We all know how important it is to have a good design especially if you are user interface or user experience designer. Whether you're designing a website, an app, or any other digital product, your design has the power to either make or break your creation.
And while there are plenty of free tutorials out there for beginners wanting to learn more about UI/UX design basics and beyond - they often lack quality. With all the free resources on the internet I believe you don't have to go to a college or university to be a successful UI UX designer and here is why: Reason to not to college to be a UI UX Designer
That's why I've curated 18 high-quality courses and resources from experts in the field that will take you from beginner to pro in no time at all!
1. BaselineHQ
Beginner - Intermediate
The BaselineHQ team is committed to providing high-quality educational content for free, forever. They are in-house experts with no signup and not even email address needed.
Check them out today and see what they have in store!
2. WWDC21 (Apple)
Intermediate - Advance
Since 1997, Apple has set the standard for creativity in product design. And, now you can brush up on your skills with free tutorials from Apple design experts.
This WWDC21 will cover a comprehensive set of topics that will give you the highest level of insight into Macintosh and iOS human interface design, coding for the user interface, and advanced graphics capabilities.
Apple is the pinnacle of high standard when it comes to UI UX, what better UI UX course than this!
Here are the contents of it:
- Practice audio haptic design
- Design for spatial interaction
- Design for Group activities
- SF Symbols
- Move beyond passwords
- Meet TextKit 2
- Discoverable design
- Create custom symbols
- Build a workout app for Apple Watch
- Transition media gaplessly with HLS
- Inclusive design
3. Workshopper (AJ & Smart)
Beginner to Advance
AJ&Smart offers a design toolbox, curated by highly experienced designers. Whether you're an expert or just starting out as a designer, it has couple of UI UX resources to help you level up your skills.
- Lightning Decision Jam Booklet
- Facilitation Guidebook
- UX Career Supercharger Course
- UX Resources Swipefile
- Shortcut-O-Matic
- AJ&Smart Office Workshop space
4. Figma Crash Course
Beginner to Intermediate
This free course is by Pablo Stanley famous in the design space. He made a speech in the awwwards talk.
He is the Co-founder at Blush and Staff Designer at Lyft. Previously I was a Lead at InVision and co-founder of Carbon Health. I give design workshops and share design tutorials on YouTube. I also host a design podcast, manage Latinxs Who Design, give talks around the world, and writes silly comics
This course is still not fully complete, more to come soon
Here are some contents:
- Auto Layout
- Illustration System
- Animation & Prototyping
- Components & Systems
5. Brainstation
Beginner to Advance
BrainStation is the global leader in digital skills training, empowering businesses and brands to succeed in the digital age.
You wanna start your career in UI UX design, these online events is gonna guide you there.
Brainstation have world class instructors, hands-on approach, data-driven learning and a really good network.
6. DesignBetter (by Invision)
Beginner to Advance
Designbetter by Invision is providing the best handbooks with access to the world best design teams
UI UX designer these are the most complete guide and handbook out there that can put paid courses to shame, do take a look at these
Here are some of the hanbooks provided:
- Design Engineering Handbook
- Business Thinking for Designers
- Remote Work for Design Teams
- Animation Handbook
- Enterprise Design Sprints
- DesignOps Handbook
- Design Systems Handbook
- Design Leadership Handbook
- Design Thinking Handbook
- Principles of Product Design
7. Invision Talks
Beginner to Advance
Another resource by Invision, providing talks by experts and product training and workshop
Talks involving design system and collaborations. If you are UI UX designer, this talks and training are really helpful to raise your expertise.
8. UXPlaybook
Beginner to Advance
The UX Playbook is created by Chris, a former head of design. The UX Playbook provides many freebies for UX design templates to help you kickoff your projects
Free Template:
- Project Kickoff
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Proto-Persona
- Design Sprint
- Brainstorming
- Sketch
- Wireframe
- Concept Testing
9. Springboard
Beginner to Intermediate
Julia, General Assembly, Instructor, is the author for the UX Design course.
There is close to 95 000 students that are enrolled to the course and you can too!
What will you learn:
- design research methods
- user centered design techniques
- interviewing users in real-world situations
- creating personas to define users
- deliverables a UX designer is expected to produce
If you are UI UX designer, aspiring designer, consultant or design engineers then this is for you
10.Udacity (by Google)
Intermediate
This is a free product design course by Google themselves, this course is lead by Chris Saden and Amir Shevat the industry experts.
You will learn the process of a Design Sprint and how to do it in an easy-to-implement manner.
The Google Design Sprint is a part of the broader methodology that Google Ventures use called 'Design How To'. Learn about this methodology for your company's creative problem solving needs.
This course covers:
- Idea Validation
- UI UX
- Design Sprint
- Key Metric
11. EnvatoTuts
Beginner to Intermediate
Envato is one of the biggest marketplace for designer and creative, they have created tutorials and courses to help you and I with our journey
Categories they provide:
- CSS
- HTML
- UI Design
- Wordpress
- Javascript
- Adobe Photoshop
- UX Design
- Responsive Web Design
12. UX Dialpad
Beginner to Intermediate
This course is created by Nussi Einohrn, Senior Product Designer CEO at Intent UX. he have successfully designed over 30 real app navigations.
This is a hands-on UI UX course that you won't regret and worth your time to explore and create your own
UX Dialpad will teach you how to do so step by step
13. Udemy UX Design
Beginner
Udemy is a course marketplace, but did you know they offer free courses as well. Well now you know!
Udemy has more than a million students, join the bandwagon and learn User Experience design
Do check them out
14. GeneralAssembly
Beginner to Intermediate
General Assembly has been able to provide training in the skills that are needed for careers. They have been in the industry since 2011 and have helped tens of thousands of people to learn new skills.
Here are some of free content:
- Intro to UX Design
- Break in UX Design
- Intro to Visual Design
- Ace your Design Interview
15. Awwwards Academy
Intermediate to Advance
Awwwards have been famous for displaying the best web designs ever created all around the world.
But did you know they provide free talks design skills and provide the best tips and tricks live.
16. Zendesk Brandland
Beginner to Advance
Zendesk is one of the best support crm system out there in world.
They have know to have one of the best brand identity and they are kind enough show the process behind their brand identity.
This guide is the Ultimate UI UX resource out there, so much information for you as a designer to take advantage of
Introducing Zendesk Brandland:
- The Basics
- Brand Identity
- Typography
- Color
- Layout
- Presentation
- Copywriting
- Philosophy
- Shooting
- Editing
- Animation
- Sound
- Photography
17. Material.io
Beginner to Advance
Material.io is one of the best and oldest guide for every beginners, intermediate and advanced developer or designer.
Contents are:
- Environment
- Layout
- Navigation
- Color
- Typography
- Sound
- Iconography
- Shape
- Motion
- Interaction
- Communication
- Machine Learning
18. HackDesign
Beginner to Intermediate
HackDesign sends you design lesson for you in your inbox every week, which is hand crafted by industry professionals and currently there is close to 400 000 people have joined so far.
Conclusion
If you want to jumpstart your UI UX career, or just learn more about the field, take a look at these 18 free resources that can help. From how-to videos to UI UX interactive courses and downloadable ebooks on everything from sketching interfaces to designing with psychology in mind, there’s something for everyone here.
And while it might seem overwhelming at first, remember that this is all material we recommend taking one step at a time smaller bites will make it easier for you to digest before moving onto the next course!
We hope they come in handy as you keep working towards becoming what you intended to be.
When you are ready to kickstart your career, here is portfolio guide : Ultimate Portfolio Guide