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Build Your UX Design Skills and Portfolio
Good design isn't just about looks. It's about understanding the people who use a product and making their tasks easy. UX designers combine research, problem-solving and visual design to build websites and apps people enjoy using. You don't need any design experience to start.
This track follows the full UX Design curriculum. You'll start by learning to critique: looking at an existing website, finding what isn't working and explaining how each improvement helps both users and the business. Then you'll turn those ideas into sketches and wireframes, and use Figma to turn the wireframes into full mockups with color, typography and imagery.
Next, you'll learn to put users at the center of your work. You'll write a research plan, interview real users and analyze their answers to find their biggest pain points. You'll design solutions, link your wireframes into interactive prototypes and run usability tests to see whether people can actually complete key tasks.
From there, you'll take on more complex problems. You'll design task flows for different user roles, test each flow and refine it based on what you learn. Along the way, you'll practice accessibility and design systems. Then you'll turn your tested designs into high-fidelity mockups and present your process to stakeholders.
Finally, you'll learn to bring AI design tools into your work. You'll use them to iterate on a prototype based on user feedback, while keeping your own judgment in charge of the design.
By the end, you'll know how to take a product from first critique to tested, polished design, and how to explain every decision you made along the way.
Start your journey as a UX designer with this Track!
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15 minInstruction
A Day in the Life of a UX Designer
A look at what it's really like to work in UX....(continue reading)
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Course
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Intro to Design Thinking
Learn the user-centered methods and mindsets that entire businesses are using to improve their product experiences. Throughout this course, we’ll go over how to find the voice of our user, the importance of that voice, and how to create a better experience for our user.
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7 minPractice
Practice Empathy Maps
Empathy maps can help UX designers identify with users and understand their needs.
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8 minPractice
Practice Journey Maps
Journey maps are a helpful tool for UX designers that can articulate pain points that stand between a user and their intended goal. This practice session will help you analyze an experience and identify areas for improvement.
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6 minInstruction
Visual Design Foundations
For your first Techdegree project you will be critiquing an existing website that has already been designed and is live on the internet. In order to best prepare you to critique visual designs we first thought it would be best to equip you with some fundamental terminology used when describing design elements. ...(continue reading)
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8 minInstruction
Web Design Foundations
For your first Techdegree project you will be critiquing an existing website that has already been designed and is live on the internet. In order to best prepare you to critique visual designs, we first thought it would be best to equip you with some fundamental terminology used when describing web pages. ...(continue reading)
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Course
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Design Criticism
One of the most important parts of design is being able to talk about it with other people. Giving feedback and communicating suggested changes is key to moving forward with people and businesses. In this course, you'll learn how to formulate constructive criticism and talk objectively about the subjective topic of design.
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5 minPractice
Practice Design Criticism
One of the most important skills to have as a UX Designer is the ability to give and receive feedback on a project. This practice session will help you apply your critiquing abilities.
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6 hoursInstruction
Project 1 - Redesign a T-shirt Website
Analyze a website to better understand its design elements and determine which are working and which may need to be changed....(continue reading)
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1 minInstruction
UX Design Tools
Using UX design tools in the UX Design track....(continue reading)
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Course
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UX Design Patterns
If you’re a frequent user of websites and mobile applications, you’re already familiar with design patterns, whether you’re aware of them or not. Design patterns are visual strategies for solving common usability problems. Design patterns keep the cognitive load to a minimum by making interfaces feel intuitive. When I say cognitive load, I mean the mental effort involved in solving a problem or making a decision.
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Course
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Introduction to Wireframing
Wireframing is a useful part of the design process. Throughout a website or mobile app project, you will have a lot of ideas and the best way to sort through those ideas is to brainstorm. Wireframes are a visual artifact of brainstorming, and the goal is to make them with minimal effort, as to encourage ideation. Whether you're a designer or not, wireframing is an important skill to have in your toolkit. It's beneficial for product managers, marketers, or anyone else with ideas for a website or mobile app. Wireframes are a valuable tool for visualizing user experiences, iterating on ideas, and sharing ideas with others.
