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Design

Design the visual side of experiences (UI design)

Explore design systems and develop your own graphic design eye in user interface (UI) or product design.
DifficultyMedium15 hours
Interested in this free-access course?

UI design describes the user interface, or the visual side of experiences. This includes everything from typography and color to grids and layout design. The UI helps communicate the look and feel of a product from both a branding and a functional perspective. UI is how user experiences come to life and is a valuable skill for UX designers to have as well, whether they're doing the UI design themselves or collaborating with UI designers.

Before diving into the nuances of UI, we'll start by looking at the big picture of design systems and style guides. We'll break them down into smaller components: examining atomic design, design libraries, and responsive web to see how the building blocks are formed. We'll also consider how gaining a basic knowledge of code and learning to communicate with developers can benefit UX and UI designers when making design decisions.

This course is about the principles of UI design and does not teach specific design software. Whatever software you prefer to use, the concepts here will give you a strong foundation for making your sketches a reality.

In this course you'll learn how to:

  • Communicate across a team of UX designers, UI designers, and developers

  • Work with a style guide or design system to inform design choices

  • Conduct an interface inventory to uncover existing components

  • Consider responsive web across devices

  • Articulate the benefits of design patterns as a way to streamline the design process

  • Integrate existing design patterns into UI design

  • Use color and typography as tools for optimizing the user experience

  • Refer to accessibility guidelines when working with color

  • Design for the web

Learning outcomes

  • Consider responsive web, and designing for mobile and desktop
  • Work with a style guide or design system to inform design choices
  • Conduct an interface inventory to uncover existing components
  • Communicate across a team of UX designers, UI designers, and developers
  • Comprendre les complémentarités et différences entre Sleuth et Zipkin

Turn it into a career

Take one of our 100% online diploma training programs, and transform your know-how into professional skills.

  • Up to 100% of your training program funded
  • Flexible start date
  • Career-focused projects
  • Individual mentoring

Contributors

Instructor

Anne Ditmeyer

Designer and creative consultant who writes and travels. Find me online at anneditmeyer.com + @pretavoyager!

Created by

OpenClassrooms

Last updated: 1/23/2025

License

Design

Design the visual side of experiences (UI design)

DifficultyMedium15 hours
Free-access course