Top UX-UI design courses: free and paid

Users around the world are no longer putting up with bad experiences – as products become more human-centric, UX designer skills are in hot demand.

However, as UX is a relatively new area, the route into it is indeed debatable. People from varying fields entering UX have something they can bring to the table. As a result, there are many UI-UX design courses to suit people with different levels of expertise, preparing them to make the most of a website wireframe tool like Justinmind.

And like much learning these days, many courses are aimed at being flexible, particularly as most people at the moment tend to enter UX as a career change. Read on to find the best UI-UX design course to suit you!

The grandaddy of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), Coursera works with some of the world’s most renowned universities and companies to bring their courses to the masses. You’ll find UI-UX design courses such as Google UX Design, IBM and many more.

Coursera’s UI-UX courses are solid, ranging from UI Design and Interaction Design to Information Architecture and Design Thinking. You’ll be learning from the guys at the top of industry, with the University of California San Diego, Princeton and Johns Hopkins all delivering classes on Coursera. The video modules are supplemented with online exercises, to make sure you’re paying attention.

• Course duration: 4 weeks
• Pricing: Free

Udemy is like a hive-mind of all things tech and professional development. Instead of culling UI-UX design courses from established universities, the platform allows experts to create and offer their own courses, either for free or paid.

Their education model means you have to be careful which course you plump for, but reactions from Forbes, Mashable and Fast Company have been positive.

Udemy’s UI-UX design courses provide arching overviews of user experience, intended to set you up for a professional start in the industry. You’ll find a broad range of UI-UX design course topics, all diving into various depths of study, from design strategy to mobile app design.

If you’re after a well-rounded UI-UX design course that covers all aspects, we’d recommend The Ultimate Guide to Usability and UX.

• Course duration: around 15 hours
• Pricing: pay per course, from $19 and skywards

Less a traditional course provider and more a community for mutual learning, Skillshare allows you to be both teacher and student.

Platform members attend online classes, create online portfolios of their work, take part in discussions and debates, and can even earn cash by stepping into the teacher role. Classes cover subjects such as HTML, web development, prototyping and, of course, UX Design!

You can choose to specialize in User Interface Design, Moving from Graphic to UX Designer, or other career-focused short courses. Skillshare’s online UI-UX design courses range from one to 12 hours in length and are delivered as friendly, bite-size chunks, meaning even busy folks can fit in study time.

• Course duration: 40 minutes – 4 hours
• Pricing: $12 a month or $8 for the annual membership

There’s a lot of buzz around the IDF‘s UI-UX design courses and resources. Even Don Norman describes the Scandinavian-based outfit as “a goldmine of information on interaction design”. The numbers are just as compelling: over 1,000 universities use IDF resources and almost 140 companies are signed up to their learning materials.

So what do they do that attracts so many people? Variety and depth. IDF offers 34 UX design courses, all online and self-paced, in a range of user experience-based topics.

You can pick out UI-UX design courses from classics like Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience to specialized offerings such as The Psychology of Online Sales. All of the courses are instructor-led, they provide feedback on work and there’s a lively community of fellow learners to talk shop with.

• Course duration: around 10 weeks
• Pricing: IDF courses are “free to members”; IDF annual membership starts out at around $13 a month. Get your online UX certification now!

Springboard promises to take you from total beginner to launching a UX portfolio. Their UI-UX Design course covers all things UX, from user research, UX fundamentals, along with various tools, methodologies and portfolio building.

Within just two months, they promise you’ll be ready to apply for that first UX job. Plus you’ll have regular access to a UX mentor who will guide you, and plenty of chances to build online networks with other Springboard UXers. A good beginner introduction for newbie UXers!

• Course duration: 12 weeks
• Pricing: $499 per month of the 2-4 month self-paced course

Formerly known as UXtraining, the UX Design Institute began in 2017 and is a specialist provider of UX and Design Thinking training. They first started out with class-based training across the EU and North America, but now offer in-depth UI-UX design courses with professional certification.