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4 minPractice
Practice Designing a Product Card
Cards are a common UI pattern used to create reusable elements that can be used in multiple contexts.
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3 minPractice
Practice Creating a Paywall
Websites that are content-driven will often need to balance paid content and free content. One way to do this is to give a free preview in the form of a UI pattern called a paywall.
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2 minPractice
Practice Completing a Profile
Often when you register for a service, you're just asked for your email address and a password. But websites and apps that are heavily driven by your personal information often need a lot more. In this practice session, you'll create a UI that persuades users to enter more information.
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7 minPractice
Practice Sketching
For this practice session, you’ll be creating eight rough sketches for the primary screen of a sketching application. This app gives users the ability to make quick, shareable, black-and-white sketches using their fingers on a touchscreen.
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49 minWorkshop
Responsive Design
In this workshop, we’ll be discussing responsive design, where content renders well and remains usable on a variety of devices and viewport sizes. On previous projects, you may have been asked to design with a specific screen in mind, whether a desktop, tablet, or mobile device. And sometimes, especially when designing a mobile app, this approach can be appropriate. For websites, however, it’s usually best to work with a single design and consider how that design transitions from screen to screen.
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3 minWorkshop
Collecting Design Inspiration
Collecting design inspiration is a fun way to get fresh ideas! It also helps you stay current with design trends and become aware of emerging design patterns. The goal is to collect designs that spark your own creative ideas.
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7 hoursInstruction
Project 2 - Wireframing a T-Shirt Website
Using the suggestions for improvements you noted in the previous project, update the website's design by sketching and then wireframing your ideas....(continue reading)
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4 minInstruction
Build a Learning Mindset
...(continue reading)
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Course
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Typography for Designers
Typography is one of the most important aspects of good design. In this course, you'll learn all you need to know about creating good typography as a UX Designer: how to choose a typeface; what to look for when laying out type, how to create typographic hierarchy, laying out type, and creating responsive typography.
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6 minPractice
Before and After: Typography
Improve the typography on an existing design.
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Course
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Designing Layouts
In this course, you'll learn how to apply design principles through a series of examples. Each example will include some component that can be improved, and by making the improvement, you'll develop strong aesthetic sensibilities about things like visual and typographic hierarchy, the use of grids and alignment in layouts, and how to choose colors.
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37 minWorkshop
Creating Mockups
Learn how mockups are used in the design process, and discover techniques for bringing them into your workflow. Practice transforming a set of wireframes into realistic depictions of the app by applying visual design styling and using Apple’s UI Kit for Adobe XD.
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7 minPractice
Before and After: Color
Practice designing with color.
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5 minPractice
Before and After: Layout
Improve the layout of an existing mobile iOS app.
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Course
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UX Content Strategy
With so many websites and apps offering similar content and features, you need to provide a unique experience to compete - something memorable and enjoyable that resonates with your users. UX Content is how it’s done. From your home page and product descriptions down to your error messages, UX content can turn generic interactions into memorable experiences. By establishing a unique voice and personality, you can create an environment that welcomes, supports, and inspires users during their visit. So in this course, we’ll discuss why UX Content is so important, where you need it, how to create it, and how to ensure it’s effective.
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11 minPractice
Practice Creating UX Content
Practice creating UX content. You'll be given two companies with differing brand personalities, and you'll create UX content for their product pages.
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24 hoursInstruction
Project 3 - Mockup a T-Shirt Website
With wireframing complete and feedback received, move into the next stage of the design process by adding visual design to make your website redesign come to life....(continue reading)
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Creating User Experiences
Join us as we learn the basic principles of User Experience Design and how it shapes everyday interactions with products. By structuring products around users’ needs, we can ensure that the products do their job. You will learn how to meet users where they are, think through intuitive experiences, and create products that more effectively meet both your goals and your end users’ goals. This course will help you think more critically through the steps and decisions a user makes while interacting with your product. If you’re considering a career in User Experience (UX) or want to learn more about it, this course will expose you to how to design and plan around the people who use your product.
