Trying to figure out which is the best UX design course online to help you launch or grow your career in UX, UI, or product design?
With hundreds (or thousands) of tutorials, classes, and intensive courses available online—it can be tough to figure out which is going to help you reach your career goals.
In this guide, we’ve curated two lists of standout options to fit the needs of: 1) students just starting out with UX, and 2) experienced UX or product designers who want to take their career to the next level.
Courses for UX Beginners
- The Top UX Design Courses for Beginners
- UX Academy Foundations by Designlab
- UX Academy by Designlab
- UX Basic Training by Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g)
- Intro to UX Design (Careerfoundry)
- UX Design Certificate by Google
- User Experience Design Fundamentals (Udemy)
- User Experience Design Certificate
Courses for Experienced UX Designers
- The Top Courses for Experienced UX Designers
- AI for UX Design by Designlab
- Advanced Figma by Designlab
- Data-Driven Design by Designlab
- Design Systems Masterclass (Maven)
- Figma UI UX Design Advanced: Become a Figma Pro (Skillshare)
- Nielsen Norman's Self-Paced Library, by NN/g
- Design Leadership at Scale by Rachel Kobetz (Maven)
Courses for UX Beginners
Criteria for Selecting the Best Beginner UX Design Courses
To build our list of the best UX design courses for beginners we’ve looked at a few qualifying criteria:
- Comprehensive & Updated Curriculum: Each course on this list covers concepts and practical skills that are appropriate for those who want to become UX designers.
- Experienced Instructors: Courses are created or led by industry experts with a strong background in UX design.
- Hands-on Projects: Each course offers hands-on projects to give you practical experience.
- Peer Interaction: Courses with an active community or group projects enhance collaborative learning.
- Flexibility: All courses are online, and can accommodate different schedules in some capacity.
Bonus criteria:
- Mentorship: If you want to learn quickly, it can be a great idea to look for courses that include some component of mentorship to get feedback and tips on your work—and be available to answer your design questions.
- Career Support: While these won’t guarantee you a job (for obvious reasons), it can help you pair your UX skills with the nuances of a UX job search.
The Top UX Design Courses for Beginners
1. UX Academy Foundations by Designlab
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- Duration: 4 weeks (full-time) or 8 weeks (part-time)
- Price: $499
- Best for: Those without any prior design experience who are looking for an introduction into the world of UX/UI design to see if it's right for them.
UX Academy Foundations is a focused 4-week course that's intended to give you a crash course in UI design. As a student, you'll be paired up with an experienced design mentor, to help you throughout the program and give you feedback on your work.
From ideation to handoff, this curriculum takes you through a design workflow similar to what you’d find in an actual studio or company. You’ll bring your ideas to life as a fully responsive website by the end of the course. The course also integrates AI-related content into the curriculum so that students start to gain familiarity with integrating AI tools into their design workflow.
Many students take the course as a precursor to Designlab’s UX Academy. One of the biggest benefits to the course in this capacity is that it allows students to trial Designlab’s award-winning course format and mentorship before committing to the longer, more intensive UX Academy.
What Students say (sourced from Course Report):
“Invaluable guidance and motivation”
My experience with Designlab has been excellent. The mentorship from highly experienced designers gave me invaluable guidance and motivation. I especially valued the timely feedback, the active Discord community with workshops, and the inclusion of AI-related content alongside structured learning materials. The foundations course was intense but rewarding, it pushed me to improve quickly and prepared me well for UX Academy. I’d highly recommend it to anyone serious about growing as a designer.
“Fantastic first look at UX/UI”
The Foundations course was a fantastic way to get my first look at UX/UI. The curriculum is broken down into bite-sized units that are easy to follow, and the videos are incredibly helpful for visualizing the concepts and following along with the concepts. What I appreciated most is that the program went beyond just the core UI/UX principles. It provided a wealth of additional resources and helped me sharpen my overall design skills, including how to give and receive effective critique. The best part was the one-on-one mentor. My mentor was not only inspiring and supportive but also incredibly helpful. The feedback she gave was invaluable, and she provided me with additional resources that made everything click.
Learn More: Join an upcoming Informational Webinar or set up a time to speak with the Designlab admissions team.
2. UX Academy by Designlab
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- Duration: 21 weeks (full-time) or 36 weeks (part-time)
- Price: $8,499 (payment plans and scholarships are available). UX Academy Foundations graduates receive an automatic $500 discount off tuition.
