Discover the Best UX Design Classes Near Me
UX design is an increasingly popular career. The field is growing due to high demand for websites and apps that create a positive user experience. More and more businesses are creating sites and apps for their products, which means they need more UX designers to make those web technologies intuitive and helpful to their customers. So UX designers are in high demand, and they will continue to be so. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the US economy will add 45,400 UX designer jobs over the period 2021-2031.
Not only can UX design be a lucrative and secure professional pursuit, but it can also allow you to grow in your current field or facilitate a career change. It can also give you an outlet for your creativity and allow you to collaborate productively with a team. And being a user experience designer is also a way to improve people’s lives by making their encounters with technology pleasant and enjoyable.
Best UX Design Classes & Schools
You can find UX design programs and relevant courses in most major metropolitan areas, as well as online. So regardless of where you live, great UX design courses are available to you in some format. This article discusses some of the best classes and schools available, including what each course covers, along with timelines, tuition, and what students have to say about their experience.
#1: General Assembly—UX Design (New York)
In General Assembly’s UX Design 101 course, students will learn about the effect of design on users’ experience of the online world. They will explore the decision-making process that underlies the interactions between digital products and their users. In this course, they’ll come to understand why UX Designers are in such high demand across a range of industries. Students will explore what is included in UX design and why UX is so important. The course will introduce them to the most common tools and techniques that professional designers use in their working process. In Adobe InVision, they’ll learn how to create a clickable prototype of a design. Finally, the instructors will guide students in identifying further high-quality resources they can use to expand their knowledge of UX Design.
Key Information
This is a two-day, full-time course. There are no prerequisites. Tuition is $60.
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This course is well-suited for those who want to explore the basics of UX Design and see whether they are interested in that world. Students say that this course is “well-structured” and “easy to follow,” while the instructors are “extremely knowledgeable.”
#2: General Assembly—User Experience Design Bootcamp (New York)
Those who would like a hands-on instruction to UX design studies may want to choose General Assembly’s User Experience Design Bootcamp over its 101 course. Students in the bootcamp will go through the entire process of UX design in one day. This will provide them with a practical introduction to the central concepts and tools of UX and UI design, with concrete real-world examples at their fingertips. In the course, they’ll practice the strategies and methods that make for successful UX design.
Students will discover what UX design adds to the workflow of a product team, and how they can leverage the UX knowledge they’re acquiring to improve their projects at work. They will also learn how to produce practical UX deliverables like wireframes, prototypes, and user testing reports. And they’ll work on developing the ideation and collaboration skills that will be vital to any further pursuit of UX design.
Key Information
This is a 1-day, full-time course. There are no prerequisites. Tuition is $250.
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Students say the “amazing instructors” for this course are “clear,” “thoughtful,” and “provided guidance after the program finished.”
#3: Flatiron School—Learn UX/UI Design (New York)
The Learn UX/UI Design course from Flatiron School teaches an ethical and inclusive approach to design. Students begin by exploring how to do the user research that is at the foundation of UX design, creating strong research questions and choosing an appropriate method (whether qualitative or quantitative) to answer the question they’ve built. They will then learn the fundamentals of User Interface (UI) design, including innovation, ideation, visual composition, color, typography, interaction, and animation.
Students will also discover how to design for the web in a manner that will be effective across devices—otherwise known as “responsive design”—and explore the principles of information architecture, the science of structuring a website so that it’s easily navigable by users. Once they’ve learned these tools and concepts, they’ll begin to design mobile apps and create clickable prototypes of those designs. The course ends with a capstone project in the student’s specialty of choice, whether UX research, UX design, or UI design.
Flatiron also prioritizes teaching students to operate in the business world as UX Designers. So the course covers product strategy, the product lifecycle, and how to operate under Agile project management methodology. Students also learn communication design to maximize the effectiveness of their stakeholder presentations.
Key Information
This full-time bootcamp is 15 weeks long at 40 hours a week. There are no prerequisites for this course. Tuition costs $16,900, due upfront or in 12 installments of $1400 each, with a $99 deposit at registration. The school offers scholarships for students from underrepresented communities and for women.
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Once students register, they gain access to a pre-work curriculum, which will assist them in preparing for the course. After completion, 180 days of career services are available for graduates of the program, including job search mentoring, resume reviews, and mock interviews.
Students say that the curriculum is “very thorough” and the instructors were “always ready and available to help.” According to graduates, this program is “an amazing experience.”
#4: Beach Coders Academy—Ultimate UX User Experience Design Immersive (Los Angeles)
In Beach Coders Academy’s Ultimate UX User Experience Design Immersive, students will learn the tools and techniques to make the digital products they design functional, intuitive, and enjoyable. Beach Coders sees UX as existing at the intersection of interface design, information architecture, content strategy, research, and usability engineering. Students will discover the history, theory, and language of UX. They will begin with design basic, agile and lean methodologies, UX research, and sitemaps.
