User experience (UX) is a discipline concerned with understanding and improving the quality of users’ interactions with the product. User interface (UI) is a related discipline concerned with designing the visual look and feel of products, which impacts how users interact with them.

Step #1: Learn itStep #2: Apply itStep #3: Stay up-to-date

Access the following free resources from across the web. Note that Bootstrap Ed does not own any of the resources featured on this page.

UX/UI Overview

  • The Clever PM – The Product Lifecycle
  • Smashing Magazine – A Comprehensive Guide To Product Design
  • Career Foundry – What Is Design Thinking? Everything You Need To Know To Get Started
  • Think360 – What Does A UX Designer Actually Do?
  • Career Foundry – The Difference Between UX and UI Design – A Layman’s Guide
  • Stanford – Human Computer Interaction (HCI) [FULL COURSE], Lecturer: Scott Klemmer
    • 32 videos, approximately 5-20 minutes each
    • Playlist
  • Stanford – The Psychological Basis for UI Design Rules
  • Harvard – Fundamentals of Experience Design with C. Todd Lombardo
  • Harvard – UX Design: An Introduction with Scout Stevenson
  • Harvard – Why You’re Over-Thinking Your UI/UX with Rohan Puri
  • GOTO Conferences – GOTO 2012 • User Interface (UX) Techniques • Janne Jul Jensen
  • BitMethod Des Moines – The Fundamentals of User Experience
  • IsItEDesign – Aarron Walter of MailChimp on Designing Emotional Experiences
  • CasualConnect – Creating Compelling Experiences | Amy Jo KIM
  • Hack Design
  • UX Mastery – The Collaborative UX Glossary

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Project Operations

  • Trello – The Beginner’s Guide To Scrum And Agile Project Management
  • Agile Alliance – Agile 101
    • Click through each of the six sections (Agile 101, Agile Manifesto, etc.)
    • Reading
  • Aha! – What is a sprint and how is it managed?

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Product Discovery

  • UX Planet – Product Discovery Techniques #1: Inspiration
  • UX Planet – Product Discovery Techniques #2: Ideation
  • Interaction Design Foundation – Learn How to Use the Best Ideation Methods: Brainstorming, Braindumping, Brainwriting, and Brainwalking
  • Cleverism – 18 Best Idea Generation Techniques
  • UX Planet – Product Discovery Techniques #3: Prototyping & Testing

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User Research and Testing

  • This is Product Management – Product Research: How to Learn What Your Users Really Want
  • UXPin – The Practical Beginner’s Guide to User Research
  • Smashing Magazine – A Comprehensive Guide To UX Research
  • Userzoom – 23 Quantitative and Qualitative User Research Methods: A Comprehensive Guide
  • Guide to UX Research – Guide to User Research (UXR)
  • Startup: HY How to Start a Startup 2015 – Lecture 16 – How to Run a User Interview (Emmett Shear)
  • Downtown UX – A Crash Course in UX Research – DUX Meetup April 2017

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Wireframing and Designing

  • Mind the Product – The Craft of Prototyping by Caitlin Kalinowski
  • UpGrad – A Comprehensive Guide to Wireframing in Product Development
  • UX Planet – Cross-platform guidelines
  • Adobe Live – UI/UX Design | November 13-15, 2018
    • 9 videos of live designing, approximately 120 minutes each
    • Playlist
  • UX Collaborative – UI/UX case study: a step-by-step guide to the process of designing a pet diet app
  • Career Foundry – A Step-By-Step Guide to User Experience (UX) Patterns
  • Webflow – Web design 101
  • Envato Tuts+ – A-Z of Web Typography

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Careers

  • Dyno Mapper – UX Careers
  • UX Beginner – Two Common UX Career Paths
  • UX Planet – How to Structure Your First UX Design Portfolio
  • UX Collective – How to build a UX portfolio if I have never worked in UX?
  • Springboard – The 7 Questions You’ll Be Asked at a UX Design Interview

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Free Tools

Adobe Creative Cloud Alternatives

Wireframing

Complete the following exercises to apply your newly acquired knowledge.

  • REDESIGN: Redesign an existing product
    • Identify an existing product that you are familiar with. Redesign it according to your hypotheses about what would make the user experience better.
  • USER RESEARCH: User interview
    • Identify a population of current or prospective users of a product or service. Conduct at least one interview with a member of this group to discover problems faced by this population that could be addressed by a product or service. Create an interview guide, conduct the interview(s), and translate your findings into specific user needs.
  • SIDE PROJECT: Create and design a product from scratch
    • Research a problem, devise a solution, design a minimum viable product, and get feedback from users. While this requires a high degree of commitment, designing an actual product is the best way to build your skillset.
  • PORTFOLIO CREATION: Build your online design portfolio
    • Create or refine your design portfolio highlighting your skills, experience, and approach.

Engage with the field on an ongoing basis. Note that Bootstrap Ed does not own any of the resources featured on this page.

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Related topics: Computer Science, Software Engineering, Product Management

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