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User Experience

Nanodegree Program

The UX Fundamentals & Design Research program teaches the core principles of human-centered design, including scoping a design problem, conducting in-depth interviews, creating quantitative surveys, using research data to uncover opportunities, and applying psychology to design sketches with the end user in mind. Participants will learn how to develop a discussion guide, recruit research participants, and synthesize findings in the form of a research report. They will also learn how to translate research findings into low-fidelity prototypes that can be tested with users, design high-fidelity prototypes, and conduct usability tests. Finally, the program teaches advanced user interface principles to build interactive designs that engage users and improve key performance indicators.

The UX Fundamentals & Design Research program teaches the core principles of human-centered design, including scoping a design problem, conducting in-depth interviews, creating quantitative surveys, using research data to uncover opportunities, and applying psychology to design sketches with the end user in mind. Participants will learn how to develop a discussion guide, recruit research participants, and synthesize findings in the form of a research report. They will also learn how to translate research findings into low-fidelity prototypes that can be tested with users, design high-fidelity prototypes, and conduct usability tests. Finally, the program teaches advanced user interface principles to build interactive designs that engage users and improve key performance indicators.

Beginner

2 months

Real-world Projects

Completion Certificate

Last Updated March 24, 2024

Skills you'll learn:
Remote user testing • High fidelity prototypes • Design optimization • Visual style guides
Prerequisites:

No experience required

Courses In This Program

Course 1 55 minutes

Welcome to the User Experience Nanodegree Program

Lesson 1

User Experience Nanodegree Program Introduction

Lesson 2

Introduction to User Experience

Lesson 3

Get Help with Your Account

What to do if you have questions about your account or general questions about the program.

Lesson 4

Getting Help

You are starting a challenging but rewarding journey! Take 5 minutes to read how to get help with projects and content.

Course 2 4 weeks

UX Fundamentals & Design Research

Learn the fundamentals of User Experience Design.

Lesson 1

Course Overview

In this lesson, we'll introduce your instructor, give a brief overview of the course, and look ahead to what you'll be building for your final project.

Lesson 2

UX: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In this lesson, we'll look at fundamental UX concepts, including basic design principles, how to evaluate usability, and how to think like a UX designer.

Lesson 3

Research First

Research is an essential part of UX design. In this lesson, you'll learn how to plan a UX research study, how to conduct a semi-structured interview, and how to ask effective questions on a survey.

Lesson 4

Design for Humans

Humans are complex creatures. In this lesson, we'll look deeper into how to take psychology into consideration when we make design decisions.

Lesson 5 • Project

Project: UX Research

In this project you will conduct an entire UX Research study from start to finish that will result in generating a report and integrating that research into a sketch of the design.

Course 3 3 weeks

Concept to Low-Fidelity Prototyping

The best products have gone through rounds of iteration based on user research and feedback. Learn the process of a design sprint, and how to translate findings from research into a prototype that can be tested with users. Understand how to foster team collaboration and use divergent and convergent thinking to rapidly create testable prototypes. Apply user interface principles in the design of a clickable prototype, and conduct a usability test to gain valuable feedback from users that can be used in design iterations.

Lesson 1

Course Overview

In this lesson, we'll introduce your instructor, give a brief overview of the course, and look ahead to what you'll be building for your final project.

Lesson 2

Define the Design Sprint

Let's look at how to explore product opportunities collaboratively—while reducing our risks and ensuring our team is aligned throughout an ambiguous design process.

Lesson 3

Synthesis: Research to Features

The best products are informed by user needs. Let's look at how we can use research to find those needs—and uncover high-value product features that we can target in our designs.

Lesson 4

UI Principles

Great products don't re-invent the wheel; they expand on design patterns that users are already comfortable with. In this lesson, we'll explore some fundamental UI principles for digital products.

Lesson 5

Clickable Prototyping

It's expensive to engineer and implement solutions in code. In this lesson, we'll practice the hard skill of building an interactive prototype that feels like a real piece of software.

Lesson 6

Usability Testing

Even the best looking designs may have unexpected problems. You'll learn hard skills to take your designs into the wild to identify issues early.

Lesson 7 • Project

Project: Low-Fidelity Rapid Prototyping Sprint

In this project, you'll demonstrate a grasp on the design process from customer understanding through to lo-fi prototyping.

Course 4 3 weeks

High-Fidelity Prototyping to Post-Launch Analysis

Once products have been tested for its effectiveness, they need to be enhanced for engagement. Learn advanced user interface principles to build interactive designs that are ready to be handed off to engineering for feedback. Understand how to solicit and integrate feedback from engineering to enhance the design before it is ready for development. Assess the engagement of the product through remote usability testing and other experimentation methods. Finally, you’ll learn how to improve design and user experiences based on engagement data in order to increase key performance indicators.

Lesson 1

Course Overview

In this lesson, we'll introduce your instructor, give a brief overview of the course, and look ahead to what you'll be building for your final project.

Lesson 2

UI Design Basics

Get into UI basics, UI vs UX, basic design principles, and the role typography, design systems and style guides play for a UX Designer.

Lesson 3

Building Interactive Designs

Learn about levels of fidelity in design, using a tool called Figma to build out a high-fidelity design of your own. Then, add interactivity by creating a clickable prototype!

Lesson 4 • Project

Midterm: Create & Improve a High-Fidelity Design

Build on the digital design you made for the mobile or web application in Course 2 to create a High-Fidelity Mockup, and then implement it in a clickable prototype.

Lesson 5

Preparing Design for Engineering Handoff

Engineering handoff is a key part of a UX Designer’s role, yet often overlooked by those new to the field. Learn about the deliverables for handoff and how best to collaborate with your team!

Lesson 6

Improving Design Performance

Use KPI’s to improve your design, and learn how analytics and testing can be used for data-based improvements.

Lesson 7 • Project

Final: Create & Improve a High-Fidelity Design

Take the clickable prototype you created in your midterm and improve the accessibility of your design, iterate on your design based on Data & KPIs, and hand-off to engineering.

Taught By The Best

Photo of Michael Dedrick

Michael Dedrick

UX Designer, Google

Michael is a UX Designer for Google after leading design at a Blockchain startup and working at a partnership with Apple and IBM. He is committed to connecting with clients and users—and bringing their vision to life. He has a design background from Sheridan, Toronto Film School, and OCAD University.

Photo of Melissa Hui

Melissa Hui

Founder, Context Leap

Melissa is the founder of Context Leap, an SF-based organizational and leadership transformation agency. With over a decade as a design and innovation strategist in the technology industry, she is dedicated to evolving the role of design in creating scalable and thoughtful human-centered experiences.

Photo of Gabriel Ruttner

Gabriel Ruttner

Instructor

Gabe is the CTO at Ursa & Tech Advisor for Start-Ups. Gabe has expertise in building cloud-based machine learning and natural language processing services at early stage tech companies. He holds technical degrees from Cornell University and Stony Brook University.

Photo of Shuang Liu

Shuang Liu

UX Designer, Google

Shuang has enjoyed working in UX design across a variety of domains at Google, from YouTube, to technical cloud platforms. She is particularly interested in bringing a human touch to products. She received her Master's in Human Computer Interaction from The University of Michigan.

Ratings & Reviews

Average Rating: 4.7 Stars

672 Reviews

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