Then, the course moves on to task analysis, navigation, and taxonomy. Students will learn the techniques of responsive design, which makes it possible to use the same site or app on different screens. They’ll also discover business analysis, content strategy, and product management. The next phase is wireframes, paper prototyping, and lo-fi and hi-fi prototyping in Sketch, as well as interaction design and error messaging.
At the end of the course, students will discover the practical elements of the UX career path and learn how they can continue their development as aspiring UX designers. Students will create a capstone project as their final product for the course and the first case study of their design portfolio.
Key Information
This is a four-week program, with 2.5-hour sessions Monday-Friday. There are no prerequisites for this course. Tuition is $2477.
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Students say this course allowed them to “progress very quickly” due to the “extra time and attention” provided by the instructors. They found that the course served to “guide and inspire” them in their future study of UX.
#5: Studio Arts—UX/UI Design 101 (Los Angeles)
Studio Arts offers UX/UI Design 101. In this overview of UX and User Interface (UI) design, students will learn the essential elements of UX and the requisite tools of the trade. They’ll discover the principles and processes of design. These include ideation, user testing, and design evaluation. The goal is to provide a foundation for further study of UX and UI design. It also focuses on UX design as a contribution to the larger work of a product team.
Key Information
This is a two-month course that meets one evening a week for four hours. There are no prerequisites, but basic familiarity with design software is recommended. Tuition is $1500.
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This course includes both an instructed lab and a lecture for each class meeting, but the instructed lab is not required.
Students say the instructors at Studio Arts are “friendly, clear, and super helpful.”
#6: UX 4Sight—Introduction to User Experience (Chicago)
UX 4Sight’s Introduction to User Experience course is a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles and tools of UX design. They’ll learn what UX is, the typical roles within it, and how to make the case that UX is essential within their business organizations. Students will discover the strategic side of UX design, including mental models, market segments, desired user actions, and user personas. As an introduction to the Design Thinking process, they’ll explore the definition process that leads a UX team from a product scenario to a design taskflow. Then, they’ll practice this knowledge through a range of hands-on exercises.
Key Information
This is a one-day, 7-hour course. Designed for beginners, it has no prerequisites. Tuition is $498.
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Students say instructors were “very knowledgeable” and praise their “great teaching style.”
#7: KnowledgeHut—UX/UI Design Training (Houston)
KnowledgeHut’s UX/UI Design Training course provides an in-depth introduction to the world of UX. It begins with user research, including the use of existing data from Google analytics to understand user behavior. Students go on to analyze the results of their investigations to identify potential user needs. They learn how to present research outcomes to the product team and navigate team discussions of what to do with this information. At this point, the course introduces information architecture and the role it will play in the upcoming design process.
Next, students learn about the ideation phase of Design Thinking, coming up with many possible solutions to the user needs they have identified. Then, they produce lo-fi wireframes to demonstrate their ideas to the product team, followed by high-fidelity wireframes as a blueprint for their future app. Once they have a prototype, they conduct usability testing to make sure their app functions smoothly.
Students also learn the psychological aspects of UX design and how users interact with products. And the course covers UI design basics like color and typography, as well as how to build a repository of elements used in a design. Above all, students learn the principle of consistency across a design, the key to making it intuitive and usable. In the course, students will produce a website and two apps as portfolio projects.
Key Information
You can take this course as a two-week program at four hours a day Monday-Friday or as a four-week program at two hours a day Monday-Friday. There are no prerequisites for this course. Tuition is $1710.
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The course comes with mentorship from industry leaders. It offers career support, including reviews of your portfolio projects by outside professionals. Students say KnowledgeHut’s courses are “comprehensive, well-organized, and easy to understand.” Instructors are “interactive and engaging,” and they provide “an enriching experience.
#8: Sonic Training—UX/UI Design Introduction (Seattle)
Sonic Training’s UX/UI Design Introduction offers an overview of UX and User Interface (UI) design. The course covers design fundamentals, as well as many of the tools that UX Designers use on a daily basis.
The program begins with an introduction to UX and the “dos and don’ts” for an engaging design. Students will discover how to be “user-centric” and employ data to make informed design choices. They will find their target audience and define user personas for their products. And they’ll learn to ask whether a design is intuitive and how to test it.
Next comes exploration of the design ideation process, including making sketches of their ideas. Students will learn how to prioritize equitable and responsive design. The course teaches the user interface as a form of communication, focusing on taskflows and user needs. It covers the essential elements of a user interface and how to make a good impression. They’ll learn about navigation design and how high-fidelity prototypes make it possible for users to test the functionality and usability of their product design.
Key Information
This is a two-day course that runs for seven hours a day. There are no prerequisites. Tuition is $895.
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Graduates can retake any course for free within 6 months. The program provides study materials in the form of workbooks and CDs to facilitate your practice.