- Best for: Those who are looking to make a career shift into UX/UI design and walk away with in-depth knowledge on design thinking, UX processes, and a standout portfolio.
UX Academy combines asynchronous learning with 1:1 mentoring to create an educational experience that prepares you with in-demand knowledge and skills in UX/UI design. In addition to personalized 1:1 mentorship throughout the program, you’ll also receive a completed portfolio with 4 unique capstone projects; lifetime access to a network of mentors and UX designers; and actionable insights, feedback, and career support throughout the program.
With both part-time and full-time tracks available, UX Academy offers a flexible, asynchronous learning environment … designed to work with your schedule.
More recently Designlab has made several big additions to UX Academy, including a new project-based UI module called UI Accelerator and real-world projects via our Client Capstones. You can read more about the updates here.
What Students say (sourced from Course Report):
“Exactly what I wanted in a bootcamp”
Designlab was just what I needed when looking for a career change. Their challenging curriculum paired with team cohort crits and INCREDIBLE mentorship from my mentor was just what I needed to get my UX career off the ground… UX Academy was exactly what I wanted in a bootcamp and successfully aided me in my career change to UX Design.
“Would recommend for anyone”
I had a great Designlab experience, and would recommend for anyone who is looking to transition into UX Design as a career… My mentors were fantastic and really shaped my experience and made me a better designer. The mentorship is my favorite part of the program by far. I love that it is self-paced, and that the information is presented in a way that makes sense and allows you to practice your skills throughout the curriculum. I came out with projects and a portfolio that helped me land my first design job.”
Learn More: Join an upcoming Informational Webinar or set up a time to speak with the Designlab admissions team.
Go Deeper:
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3. UX Basic Training by Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g)
- Duration: Live online sessions
- Price: Around $1,175 USD per session
- Best for: Those are who are new to UX or want a solid refresher on foundational UX principles.
The UX Basic Training course from Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) delivers a rigorous introduction to user experience fundamentals, informed by decades of industry-leading research and practice. Rather than a self-paced video bundle, this course is delivered as live online training where participants work through core UX concepts like the UX mindset, key methods across the design cycle, research techniques, heuristic evaluation, and common deliverables (like personas and journey maps).
What sets this training apart is its emphasis on practical understanding grounded in research. You’ll get insights and examples drawn from NN/g’s own studies, a glossary of essential terms, templates for usability activities, and recommended readings to deepen your learning. The sessions are interactive and designed to clarify complex topics with real-world applicability, making this a strong choice for aspiring UX practitioners or anyone on a team who wants a structured launchpad into UX.
4. Intro to UX Design by CareerFoundry
- Duration: 1 month (~15-20 hours/week)
- Pricing: $690
- Best for: Someone with no previous design experience who wants to learn the essentials of UX.
CareerFoundry's Intro to UX Design teaches the fundamental principles of UX design including design thinking, user-centered design, and information architecture. Throughout the month-long course, you'll learn and practice core UX skills—such as user research and iterative design—as you create your very first app design. More recently Careerfoundry has also integrated some AI content into the course as well.
5. UX Design Certificate by Google
- Duration: ~6 months (10 hours/week)
- Pricing: $39/month for a Coursera subscription
- Best for: Beginners who are looking for a focused, relatively inexpensive way to gain understanding of the UX design process and earn a certificate.
The Google UX Design Professional Certificate covers the foundations of UX design, including user empathy, building wireframes and prototypes, and conducting research to test your designs. Simply sign up for a Coursera membership and you'll be able to work your way through this course, learning design thinking basics, an overview of the UX design process, and practice with design projects that are reviewed by course peers. While this isn't a comprehensive course, it comes with a certificate and a glimpse into Google's innovative perspective on UX design. Want to learn more? Read our deep dive into our comprehensive overview of the Google UX Design certificate program.
6. User Experience Design Fundamentals (Udemy)
- Duration: 10 hours
- Pricing: $119.99, or $19.99/month with a personal subscription.
- Best for: Someone with a basic understanding of design who's interested in making more user-friendly, effective websites.
Joe Natoli's User Experience Design Fundamentals is a perennial recommendation for anyone who wants to learn more about how UX design works, and how it can be used to create more user-friendly, effective websites. Throughout the 10 hours of on-demand video in this design course, you'll be introduced to concepts like the user research process and the basics of visual design, as well as project-specific work like creating content requirements, identifying business goals, and more. At the end, you'll receive a certificate of completion.