Their professional UX diploma has been devised in conjunction with some of the biggest names in the tech industry such as Mastercard, Hubspot, Dell, SAP, Virgin Media and many more. The course is designed to give you precisely the skills that employers are looking for.

Credit-rated by the Glasgow Caledonian University, you can do this course in your own time and it consists of a series of bite-size videos. They promise a hands-on, practical course, with which you’ll be working with real-life case studies and have a portfolio of work to show for it afterwards.

• Course duration: 6 months
• Pricing: expect to pay within the tune of €2,550

CareerFoundry claims to be able to take you from UX zero to hero in 3 months, with UI-UX design courses that convert you “from beginner to working professional”. They even offer you a 100% refund if you don’t get a job you love within 6 months of graduation!

With that kind of safety net, it’s definitely worth checking out their course offerings which include courses like UI Designer and UX Designer. The UX Design course provides you with access to both a tutor and a mentor, who help you work through 60+ practical challenges and teach vital skills in prototyping, user testing and design.

At the end of the course you’ll have designed and tested a complete web app wireframe, and have an interview-ready portfolio to show to potential employers.

• Course duration: 10 months
• Pricing: 1 course of 6 months comes home at $2,499

Treehouse is a tech geek’s dream come true. Focused on “the democratization of technical education”, the learning platform provides over 200 courses in everything related to web development and software design.

Their UX design tracks are based around over two hours of video classes, with exercises and quizzes to consolidate learning. This is definitely a great UI-UX design course if you just want an introduction to the theory UX and to understand what it is. You’ll even get an important online UX certification.

• Course duration: 40 minutes – 3 hours
• Price point? Starting from $25 per month for a Basic Plan, up to $199 to go Pro

Pluralsight is a legit online techie school providing IT solutions, webinars and a blog about the latest developments in the tech world. It’s also been used by companies such as T-Mobile, Salesforce, Nasdaq and Fujitsu to name but a few.

Their UX Fundamentals course, while short (only one hour and six minutes!) promises to give you a firm grounding in the main pillars that support the backbone of a UXer’s knowledge.

This UI-UX design course covers all the basic fundamentals such as UI design, Information Architecture, usability testing, wireframes, prototypes and interaction design. And guess what? It’s perfect for beginners! Definitely worth giving a whirl if you’re interested in a quick crash course on all things UI and UX design!

• Course duration: 1 hour and 6 minutes
• Pricing: Get a free 10-day trial which is enough to cover this course! After that you’re talking €26 a month

If you’re looking for an interactive UX-UI design course, then Designlab is your site. Expert mentors from sites such as Basecamp, Dropbox and Nike guide you through interactive projects and give you detailed feedback on work. You even get a weekly Skype session with your mentor to talk about your progress!

You can choose from three paths: UX Research and Strategy, Interaction Design and UI design. Whichever option you choose, you’ll be expected to create professional standard deliverables and to get your hands dirty on projects.

• Course duration: 4 weeks
• Pricing: Expect to spend around $300 per 4 week course

If you’re looking for history and prestige, Bentley’s UI-UX design courses are among the original programs that first came to light about the subject. By choosing one of their courses, you’ll benefit from courses taught by industry thought leaders for the theory part, but also from plenty of practical experience.

You’ll have to take three core courses, which focus on central UX design aspects. These courses include subjects such as usability testing, as well as 6 extra courses which you can choose at will. This variety allows students to focus on any particular area or expertise they like, while still covering the fundamentals.

• Course duration: approximately 1 year
• Tuition: $1,455 per course
• Location: Waltham, MA

Purdue’s UI-UX Design course is a major that you can choose in their Computer Graphics Technology program. One of the appealing points of this program is the hands-on practical experience of the course.

By the time you finish their UI-UX design course, you’ll already have up to 3.5 years of experience working on real solutions for real-world clients. But don’t worry – they don’t throw you in at the deep end either.

