Course Outline

Here's a full breakdown of all the good stuff you'll learn by taking this course with us. 

Start With People

8 LESSONS

Learn how to conduct real research, and uncover people's motivations on both sides of the project from stakeholder to end user.

1. Introduction
Welcome! Here you'll get a solid introduction to UX and Design Thinking - what it all means, and how you can start off on the right foot in this course. 

2. Why, why, why?
Learn about the project lifecycle, who needs to be involved, and how to set yourself up for success with a Game Plan. Understand why you're taking this project on in the first place, what success (and failure) look like, and set a plan for great communication.

3. Research and Discovery
Learn best practices, and proven methods for understanding people better. Learn how to uncover real user motivations, and gain insights that provide value on both sides of the table.

4. The Competitive Landscape
Who else is doing what your clients are doing? What are they doing well? Where are there potential opportunities to outdo them? Learn how to run a workshop for your clients to uncover insights about the competitive landscape

5. The People Journey
Knowing who are users are and what they need is powerful, but truly understanding all the ways they can interact with a product is even more powerful. Learn how to do user journey mapping and uncover more value for your clients, and for your design process.

6. Design Discovery
As you move through the research phase, learning about people is important, but as you begin to uncover insights about customers, it's a great time to start doing some design execution research. Learn about Design Discovery and why it's an important part of the research process.

 
7. Bringing It Together - The Real Kickoff
The real beginning of a project. Learn a framework for presenting your research, learning your client's design language, aligning your stakeholders, and validating user insights.  

8. Tools, Tips and Next Steps
A recap of what we learned in this module, including tools to continue the learning after this course is done. 

Style + Structure

11 LESSONS

In this module, we dive into the details of great execution, like how to use a design grid, how to choose typography, how to work with images, and how do away with the three concept method. 

1. Introduction
Style and Structure are two key elements of what makes an impactful design solution. Learn our approach to Style Tiles, and how they can create a much more efficient design process. 

2. From UX Research to Design
Learn how to look at research insights and make sound style decisions to achieve the goals of the end customers, and the business objectives of your stakeholders.

3. Elements of Style - Typography
Learn about the most important element in UI design - typography. We'll go through techniques for selecting type to express brand personality, for establishing a typographic hierarchy, and for pairing typefaces together. 

4. Elements of Style - Colour
Know your colour theory? This lesson goes deep into the world of RGB. We show you how to select colours for your project, how to use colour for things like wayfinding, and how to get the most out of a client brand guideline. 

5. Elements of Style - Forms and UI Elements
If you're creating sites or products that involve any kind of input, then you'll need to know about best practices for form design. Learn all about how to design form elements that work beautifully cross-platform, and get the results your clients are looking for.

6. Elements of Style - Imagery, Illustration and Iconography
Learn all about how to creatively use photography, and other visual assets in your designs. Learn how to set the right tone with photography or illustration, as well as the basics for creating your own icons from scratch. 

7. Elements of Style - Motion
Is motion an element of style? You bet it is. Learn how to weave motion into your project in a cohesive way, and learn the techniques for prototyping motion in Principle for Mac. 

8. Bringing It Together - Style Tiles
Learn how to create one our most successful design deliverables. Learn what goes into a complete style direction that gets your stakeholders involved early, allows you to iterate quickly, and helps you win with one solid concept that everyone feels great about.

9. Bringing It Together - Wireframes
Now that you've done your research (you did, didn't you?) and you have a style direction, the wireframing process is far more informed. Learn how to create impactful wireframes that help all teams move ahead quickly in a more focused way. 

10. Selling Your Work
Creating awesome work is just as important as helping those around you understand the merits and motivations of that work. Learn how to pitch your ideas to your teammates, directors, and clients using research and sound design theory.

11. Tools, Tips and Next Steps
A recap of all the great tools we used in this module, some handy tips as you go forth and design, and ideas for how to further your learning. 

Execution + Handoff

10 LESSONS

Execution isn't just assembling style elements. Learn how to combine assets in a way that creates the most impact, and truly creates a cohesive experience from start to finish.

1. Introduction
You've done your research, you've worked diligently and collaboratively with your team and stakeholders, and now you're ready to put it all together into a compelling design deliverable. In this module, you'll learn how to take the elements of style and create a cohesive, impactful design. 

2. Hierarchy and Layout
We'll look at how to use hierarchy in your design execution to draw attention to the goals of the screen, and generally make users feel more comfortable and awesome. 

3. Visual Design
Learn how to take your style elements, like imagery, illustration and iconography, and incorporate them in your design executions for the greatest impact. 

4. Accessibility
Reach the widest audiences, and ensure that everyone can experience your designs to the fullest. Learn about WCAG requirements, and how to make your designs as universal as possible. 

5. Interaction and Prototyping
Learn how to bring your designs to life and get them ready for testing by working through prototyping methods using Invision, Craft and Principle for Mac.

6. Responsive Design
With more than 800 different screen sizes, it's important to know how to set up your work, and keep responsive design at the forefront of every design decision. Learn how to tackle challenges on smaller screens, and best practices for mobile browsers.

7. Testing and Iteration
Research gives us a solid understanding of who we're designing for, but real user testing can help us learn so much more about what's working, and what's not. Learn techniques for user testing, and how to prioiritize feedback for iteration. 

8. Bringing It Together - Final Comps
You've been armed with everything you need to knock out great work, now it's a matter of practice. We'll walk you through the creation of a full comp and the decision process we use to execute.  

9. How to be a Developer's BFF
Your designs don't code themselves. Learn how to work with the best people to bring your ideas to life - developers! We'll walk through techniques for organizing files, handoff platforms, Design QA, and ways to make developers lives easier.

10. Tools, Tips and Ongoing Support
A recap of the great tools we used in this module, and a rundown of useful ways to keep growing as a designer after this course. 

“I contribute a lot of my initial success to Matt's mentorship and teaching methods. He's engaging, knowledgeable, and always got my creative juices flowing. He was with me every step of the way towards my first job as a Product Designer in NYC and continues to be an invaluable mentor to this day.”

Isaac Kim
Product Designer, Philosophie

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