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6 minInstruction
What is Discovery?
...(continue reading)
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11 minWorkshop
Solving Problems with UX Design
Product design is about solving problems. Learn how to identify problems, understand the difference between "needs" and "wants," and how to convert a problem statement into a hypothesis you can test with user research.
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Conducting User Interviews
Learn how to validate product ideas by identifying an audience, sourcing participants, conducting user interviews, and analyzing the results.
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10 minWorkshop
Creating an Affinity Diagram
Learn how to organize your research into an affinity diagram to uncover common patterns in data and uncover opportunities for applying User Experience Design to user pain points.
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10 hoursInstruction
Project 4 - Research a Grocery App
Create a user research plan to gather feedback and data from your target audience....(continue reading)
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10 minInstruction
Learn Like an Expert
...(continue reading)
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Course
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Introduction to Design Systems
Learn how a scalable, repeatable design system leads to a more efficient design. Learn the components of a design system, and how to work with existing documentation.
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37 minPractice
Practice Using A Design System
For this practice session, we’ll be using Adobe XD to wireframe a homepage for votingrights.gov, an imaginary website for the United States federal government that informs citizens about their right to vote. We’ll start with a problem, a set of research, and some design explorations in the form of rough sketches. We’ll then use the United States Web Design System to ensure the look and behavior of our design are consistent with other federal government sites.
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Getting Started With Human Interface Guidelines
Learn how to work with Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines documentation. Learn to apply Human Interface Guidelines principles when designing iOS applications.
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Course
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Getting Started With Material Design
Learn how to work with Google’s Material Design documentation. Learn to apply Material Design principles when designing applications for the Android platform.
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Prototyping with Adobe XD
Adobe XD is a visual prototyping tool for PC and macOS. In this course, you'll learn how to use Adobe XD by building a mockup for a travel booking app. By the end, you'll be able to create interactive prototypes that can be shared with others.
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7 minPractice
Practice Prototyping
Practice prototyping by connecting mockups in Adobe XD. Practice creating tap, time, and drag interactions.
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1 minInstruction
Learning More than One Platform
Knowing more than one wireframing and prototyping software makes you more flexible and adaptable as a designer....(continue reading)
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Course
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Prototyping with Figma
In this course, you'll learn how to build interactive and sharable prototypes in Figma, a web-based visual prototyping tool. You'll create a prototype for a "prosumer" mobile photography app, and by the end, you'll have a better understanding of how to create interactive prototypes that can be shared with project stakeholders and team members.
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2 minPractice
Practice Storyboarding
Storyboarding is a great way to visualize a persona’s interaction with your product. Building a storyboard helps to keep your design and solutions human-centered by using a story to empathize with your users. In this workshop, you'll practice this important skill by creating your own storyboard.
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10 hoursInstruction
Project 5 - Prototype a Grocery App
Interactions in an app take time to code and can be difficult to change once implemented....(continue reading)
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Evaluating Design
An essential part of the UX design process is measurement and validation. This course will provide an overview of the methods available for measuring the success of a design including A/B testing, surveys, and usability testing. It will specifically deep dive into usability testing so that students will learn about what’s involved in running such a test, from preparing a test plan to presenting actionable findings.
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Information Architecture
In this age of information, it’s not always easy to know how content should be structured - everyone has a different perspective. In this course, you’ll learn about information architecture: what it is, and how it relates to web design and user experience. We’ll learn about the fundamentals of IA components like navigation, labeling, and content organization, as well as techniques to test and evaluate existing website structures. By the end, you’ll know how to organize website content and provide a clear, logical experience for any user.
