Member-only story
7 topics every UX beginner should learn
Not sure what topics to learn as you pursue a career as a User Experience professional? Here are my recommendations along with course links.
While looking to get into the User Experience (UX) field, you’ve probably found an exhaustive list of UX bootcamps, design labs, courses and workshops. With so many choices, it can be hard to know which topics you really need to learn. Well, I’m a generalist with experience in research, design and UI development and I’m here to help!
1. Design Psychology
Understanding how people think, how we respond to design elements, and our cognitive abilities and limitations. Psychology is foundational to how people interact with a design, so learning the basics will enable you to make effective decisions about content organization, task flow, labeling, color choices, interaction design… everything. Why? Every design choice effects whether we can access the content, how we navigate, what is clear or confusing, how we make decisions, how long it takes to complete a task, and how we feel about the overall experience.
You’ll wanna learn about color and typography psychology, cognitive biases, and principles of design. Learning how psychology impacts users’ experience will give you the fundamentals of design.
Here are some design psychology courses to check out:
- Human-Computer Interaction (Interaction Design Foundation)
- Human Mind and Usability (Nielsen Norman Group)
- Gestalt Psychology and Web Design (Interaction Design Foundation)
- Psychology of UI Design (Balsamiq)
- Psychology of UX/Web Design (Udemy)
- Inclusive Tech: Breaking Bias in Tech (LinkedIn Learning)
- Universal Principles of Design (LinkedIn Learning)
- Color and Cultural Connections (LinkedIn Learning)
Here are some tips I shared on this topic…