In their Learning Studio, you’ll learn practical techniques , such as user research, including how to frame problems and design prototypes. Then in the “experience studio”, you’ll put those skills into practice.

• Course duration: approximately 4 years
• Tuition: $9,992 (IN resident), $2,894 (non IN resident), $3,094 (International residents)
• Location: West Lafayette, IN

Flatiron’s UI-UX Design course is an intensive bootcamp that promises to get you from zero to job-ready in little over 6 months. This 24-week course is broken down into five stages and is perfect if you’d like to combine online and face-to-face learning.

During this UI-UX Design course, you’ll get drilled in theory, job-specific tech training and practical skills. you’ll get exposure to working in a real-life studio, carrying out project work for clients and you’ll also get to develop your own portfolio.

Flatiron also promises to give you career coaching with this course to make sure you choose the perfect UI/UX design career to suit you. They’ll also help you with landing a job afterwards!

• Course duration: 24 weeks
• Tuition: $17,000
• Location: New York, NY

You can do Eastern Washington’s Certificate in User Experience Design on its own or as part of their greater Bachelor of Design Degree. This program offers a multidisciplinary approach to creating intentional interactions for users of both technological and non-technological products.

The course also includes plenty of theory on User Centered Design, as well as practical skill developments , such as rapid prototyping and modern UI patterns. What sets this course apart from many others, however, is that they also teach you some code – expect to get a basic grounding in HTML, CSS and Javascript!

Nonetheless, Eastern Washington does have some admission requirements that other programs on this post do not. According to their website, students must have a GPA of at least 3.0 from their previous school.

• Course duration: available upon request
• Tuition: available upon request
• Location: Cheney, WA

If you’re looking for a short UI-UX design course to give you a basic grounding in modern, practical design methods, then why not try the American Graphics Institute (AGI)?

Although special attention is given to touch-sensitive UI design, you’ll also learn to use different tools of the industry and cover design for all sorts of devices. Additionally, AGI also covers areas like Information Architecture, responsive web design and rapid prototyping, giving you practical, industry-ready skills.

New UI-UX design courses start every 30-45 days, which gives you plenty of room to plan and enroll. You can start the course directly in the Boston campus or online – although not all of the certification classes are available online, which makes being in Boston a must to finish this course.

• Course duration: 5 weeks
• Tuition: $4,800
• Location: Boston, MA

The Master of Business and Science degree with a concentration in User Experience Design in New Jersey trains students in the essential skills needed to design and develop engaging, accessible and usable computer-based interfaces from web pages and mobile phone apps to microwave ovens.

Students learn cutting-edge methods and practices involved in gathering user information, creative design and interface prototyping, as well as evaluating a wide range of interactive media. In comparison with other HCI masters degrees, there is a secondary focus on the business side of design. Students will gain knowledge in project management, accounting, marketing, business communication, and how to create a business plan and financial decision making.

Students have to take 8 courses (24 credits) in the sciences and 19 credits in business. All UXD students are required to complete a satisfactory electronic portfolio of their UXD works as part of the graduation requirements.

• Course duration: 18 months
• Tuition: $10,800
• Location: New Jersey

Looking for a collaborative, people-focused and practice-based design program? The MFA in Interaction Design from IIT Chicago is as much about invention as it is about the everyday. It requires students to be intimately attentive to human behavior and to think more holistically about the products and services they create.

It explores the strategic role of interaction design in shaping everyday life, and intends to increase the relevancy of design to business and society so designers can make a difference.

The definition of “difference” is something only students know – a personal exploration only they can do – and the program is designed to support that exploration over two years.

Over the course of study, students will produce a wide range of concepts—from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity prototypes and applications—with the same degree of rigor.

• Course duration: 2 years
• Tuition: $98,000
• Location: Chicago

University of Washington’s unique, cross-disciplinary approach to Interaction Design seeks to educate a new generation of designers, engineers and researchers who can successfully combine the creative aspects of design and the study of human behavior with the analytical techniques of engineering.