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5 minPractice
Practice Creating a Sitemap
Practice creating a sitemap for an elementary school called Northeast Elementary. Use research and a persona to determine what features and pages the school will need on its website then organize and diagram them into a sitemap.
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12 hoursInstruction
Project 6 - Testing a Grocery App
Complete a usability test to gather feedback on a prototype....(continue reading)
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Introduction to Product Design
Over the last 10 years, design has proven to be essential to the success of a business. With the rise of the internet and more software being created, and as start-ups and tech companies realize the impact of design on the business and on digital products, there has been an increasing need for design. This course will help you understand and get familiar with product design, the role of design throughout product development and delivery, the different components of product design, and the process of designing digital products and experiences.
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5 minInstruction
Designing for B2B
Understand aspects of designing for a Business audience....(continue reading)
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Data Visualization Foundations
What is data visualization? A simple answer might be something like the graphic representation of data. But to get a better understanding of what practitioners of data visualization do, let’s start with the term data. By data, I mean raw, unorganized facts and numbers. Practitioners of data visualization take raw, hard-to-grasp data and turn that data into information by providing context and a purpose.
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24 minPractice
Practice Data Visualization
Students will practice converting raw data into an informative visualization.
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10 minWorkshop
Creating User Personas
Learn how to focus your design work by developing user personas to help you represent and visualize the audience or audiences for your website, application, or product.
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18 minWorkshop
Designing for User Roles
Delve into the nuances of building a product for multiple audiences. Learn how user roles are defined and used. Recognize the importance of providing various permission levels, learn best practices, and analyze how B2B (business-to-business) products serve many types of users.
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47 hoursInstruction
Project 7 - Designing a Task Flow
Ideate a small task flow for a business to business client looking to improve how their customers send an email campaign....(continue reading)
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Course
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User Onboarding
User onboarding optimization has a huge impact on user retention, allowing users to engage with a product and understand its value. We'll take a look at several user onboarding patterns.
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5 minInstruction
What is remote testing?
Learn what remote testing is and how you can use it in your design process....(continue reading)
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Designing Interactions
Learn the principles of Interaction Design, including the five dimensions, interaction models, and cognitive psychology. Apply those principles by learning how to design interactions in a design program.
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25 minWorkshop
Designing Dynamic UI States
When designing views in a website or app, it's common to think about the ideal state first. Content perfectly fills the UI, graphs are visualizing data, the user has familiarity with the tool, and the full functionality of the product is apparent. However, there are many more states to anticipate, from onboarding new users to helping more seasoned users discover new functionalities and manage copious amounts of data. In this workshop, you'll learn how to design UI for dynamic app states.
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Accessibility for UX Designers
Accessible design is a design process that specifically considers the needs of people with disabilities. In this course, you’ll learn about the standards in place to guide designers in creating experiences that are accessible to all users as well as techniques to help bring your projects up to those standards.
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Ethical Design
With all the power that technology yields, it comes with tremendous responsibility. This course will introduce Ethical Design, which considers the moral implication of one's work on others. Specifically, we'll focus on tech at the intersection of development, design, and business. We'll reflect on how tricky interfaces and dirty data practices have negative consequences on society. Ethical frameworks and tools will be shared so you can evaluate and align your actions with your values. Techniques for effective advocacy will enable you to nurture human-centered decisions in your organization. This course is for everyone who works in tech, regardless of their role.
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20 hoursInstruction
Project 8 - Testing a Flow
Create and test a prototype of your designs to determine its strengths and weaknesses....(continue reading)
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Presentation Skills
Learn techniques for delivering effective presentations so you can help guide decisions, influence change, and make an impact on the business.
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11 minWorkshop
Introducing Google Slides
Walkthrough Google Slides to understand the tools available to create presentations.
