User Experience: The Beginner's Guide v1

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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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Is This Course Right for You?

  • You want an evidence-based curriculum taught by industry leaders.
  • You want real-world design skills that translate directly into professional practice.
  • You want to earn industry-recognized credentials.
  • Your time is too valuable for scattered free content with no structure.
  • You want learning that leads to better roles and stronger earning potential over time.
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    Add IxDF Course Certificates to your LinkedIn profile and résumé to show you've completed an evidence-based curriculum taught by industry leaders.

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Course Overview

  • Each week, one lesson becomes available.
  • Study flexibly. Take as much time as you want.

Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour, 32 mins.

Lesson 1: User Experience: An Introduction and Key Concepts

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 17 hours, 31 mins.

Lesson 2: User Interface Design Guidelines

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 13 hours, 21 mins.

Lesson 3: The Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organisation

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 9 hours, 49 mins.

Lesson 4: Visual Perception and Colour Vision

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 13 hours, 36 mins.

Lesson 5: Usability Considerations

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 14 hours, 55 mins.

Lesson 6: User Error: Who is to blame?

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 4 hours, 40 mins.

Lesson 7: Usability Testing and Evaluation

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 8 hours, 30 mins.

Lesson 8: Inspection Methods: Practice and Application

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours.

Lesson 9: Usability Testing: Practical Application

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 5 hours, 30 mins.

Lesson 10: IxDF Course Certificate and Course Wrap-up

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 13 mins.

What's Inside IxDF Membership?

  • High-impact design and AI skills

  • Learn from 211 industry leaders

  • 43 evidence-based courses

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  • Industry-recognized certificates

  • $2,189 worth of toolkits

  • 10,532 active design jobs

  • 10 structured career programs

  • Global community in 497 cities

  • $6,649 worth of premium tools

  • 282 ready-made templates

  • and much more

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Veena Sankaranarayanan
Veena Sankaranarayanan
Senior UX designer

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
Evgeni Manov
UX Researcher and Designer

The quality of information provided surprised me!! Good job IDF!! Keep moving forward!

Donato Colatorti
Donato Colatorti
Software Developer

I'm very happy to have concluded this course. I learnt lot of interesting things... so thank you!