Graduates of the Master of Human-Computer Interaction and Design program will use their knowledge to create innovative products and technologies. This UX design course will focus on interface technologies through creating low to high-fidelity functional prototypes through a variety of mediums (paper to video) and computing platforms, including desktop, web and mobile.

• Course duration: 11 months
• Tuition: $50,508
• Location: Seattle WA

Emphasizing collaborative design-led research and a systems-oriented approach to social innovation and service design, the Transdisciplinary Design program at Parsons, NYC, was created for designers interested in developing ideas, tools, and working methods to address pressing social issues and the complex challenges of a global culture.

On this UX design course, students work in cross-disciplinary teams, consider issues from multiple perspectives, learn from industry leaders, and emerge with a portfolio that showcases design as a process for transforming social relations and contemporary life.

“An academic laboratory in New York City for graduate students seeking to define the next phase of design practice globally.”

The Master of Fine Arts degree is awarded for completion of 60 credits. A maximum of six credits of graduate-level coursework can be transferred from another institution. Students must maintain a 3.0 cumulative grade point average and fulfill all requirements in a timely manner.

• Course duration: 11 months
• Tuition: $50,508
• Location: New York NY

Looking for a collaborative, people-focused and practice-based design program? New York’s School of Visual Art’s MFA in Interaction Design is as much about invention as it is about the everyday. For this UX design course students should have a deep understanding of human behavior and be open to adopt a comprehensive perspective when creating products and services.

The course goes deep into the strategic significance of interaction design in our daily lives, and its primary objective is to make design standout in the realms of business and society, enabling designers to make a significant impact. The notion of “making a difference” is subjective and unique to each student, as the program is meticulously designed to facilitate their personal exploration and growth.

Over the course of study, students have to produce a wide range of concepts—from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity prototypes and applications—with the same degree of rigor.

• Course duration: 2 years
• Tuition: $90,000
• Location: New York

The School of UX offers the perfect introductory UI-UX Design course that lasts about five days. However, the course offers students a large amount of knowledge in that short time span, in addition to career advice and a signed certificate at the end.

Aside from teaching you how to use prototyping tools, the School of UX focuses on coding and HTML for an entire day of the course! The best thing is, it’s suitable for complete beginners, which makes it perfect for those who are starting out and aren’t too clear on the basics.

• Course duration: 5 days
• Tuition: £699 + VAT regular ticket
• Location: London, UK

The Master of Arts in Interaction Design in Switzerland’s University of Applied Sciences and Arts brings you up to speed in design thinking, digital fabrication, the basics of software development and prototyping techniques.

On this UX design course, you’ll be learning to frame and create solutions to design in a practical laboratory environment, with peer-to-peer learning, using iterative processes akin to those used in modern agile environments. After completing this masters you’ll be ready to pursue careers in UX Research, UX Design, along with any other technical innovation job.

What separates this Masters from others on the list is that it spans three semesters, rather than the typical two or four. This Masters course will also award students with 90 ECTS, as well as the opportunity to acquire internships if they have no prior experience.

• Course duration: 1.5 years
• Tuition: CHF 4,800
• Location: Mendrisio, Switzerland

As you can imagine, this UI-UX design course is more demanding as it’s a full post-graduate degree. Entry requirements include having completed a Bachelor’s degree in a related field of study and proof of sufficient knowledge of the English language.

Their Visual and Experience Design masters course offers some great bonuses to students, such as international field trips and a top-notch scientific lab that would make most UX designers swoon with joy.

• Course duration: 1 year / 2 semesters
• Tuition: available upon request
• Location: Berlin, Germany

Ironhack’s UI-UX design course is full-time and classes last from 9am to 6pm every day. It’s into three modules and offers students an entire week of career development – you can expect workshops on interviewing for UX jobs, portfolio preparation and plenty of job hunting advice.

Ironhack offers this same course in several european cities, with slight variations in the tuition fee depending on which campus you choose.