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17 minWorkshop
Presenting Design Ideas
Learn how to effectively present your design process to stakeholders so you can communicate a vision. Define the agenda, set the project goals, share your research, compare iterations, navigate feedback, and create a path for the next steps.
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Collaborating with Developers
Designers will learn how to involve developers throughout the design process, from conceptual brainstorming to implementation in code.
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12 hoursInstruction
Project 9 - Mockup and Present a Task Flow
Put the finishing touches on your email marketing task flow by adding color and other visual design elements....(continue reading)
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Building a Portfolio
Your portfolio is the most immediate means for a potential employer to decide if you’re a good fit. This course will give you insight into creating and curating a collection of your work that will most accurately reflect what you value as a designer/developer, what it might be like to work with you, and what to expect in terms of your output.
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26 minWorkshop
Handling Feedback as a UX Designer
This workshop prepares new designers for handling feedback on their work in a diplomatic, effective, and professional manner.
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7 minWorkshop
Receiving UX Feedback by Example
See positive ways of handling different types of feedback on your designs, including constructive, negative, and prescriptive feedback.
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Copyright Basics
Understanding the basics of copyright and licensing in the United States is vital for anyone working in a creative field, and that includes web designers, developers, and mobile devs. Coding requires creativity and works created for the web fall under copyright law. This Deep Dive will give you the knowledge you need to both protect and share your own creations. You'll learn how to copyright your website or app, read license agreements, work with open-source software and Creative Commons, combat copyright infringement, properly license your own creations, and much more.
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1 minInstruction
Writing a Case Study
How to write a case study....(continue reading)
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48 hoursInstruction
Project 10 - Capstone: UX Portfolio
Utilize user experience design principles to create an online portfolio of your work....(continue reading)
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2 minWorkshop
What Is AI? What Is ChatGPT?
In this video, we explore the fascinating world of AI and introduce ChatGPT, a language model designed to understand and respond to human language. Join Dustin as he dives into the basics of artificial intelligence and learn how ChatGPT is transforming the way we interact with technology.
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21 minWorkshop
Mastering AI-Assisted Design with ChatGPT
Get ready to dive into the future of design. Whether you're a student, a design pro, or just super into AI, this workshop is for you. You'll see how ChatGPT can give you spot-on feedback, help you write killer copy, suss out the competition, and even whip up basic web prototypes. It's hands-on, it's mind-blowing, and it's all about unleashing your creativity. Don't miss out on this chance to kick off your AI-powered design journey in style!
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AI Tools for Designers
Join Dan as he embarks on a captivating journey into the world of Generative AI. Go deep into the revolutionary platforms, from Midjourney and Adobe Firefly to DALL·E and Bing Image Creator, that are reshaping the artistic landscape. Alongside this exploration, the video delves into the ethical implications of AI creation, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and originality.
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18 minWorkshop
AI Tools for Sitemapping and Wireframing
This workshop shows how to speed up your UI design workflow using AI tools like Relume.io and Lovable. You’ll build clear sitemaps and wireframes, then turn them into functional code—streamlining the process from concept to execution. Great for designers and developers looking for practical ways to create clean, user-friendly interfaces more efficiently.
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3 minWorkshop
Introducing Lovable.dev for No-Code Web App Design
This workshop introduces Lovable.dev, an AI platform that lets you build production-ready interfaces using simple text prompts—no code required. You’ll describe what you want, and the AI handles the UI and setup. With built-in Supabase integration, you can turn your interface into a full-stack app without the usual complexity. This session is for anyone looking to move from idea to working product faster and with less time spent coding.
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4 minWorkshop
Turn Ideas Into Code with Replit Agent
In this workshop, Dan walks through what the Replit Agent is, how it works, and why it might be a useful tool—especially if you’ve got ideas but don’t know how to code. Whether you’re just getting started or you’re a developer looking to speed things up, this gives you a real look at what the agent can do and how it fits into the bigger picture of building software with AI.
