Why I’m Doubling Down On UI Design

What if you could learn UI design skills on top of your UX chops without going crazy?

Think of UX design as “how something works”, and UI design as “how something looks”. The industry constantly confuses these two disciplines, which are really sister skill sets. Being able to do both well enables you to design better and more useful products, which makes you more valuable to clients.

That’s why I’m doubling down on learning UI design. The industry wants it and I do too. I want to be able to offer both UX and UI design services to clients by the end of the year.

But Where’s The Good Stuff?

The problem is there’s not much useful info about how to effectively learn UI design. Udemy has a few online courses, but the quality is hit or miss. There are some online bootcamps offering UI design, but they cost thousands of dollars. No thanks.

If you’ve never heard of Erik Kennedy, his design writing on Medium has been read by over 1 million people, and he’s worked with everyone from Amazon to Soylent. He’s a six-figure freelance UX/UI designer who is absolutely killing it.

Erik can help you learn UI Design. In fact, he’s got an awesome online course that opened last week. I bought it and binge-watched the first two sections over the weekend. Yes, I’m that nerd. But I’m totally blown away by his content.

Learn UI Design Course Content

The course focuses on design thinking, effective processes, and getting really, really good at your design tools. You literally look over Erik’s shoulder as he designs and re-designs dozens of interfaces in Sketch, but his tips work equally well if you’re using Adobe XD or Figma on a PC.

Besides over 18 hours of video, Erik includes tons of reference material and useful advice to speed up your workflow.

Erik is incredibly knowledgable, experienced, articulate, and funny. He’s put his heart and soul into this course and it really shows. He’s also available via Slack if you get stuck on any of the lessons.

But be warned – there is a ton of homework. Learn UI Design is not for you if you just have a passing interest in design. To get the most out of the course you’ll have to do the work. I’m going to be busy for quite a while, but I know it will be worth it!

Why I Bought It

I’m absolutely confident I’ll make my investment back many times over within the next year. How? I’m betting that clients will pay for larger projects since I can add visual mockups to my existing research, wireframing and other design services.

I’ve already used some of Erik’s teaching with clients based on what I learned from reading his articles. I can’t wait to see what’s possible after I’m done with all the homework :P

Yes, it is expensive. If you work for a company, ask if them if they’ll pay for some training. If you’re a freelancer or consultant, nothing beats investing in yourself for a more secure future.

Learn UI Design closes on September 27, 2017. If it’s closed by the time you read this, be sure to sign up so you can get notified when it re-opens again.