• Course duration: 9 weeks
• Tuition: €6,000 (in the Amsterdam campus)
• Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Working students rejoice – the University of Brighton is offering you the option of pursuing their UI-UX design course full-time or part-time. It covers all the basics such as interaction design and research methods for UX.

But it also does something slightly different from many others: it also places students in the shoes of project managers. They’ll give you a large UX design project that stretches throughout most of the course that you’ll see through to the end. You also get to choose from several optional modules, opening the door to a personalized education depending on your goals.

• Course duration: 1 year (full-time)
• Tuition: £6,426 (for UK citizens)
• Location: Brighton, UK

Hong Kong Polytechnic’s Interaction Design masters course is meant to act as a postgraduate degree to those with a Bachelor in a related field.

The university encourages people with a background in psychology, visual communication or any sort of design-related field to apply to this UX design course, should they desire to take a leap of faith and invest in a UX design career.

Classes are during the daytime on weekends and students must take the core courses which cover central aspects of UX design but can also choose from a list of selective classes. Among the entry requirements you’ll find letters of recommendation, Bachelor’s degree certificate, letter of intent and proof of English.

• Course duration: 1 year
• Tuition: HK$162,000 (local) / HK$183,600 (non-local)
• Location: Hong Kong, China

The National University of Singapore’s digital UI-UX design course is perfect if you’re looking for an introduction to UX design. It’s slightly shorter than its counterparts, lasting for only 3 days.

Nonetheless, in that short timeframe, you can expect to cover a variety of topics from design working with client requirements, analysis, including the design and validation phases of the UC design life cycle. The UI-UX design course also focuses on how to develop empathy for your users.

You can expect to learn from user case studies and hypothetical scenarios, as well as hands-on prototyping workshops.

• Course duration: 3 days
• Tuition: $2,889 for international students / $866.70 for locals
• Location: Singapore, Singapore

Singapore Polytechnic’s UX and product design diploma got our attention because it’s two separate post-diploma certificates in both UX design and digital design. Here, students pursue one certificate per semester, for a total of one year of the UX design course.

For their certificate in User Experience Design, all applicants need to have a Bachelor’s in a similar field or be able to demonstrate the equivalent work experience. You can expect to cover the basics of UX design, such as Design Thinking, user research techniques, as well as practical topics, such as how to work in a design sprint.

• Course duration: 1 year
• Tuition: $5,418.48 for international students
• Location: Singapore, Singapore

The beauty of this Graduate Certificate in UX and Web Design is not only that it allows you to bring your web design and UX reasoning up to speed, but it can also be done in multiple locations around Australia. This certificate UX design course is aimed at designers looking to upgrade their skills, as well as those that want to learn more about the industry to enhance their current work.

The course will help you to understand all of the important and recurring issues of web design and development and will also provide a firm grounding in web design principles, along with methods to carry out user testing and to evaluate usability.

In addition to web design, this course will open up the doors to pursue a career as an information architect, UX-UI designer or online producer.

• Course duration: 1 year
• Tuition: AUD 15,000
• Location: (Australia) Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Online

If you’re looking for flexibility, then Arena Multimedia’s Certificate in UX Design could be for you. Classes on this UI-UX design course are two hours long and are held three times a week. However, each student has the option of increasing those hours to complete the course faster.

Students can expect workshops, lectures, career seminars and even a platform to build their portfolio! Topics covered include classics such as Information Architecture and Usability Testing, as well as focusing on developing student’s abilities with industry-specific software.

• Course duration: 11 months
• Tuition: available upon request
• Location: Bangalore, India

UX design is a field that keeps evolving and attracting fresh talent – and there is no shame in jumping aboard now! People with a background in psychology or graphic design are particularly suited to cross over into UX design. However, the reality is that people from all sorts of industries can bring something new to the role.

The UI-UX design courses on this list have the power to give you that extra traction needed if you’re changing career lanes or to develop on what you already know. In fact, you can even practice on your own, designing user-friendly UIs with Justinmind’s wireframe tool.