7. User Experience Design Certificate by eCornell
- Duration: Approximately 5 months
- Price: $3,750 with payment plan options available
- Best for: Career-changers or professionals transitioning into UX
Cornell’s User Experience Design Certificate program, offered through eCornell, is a well-rounded, professional online certificate that walks learners through the full human-centered design process — from foundational UX principles and research methods to prototyping, usability testing, and high-fidelity design.
Unlike short intro courses or single-topic classes, this program is designed as a cohesive professional development experience — ideal for those who are serious about making a shift into UX or building credibility in the field. You’ll learn to plan and conduct research, create personas and scenarios, build prototypes with industry tools, and conduct usability evaluations that inform design decisions. The curriculum is structured in a sequence of practical courses that build on one another, culminating in a portfolio-ready UX project demonstrating your skills.
Next Steps for UX Beginners:
- Learn more about how to become a UX designer without a 4-year design degree.
- Ready to go all-in? The next cohort of UX Academy Foundations is currently open for enrollment. Sign up here.
Courses for Experienced UX Designers
Criteria for Selecting the Best Courses for Experienced UX Designers
Looking at courses for experienced UX designers is somewhat of a different animal in that there is a great range of different topics that these courses might cover and the relevance of a particular course may depend on your specific seniority, interests, strengths/ weaknesses as a designer, and the priorities of your organization. Nonetheless we did look at several factors when curating these courses:
- Course Topic: As we just mentioned, different course topics are going to be relevant to different students. That said, we tried to include courses with widely applicable course topics that would benefit the careers of a wide range of working designers.
- Reputation of Instructor or Course Platform: Each course is led by a reputable instructor and/ or is through a well-known and reputable course platform.
- Reviews: Where available we looked at reviews from previous students in the course.
- Hands-on Projects: Each course offers some level of project work or interactive component to allow students to apply what they have learned
- Peer Interaction: Courses with an active community or group projects enhance collaborative learning.
- Flexibility: All courses are online, and can accommodate different schedules in some capacity.
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The Top Courses for Experienced UX Designers
1. AI for UX Design (Designlab)
- Duration: 4 weeks
- Price: $799
- Best for: If you’re an experienced UX or product designer who wants to confidently integrate AI into your workflow — without relying on hype or sacrificing creative control — this course is a strong fit.
Designlab’s course on AI for UX and product design helps designers adopt AI in a practical, efficient, and immediately useful way. Over four weeks, participants learn how to apply AI tools across the full UX lifecycle — from research synthesis and ideation to prototyping and communicating design ideas— while maintaining strong design judgment.
The course blends asynchronous projects with live learning, including weekly lectures and small peer group sessions led by vetted design mentors. Rather than focusing only on tools, the curriculum emphasizes repeatable workflows and strategies used by real teams to reduce design task time by up to 80%, making it especially valuable for designers looking to future-proof their skills and work smarter with AI.
2. Advanced Figma Course (Designlab)
Duration: 4 weeks
Price: $799
Best for: Experienced UI/UX professionals looking to master advanced Figma functionalities. Particularly good for those who want a class that goes beyond passive video/ written lessons and that also has synchronous and project components.
This advanced Figma training course is designed to elevate your Figma skills, focusing on creating advanced user interfaces, robust component libraries, and efficient design systems. Through a mix of self-paced lessons and mentor-led peer group sessions, you'll learn to implement advanced Figma features like auto layout, design tokens, and component management. The course aims to enhance your workflow, making you a proficient Figma user capable of tackling complex design challenges in a systematic and efficient manner.
Go Deeper: Read the article: 10 Figma Keyboard Shortcuts
3. Data-Driven Design Course (Designlab)
- Duration: 6 weeks
- Price: $999
- Best for: Mid to senior-level designers looking to enhance their data proficiency and impact on business decisions.
This comprehensive course on data-driven design is tailored for design professionals who aim to harness data in enhancing their design process and strategic influence within their organizations. It combines self-paced learning with weekly live peer group sessions, providing a blend of autonomous study and collaborative learning environments. The curriculum covers practical applications of data in design, from running experiments and justifying design decisions based on business impact to effectively communicating and presenting data-driven insights to stakeholders.
Participants will engage in hands-on projects analyzing real data sets, thereby applying theory into practice. This course not only boosts your data handling skills but also prepares you to confidently present data-backed design decisions, enhancing your credibility and influence in decision-making processes within your company. Upon completion, participants receive a Certificate of Completion, adding a valuable credential to their professional profiles.