Students say that Sonic’s instructors are “patient, helpful, and fun to learn from.” Upon completing their courses, they “feel quite confident” in the skills they have learned.
#9: Noble Desktop—UX Design Foundations (Online)
In Noble Desktop’s course in UX Design Foundations, students will begin with what UX design is, as well as how it differs from User Interface (UI) design. They will learn the basic principles of UX design and the different disciplines within. They’ll also discover the most common tools that UX Designers employ. And they’ll explore UX research, including key methods and the iterative design process. They’ll learn to distinguish between user needs and business needs, and how to incorporate awareness of business constraints into their design process to come up with overall product requirements.
The course covers the artifacts and deliverables of UX design, including market research, competitive analysis, and analytics. Students will become familiar with how to analyze the results of their surveys and user interviews, as well as how to present them to stakeholders. They’ll learn organization of content through information architecture, including sitemaps, taxonomy, content inventory, and user flows. Next, they’ll move on to sketching, wireframing, and prototyping their designs. They’ll conduct usability testing and how to incorporate user feedback into the later iterations of a design. Finally, they’ll study how to document and present their final designs.
Key Information
This is a two-day course that provides 12 hours of instruction. There are no prerequisites for this course. Tuition is $695.
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Its expert instructors and small classes make Noble stand out among UX programs. Graduates can also retake any class for free within one year.
Students “felt empowered” by their coursework because Noble’s “top-notch” instructors “really make learning fun.”
#10: Noble Desktop—UX & UI Design Certificate (New York and Live Online)
Noble Desktop’s UX & UI Design Certificate starts with UX and UI design fundamentals. Students discover best practices for visual design and how to center their designs on the needs of the user. They also learn the skills of user research by studying target users, making user personas, and conducting user testing of their designs to identify problems that might arise. The course teaches how to use UX software for building clickable prototypes of their designs, which they can then employ for user testing, client review, and the ultimate handoff to a developer. Instruction also covers making an online portfolio to showcase designs to prospective employers, as well as creating an excellent, eye-catching resume.
Key Information
This is a part-time course, offering 7 months of instruction at 6 hours a week. There are no prerequisites. Tuition is $3495.
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Noble Desktop is notable for its expert instructors and small classes. This certificate program provides 1-on-1 mentoring by experienced UX Designers. They review students’ portfolios, help them polish their resumes, and give professional job search advice. Noble also allows students to retake any class for free within 1 year.
Students say Noble’s “top-notch” instructors made it “possible to learn without any stress” and “really make learning fun.” They “felt empowered” by their coursework.
Industries That Use UX Design
UX design is a growing field not only within the tech industry but in others as well. In tech, UX designers are in high demand to create a positive user experience on the sites and apps that constitute the industry’s products. But increasingly, businesses in other industries, from healthcare to banking to education, are also creating sites and apps to serve their commercial purposes. Websites are all but obligatory for a successful business today, and more and more companies, including small ones, are creating custom apps for their patrons.
As such, you can find UX Designers working in almost any field that uses web technology, for almost any kind of business. And even where there isn’t a current UX design role, it is sometimes possible to find a niche by noticing when a business’s app or site needs updating and pitching yourself as a freelance designer who can fix that problem. Many companies are not yet aware of what a UX Designer could add to their team, but you could change that—and transform your career at the same time.
UX Design Jobs & Salaries
The national average salary for a UX Designer is $103,805 annually. However, this average will vary by experience and location. Different locations will have different average salaries due primarily to cost-of-living, but also to demand for UX Designers in that specific location. So a UX designer in New York City will usually have a higher salary than one in somewhere with a lower cost-of-living, like Des Moines, Iowa. However, that New York designer’s salary will probably not be as high as that of a UX Designer in a tech hub like San Francisco or Seattle, which will have both high demand and high cost-of-living. In choosing where to locate as a UX Designer, you will want to consider the level of demand for these professionals in areas where you’d like to live, as well as how the salaries on offer stack up to the local cost-of-living.
What Will I Need to Learn UX Design?
The main thing you need for UX design is a computer that can run large programs and has enough memory to run key programs like Figma and AdobeXD. You will also need access to these programs, which generally requires a subscription. However, if you take an in-person UX design course, your school will likely provide these materials. You will also want to keep some scratch paper and a pen or pencil handy for sketching out your designs before you turn them into wireframes!
Is it Difficult to Learn UX Design?
The process of becoming a great UX Designer can be challenging. However, it is doable if you commit to the learning process. You may find the visual design aspects difficult to pick up if you don’t come from a design background. Or you may have difficulty with the research if you don’t have a background in a relevant field. Perhaps you’ll struggle to make the connections between visual design on a static page and the design of interactive features. Whatever your particular challenge may be, you won’t be alone in facing it, and a focused study of UX in a strong program will help you overcome these difficulties and become the excellent designer you seek to be.
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