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12 hoursInstruction
Project 11 - Prototype a Grocery App (AI-Assisted Redesign)
In this project, you'll prompt an AI design partner to rebuild and enhance your grocery app prototype from Projects 4–6....(continue reading)
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60 minExam
UX Exam
The final exam for the User Experience Design Techdegree v3, Versions 7+.
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Track Completion
This track includes:
- A Day in the Life of a UX Designer 15 min
- Intro to Design Thinking 75 min
- Practice Empathy Maps 7 min
- Practice Journey Maps 8 min
- Visual Design Foundations 6 min
- Web Design Foundations 8 min
- Design Criticism 15 min
- Practice Design Criticism 5 min
- Project 1 - Redesign a T-shirt Website 6 hours
- UX Design Tools 1 min
- UX Design Patterns 78 min
- Introduction to Wireframing 2 hours
- Practice Designing a Product Card 4 min
- Practice Creating a Paywall 3 min
- Practice Completing a Profile 2 min
- Practice Sketching 7 min
- Responsive Design 49 min
- Collecting Design Inspiration 3 min
- Project 2 - Wireframing a T-Shirt Website 7 hours
- Build a Learning Mindset 4 min
- Typography for Designers 3 hours
- Before and After: Typography 6 min
- Designing Layouts 52 min
- Creating Mockups 37 min
- Before and After: Color 7 min
- Before and After: Layout 5 min
- UX Content Strategy 2 hours
- Practice Creating UX Content 11 min
- Project 3 - Mockup a T-Shirt Website 24 hours
- Creating User Experiences 94 min
- What is Discovery? 6 min
- Solving Problems with UX Design 11 min
- Conducting User Interviews 42 min
- Creating an Affinity Diagram 10 min
- Project 4 - Research a Grocery App 10 hours
- Learn Like an Expert 10 min
- Introduction to Design Systems 76 min
- Practice Using A Design System 37 min
- Getting Started With Human Interface Guidelines 39 min
- Getting Started With Material Design 46 min
- Prototyping with Adobe XD 71 min
- Practice Prototyping 7 min
- Learning More than One Platform 1 min
- Prototyping with Figma 71 min
- Practice Storyboarding 2 min
- Project 5 - Prototype a Grocery App 10 hours
- Evaluating Design 2 hours
- Information Architecture 2 hours
- Practice Creating a Sitemap 5 min
- Project 6 - Testing a Grocery App 12 hours
- Introduction to Product Design 56 min
- Designing for B2B 5 min
- Data Visualization Foundations 76 min
- Practice Data Visualization 24 min
- Creating User Personas 10 min
- Designing for User Roles 18 min
- Project 7 - Designing a Task Flow 47 hours
- User Onboarding 35 min
- What is remote testing? 5 min
- Designing Interactions 64 min
- Designing Dynamic UI States 25 min
- Accessibility for UX Designers 90 min
- Ethical Design 2 hours
- Project 8 - Testing a Flow 20 hours
- Presentation Skills 43 min
- Introducing Google Slides 11 min
- Presenting Design Ideas 17 min
- Collaborating with Developers 72 min
- Project 9 - Mockup and Present a Task Flow 12 hours
- Building a Portfolio 78 min
- Handling Feedback as a UX Designer 26 min
- Receiving UX Feedback by Example 7 min
- Copyright Basics 100 min
- Writing a Case Study 1 min
- Project 10 - Capstone: UX Portfolio 48 hours
- What Is AI? What Is ChatGPT? 2 min
- Mastering AI-Assisted Design with ChatGPT 21 min
- AI Tools for Designers 52 min
- AI Tools for Sitemapping and Wireframing 18 min
- Introducing Lovable.dev for No-Code Web App Design 3 min
- Turn Ideas Into Code with Replit Agent 4 min
- Project 11 - Prototype a Grocery App (AI-Assisted Redesign) 12 hours
- UX Exam 60 min