Learn UI Design by Erik Kennedy

I’ve been watching Erik Kennedy’s Learn UI Design course to bone up a bit... If you're serious about wanting to get better at design, this is the course for you.”
Chris Coyier

Chris Coyier

Founder, CSS-Tricks.com

Learn UI Design has made my work here at Google so much better. I even had a coworker ask how I got so much better at design – and now he's enrolled too!”
David East

David East

Dev Advocate for Firebase, Google
Google

Learn UI Design is the best money I've ever spent in my (short) career – and I'm not even done with it yet!”
Jagoda Gniadek

Jagoda Gniadek-Probulska

Product Designer, Healios

Shortly after completing Learn UI Design, I landed my first job as a UX/UI designer. Listening to Erik’s design rationale helped me develop a healthy thought process and explain all of my design decisions with confidence. One of the best investments I’ve ever made!”
Christian Laing

Christian Laing

UX Designer, Home Depot

Let me save you some time. Honestly, there's only one reason to read anything on this page, and it's this: you want to learn how to create great-looking user interfaces.

If that’s not you, you can bounce along now. No hard feelings

If you’re anything like I was, you find UI design to be confusing and open-ended. The advice out there seems vague, contradictory, and theoretical (rather than practical).

When you look at design topics like typography or color, you're overwhelmed.

And when you see beautiful designs, they seem to be some mix of:

    Subjective
    Arbitrary
    Easy to recognize, but difficult to create

These feelings are all too familiar to me.

When I was a developer and PM, I felt this way constantly. I saw tons of great designs. I could even tell you which I liked best. But when it came to recreating something similar for myself, I was hopeless.

I saw UI designers as magical creatures who sprinkle mysterious design dust  over any wireframe and make it shine. It seemed like some art school voodoo that was completely inaccessible to others – myself included.
The Hard Way

When I learned UI design, I had to do it the hard way. Largely self-taught, making progress an inch at a time. In the end, I learned the aesthetics of apps the same way I’ve learned any creative endeavor: cold, hard analysis. And shameless copying of what works. I’ve worked 10 hours on a UI project and billed for 1. The other 9 were the wild flailing of learning.

During that time, I came to have a disdain for the theory-heavy tripe that plagues so much design writing. You know what I’m talking about? Stuff like:

    Color theory (in reality, no designers really use it)
    The golden ratio (seems insightful, doesn’t help)
    Grids (less practical than you’d expect, given the airtime they get)

This stuff seems useful, but it failed the only metric that mattered to me: does it help me make a bad design look good?

Let’s fast-forward a few years. Now, I’ve designed interfaces for clients like Amazon, Soylent, Roam Research, and more, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars doing it. I’ve circled the globe freelancing from a dozen countries. From enterprise systems to personal side-projects, I’m confident in my ability to design whatever I need to – and have it look awesome.

“But I don’t know Arial from Helvetica” you cry. How will you ever become confident in design?

I thought you’d never ask.

I’ve been a professional Visual Designer for 5 years and the course still showed me new stuff – both in the basics and advanced stuff. Just get Learn UI Design. It's a no-brainer.”
Oskar Bader

Oskar Bader

VIsual Designer, Metafinanz Informationssysteme

Learn UI Design's straightforward approach, illustrated with real-life examples and tutorials, was extremely helpful and eye-opening. I would highly recommend this course for UX designers wanting to add UI design to their toolkit.”
Sarah Kim

Sarah Kim

UX Design Lead

This hands-on course is easily the most effective way I've found to learn UI design”
Aaron Franks

Aaron Franks

Software Engineer, Reelhouse

Introducing
Learn UI Design 2.0

The Complete Online Video Course
53 Video-Based Lessons

Over 35 hours of video lessons, filled with strategies and live examples covering all major areas of UI design. Watch me, Erik, as I actually design dozens of examples right in front of you.
Watch from any device

Learn UI Design works on phones and tablets too, so you can watch from your desk or on the go.
Skill-Based exercises

Dozens of assignments tailored to efficiently hone your UI design skills.

Take a shot at them – then post in the student community for feedback from the student mentors.
Learn UI Design PDF cheatsheets
Cheatsheets & Checklists

Old-school? No doubt. But it works.

Get over a dozen printable PDF cheatsheets and checklists with key design reminders and frameworks.

I keep these on my office wall. You’ll want to too.
Student Slack Community Slack icon

Come for the design feedback, stay for the community. Learn alongside other aspiring designers.