For those looking to deepen their understanding of data-driven design and its application across various stages of product development and user experience enhancement, this course offers a robust training platform.
Go Deeper: Read the article: What is Data-Driven Design?
5. Design Systems Booktcamp by Molly Hellmuth (Maven)
- Duration: 4–6 weeks, with live sessions and structured weekly work
- Price: $995 USD
- Best for: UX/UI and product designers who want hands-on experience building and scaling design systems
Maven’s Design System Bootcamp is an immersive, cohort-based program designed to help designers go beyond theory and actually build a functional design system from the ground up. Rather than focusing solely on components in Figma, the course emphasizes the broader process of creating systems that support consistency, scalability, and collaboration across product teams.
Participants learn how to define design tokens, document reusable UI patterns, establish governance, and communicate system decisions effectively with engineers and stakeholders. With live instruction, peer feedback, and practical exercises, the bootcamp is especially valuable for designers looking to level up into more strategic roles or contribute meaningfully to mature product design organizations.
6. Figma UI/UX Design Advanced: Become a Figma Pro (Skillshare)
Duration: Approximately 16 hours
Price: Accessible via Skillshare membership
Best for: Designers seeking to master advanced features in Figma who don’t mind learning exclusively via video lessons.
This course, led by Daniel Scott, explores the intricacies of advanced Figma functionalities to elevate your UX/UI design skills. The curriculum covers topics like interactive animations, complex prototyping, and creating dynamic user interfaces. You'll learn to craft over 20 types of detailed micro-interactions and delve into design techniques that enhance usability and engagement.
7. Nielsen Norman's Self-Paced Library, by NN/g
- Duration: Fully self-paced (individual courses typically range from ~2–15+ hours each)
- Price: Tiered pricing depending on course depth — generally $99, $199, or $289 USD per course
- Best for: Designers and UX practitioners who want targeted, research-backed training on specific UX topics without deadlines or scheduled sessions
Nielsen Norman Group’s Self-Paced Courses library offers a flexible way to build UX skills at your own speed. Rather than a single program or bootcamp, this collection includes individual short courses on focused topics such as interaction design, UX data handling, information architecture, design critiques, and more. Each course combines video lessons, readings, hands-on activities, and downloadable resources like templates and cheat sheets.
Because the courses are self-directed, you can choose only the topics you need and complete them on your own schedule — no live classes, Zoom calls, or deadlines. That makes this library especially useful for working designers who want to fill specific skill gaps or reinforce key UX concepts with training from one of the field’s most respected research organizations.
7. Design Leadership at Scale by Rachel Kobetz (Maven)
Duration: 4 days (Intensive 2-week access to course materials)
Price: $2,200 USD
Best for: Senior Design Executives, Design C-Suite, and first-time Senior Design Leaders in rapidly transforming environments.
This high-impact executive course is crafted for design leaders aiming to refine their leadership capabilities at scale. It offers deep dives into establishing strong foundations, balancing vision with execution, and scaling a design organization effectively. Through interactive live sessions, 30 in-depth lessons, and practical projects, participants will learn to amplify their influence and impact within large teams or organizations. The course promises personalized guidance with office hours and a private community for peer interaction, enhancing the learning experience significantly.
8. (Bonus) Growth.Design
Duration: Weekly growth design case studies to your inbox
Price: FREE
Best for: Designers and growth practitioners who want thoughtful analyses of how real companies are doing design right (or wrong)
Every week we eagerly await the fun, engaging, comic-book inspired case studies from the guys at growth.design. They aren’t exactly a course per se, but you get a lot more out of them than many paid courses offer. Apparently, the team behind these case studies are also offering a paid course on Growth Psychology sometime soon, so if you like their case studies, that could definitely be something you’ll want to check out if understanding how design can drive growth is something you’re interested in.
Next Steps for Experienced UX Designers:
- Think through the skills and competencies you want to improve upon. For inspiration check out this article on important skills for UX designers.
- Interested in a Designlab course but not sure which one? Set up a call with Designlab’s admissions team to discuss advanced course offerings.
Other articles you might want to check out:
- 10 Best UX Bootcamps
- 14 Common UX Portfolio Mistakes to Avoid
- 10 UX/UI Portfolio Examples to Inspire You
- Google UX Design Certificate Review & Overview
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