Makes You Happy (56 mins)
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5.8: User Experience - Marc's Advice on Designing with Experience in Mind (1 hour 35 mins)
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5.9: User Experience - Marc's Main Guidelines and Ethical Considerations (1 hour 8 mins)
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5.10: External Cognition (38 mins)
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5.11: 'Chunking' (8 mins)
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5.12: Drawing Users' Attention (39 mins)
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5.13: Banner Blindness (35 mins)
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5.14: Serial Position Effect (9 mins)
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5.15: Customization Tools (36 mins)
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5.16: Shortcuts and Memory (12 mins)
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5.17: Retain Goal-Relevant Information (34 mins)
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5.18: Security (35 mins)
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5.19: Preventing Errors (33 mins)
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5.20: Protect the Areas at Most Risk (31 mins)
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5.21: Slow Loading Text: Designing Interfaces (23 mins)
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5.22: Slow Loading Images: Designing Interfaces (37 mins)
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5.23: Important Superficial Decisions (10 mins)
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5.24: Context of Use (32 mins)
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5.25: Focus On Users (32 mins)
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5.26: Usability Considerations (31 mins)
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5.27: Using Sound (7 mins)
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5.28: Why Does User Experience Matter? (5 mins)
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5.29: The Value of Experience Design (5 mins)
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5.30: The UX Design Process (5 mins)
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5.31: Discussion Exercise (6 mins)
Lesson 6: User Error: Who is to blame?
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 4 hours 40 mins.
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6.1: British Midlands Flight 92 (14 mins)
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6.2: Who is to blame? (1 hour 10 mins)
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6.3: The USS Vincennes (43 mins)
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6.4: The Air Inter Flight 148 Crash (38 mins)
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6.5: The Space Shuttle Columbia (35 mins)
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6.6: The Herald of Free Enterprise (7 mins)
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6.7: The Three Mile Island Nuclear Disaster (33 mins)
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6.8: Air France Flight 447 (38 mins)
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6.9: User Errors: What went Wrong? (7 mins)
Lesson 7: Usability Testing and Evaluation
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 8 hours 30 mins.
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7.1: Usability Evaluation (4 hours 55 mins)
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7.2: Recommended reading (2 mins)
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7.3: The Importance of Usability Testing (7 mins)
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7.4: 15 methods for ensuring user acceptance and business success (3 hours 19 mins)
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7.5: A-Z Guide to Optimization (5 mins)
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7.6: The movement toward mobile devices (5 mins)
Lesson 8: Inspection Methods: Practice and Application
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 56 mins.
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8.1: Heuristic Evaluation: Usability Inspection Methods (40 mins)
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8.2: Cognitive Walkthrough: Usability Inspection Methods (39 mins)
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8.3: User Experience - Future directions of User Experience and Experience Design (1 hour 8 mins)
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8.4: When to use Which UX Methods (5 mins)
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8.5: Customer Journey Maps - Walking a Mile in Your Customer’s Shoes (11 mins)
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8.6: Quick Start Guide to UX Design (5 mins)
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8.7: Is it time to Rethink your Website? (5 mins)
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8.8: Carrying Out a Heuristic Evaluation of a Product (7 mins)
Lesson 9: Usability Testing: Practical Application
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 5 hours 30 mins.
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9.1: Practical Issues: User-Centred Design (36 mins)
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9.2: What are the user's needs? (1 hour 7 mins)
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9.3: What are the alternative designs? (38 mins)
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9.4: How do I choose an alternative design? (35 mins)
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9.5: Integrating UCD and Other Life-Cycle Models (2 hours 16 mins)
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9.6: Usability Testing (1 min)
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9.7: Are you a UX Statistic? (5 mins)
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9.8: A Guide to UX Careers (5 mins)
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9.9: How to become a User Experience Designer (5 mins)
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9.10: Discussion Forum (6 mins)
Lesson 10: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up
To be scheduled.
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10.1: Course Evaluation (1 min)
How Others Have Benefited
Veena Sankaranarayanan, Australia
“I learnt a good deal from various lesson items and design examples. I also appreciate how repeating key topics helped me memorise them and kept me well involved. Thank you.”
Evgeni Manov, Bulgaria
“The quality of information provided surprised me!! Good job IDF!! Keep moving forward!”
Donato Colatorti, Italy
“I'm very happy to have concluded this course. I learnt lot of interesting things... so thank you!”
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Advance my career nowFrequently Asked Questions
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With a Student membership, you can take a maximum of two courses at the same time. You can still take as many courses as you would like – free of extra charges – just as long as you finish or drop them so that you don’t have more than two ongoing courses.
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Networking is a large part of our value proposition, so we want just the right number of people inside the courses. That is also why we display the "XX % percent booked" on our course icons.
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No. You can set your own study schedule. There are no "live sessions" since we have members from all timezones around the world. We are a truly global community.
Thus, once you are enrolled, you can take all the time to complete a given course. Every "classroom" in each course will never close, so you’ll have permanent access to your classmates and your course material (as well as your own answers).
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You can see an example of a Course Certificate at the bottom of the Course Catalogue.
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You will have access to the course materials for the entire duration of your membership. So, if you pay for a one-year membership, you will have access for one year. Renewing your membership for a second year means you will have access to one more year, and so on.
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No, you will not be locked out of any lesson or course. You will have access to all course materials throughout your membership, so there is no pressure to keep at the same pace as the specified lesson release dates.
All we recommend is that you try to stick to the same schedule as other participants. The reason is they may have moved on to other lessons, thereby meaning you could miss out on the social aspects of the course(s).
Do I have a specific date to award my certificates?
No, you can generate your certificate as soon as you score at least 70% of the total course points.
When will I receive my Course Certificate?
Course certificates will be given to participants when they have scored more than 70% or more of the total course points. For example, if a course contains ten lessons each with ten questions, you will receive a course certificate when the instructor has awarded you at least 70 points (70% of the total course points).
There is no specified time that certificates will be awarded — instead, they are given to participants as and when they have answered all questions, even if this is long after the official end date.
How do I add my Certificate to my LinkedIn profile?
Here is how to add your IxDF certificate(s) to your LinkedIn profile:
Log in to your LinkedIn account, then go to your profile.
On the right, in the Add profile section dropdown, choose Background and then select the + next to Licenses & Certifications.
3. In the following fields add:
Name – Course name
Issuing organization – The Interaction Design Foundation
Check the field “This credential does not expire”
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How do I add the Interaction Design Foundation Membership Certificate to my LinkedIn Profile?
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to add your Interaction Design Foundation course(s) to your LinkedIn profile:
Log in to your LinkedIn account, then go to your profile.
Bellow your profile description,in the Add profile section dropdown, choose Background and then select the + next to Licenses & Certifications.
3. In the following fields add:
Name – Membership Certificate
Issuing organization – The Interaction Design Foundation
Check the field “This credential does not expire”
Issue date - Input the date when you joined our community (e.g., May 2019)
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You will need approximately 5-8 hours to complete one lesson. Each course has between 3 and 16 lessons.
Once enrolled in a course, you will gain access to a new lesson each week, which you are free to complete without any deadlines and no end date, either.