(There’s plenty of abrasive, competitive design communities out there — but we’re not one of them )
Watch Over a Pro's Shoulder
Animated GIF of lesson on fixing clashing colors

3.5 Fixing Clashing Colors
Animated GIF of lesson on styling text in editorial designs

4.9 Styling Text III
Animated GIF of lesson on designing icons

5.4 Icon Design

Learn UI Design is packed full of live video demos. Follow along as I create dozens of layouts, color schemes, elements, and more. From blank canvas to finished design, you'll see how the process looks at every step of the way.

Articles can be helpful, slide decks can be illustrative — but live videos combine the best of both worlds. I’ve designed these videos to be like watching over my shoulder as I share the frameworks, tips, and tricks that have helped me design UI for companies of every size.

In total, we’ll cover every major area of interface design.

Which lesson will you do first?

Get Course Notifications

The color videos BLEW MY MIND! This is EXACTLY what I’ve needed to learn for years. I could never name it, but you just showed me. I’ve been paying attention to color for decades, and have NEVER seen this ANYWHERE. Thank you, Erik!”
Kelly Kuran

Kelly Kuran

Chocolatier, Pinkoko Confections

Fonts have always been a complete mystery to me. But just from watching just the first two typography videos, I am actually capable of pairing fonts – with exquisite results! Learn UI Design's pragmatic approach to design has taught me infinitely more than what reading any design books ever did!”
Anders Nysom

Anders Nysom

Freelance Web Developer

I’m partially red-green colorblind, and I never thought I could ‘get' color. I just watched Secondary UI Colors and had a bunch of ‘aha’ moments. These last two videos hit a serious home run, and lifted the veil. I never realized how easy colors actually were. THANK YOU!”
David Garrison

David Garrison

Senior Principal Software Engineer, Harris Corporation
Inside the Course

Learn UI Design includes access to three things:
I.
Learn UI Design Video Series

The Lessons:
Video Series

35+ hours of video content, along with cheat sheets, top resources, and skill-building homework assignments.
II.
Slack

The Community:
Slack Channel

Get personal feedback on your designs – homework assignment, personal projects, and more.
III.
Live Redesign Vault

The Bonus:
Redesign Vault

Dozens of sample redesign videos I’ve done from student submissions. 36+ hours of narrated design content.

There is no other course that covers so extensively the skills you need to design beautiful UI, as well as the skills you need to be a good designer (and it’s more than just pretty pictures– see unit VII).

Let’s take a closer look at each of the 3 parts.
I UI design in 53 lessons: The Video Series

Work through it lesson by lesson, or skip around to what you’re most curious about at the moment. I get it — 35+ hours of video is a lot, even watching at 2x speed. But every minute is something I wish I had known when I started designing UI.
I. Introductory Topics

    1.1 Begin Here
        How to use this course
        What makes for an ideal UI project for learning
        A few of my all-time favorite intro design resources
    1.2 Introduction to Figma
        A primer on Figma functionality
        How to create and modify text, shapes, backgrounds, and more
    1.3 Introduction to Sketch
        A primer on Sketch functionality
        How to create and modify text, shapes, backgrounds, and more
    1.4 Setting Up Your Workspace for UI Design
        Other files you should keep on your computer for use in UI design
        The most common hotkeys for speeding up UI design
        Top tutorials for learning Sketch (or your UI app of choice)
    1.5 How to Build Your Design Gut Instinct
        A 2-step process for building your gut instinct
        What to focus on so you can improve as quickly as possible
        How to break down and analyze a "good" design
    1.6 Starting a Project: Brand & Goals
        The 80-20 of branding – the most common brands designers should be able to create for
        The most powerful questions for helping you determine your brand
        How knowing your brand and goals can help make a good-but-plain design great
    1.7 Finding & Using Design Inspiration
        The best places to find inspiration
        My strategies for finding inspiration
        Setting up systems to keep inspiration close at hand when you need it
        How to use design inspiration without copying
    1.8 3 Ways to Design Above Your Level
        How to move forward when there's a thousand things you could change
        A strategy for how to iterate on designs efficiently
        When to say "enough is enough" when you're designing

II. Fundamentals

    2.1 Introduction: Analyzing Aesthetics
        How the "Design Fundamentals" in this course differ from most courses or articles
        The six techniques you'll be using in every single design you ever do
        How you know these principles aren't just "opinion"
    2.2 Alignment
        The importance of alignment
        The trick to aligning tables and padded elements
        Centering asymmetric elements
        Vertically aligning text
        How an element's shape changes how you align it
        The importance of alignment in an era of responsive design
    2.3 Spacing
        The 4 most important rules of spacing
        How to add whitespace in data-heavy apps
        Unique spacing concerns in mobile apps
    2.4 Consistency
        A simple trick for all designing with as much consistency as possible
        When to break consistency – and how to do it effectively
        How to draw the line between consistency vs. standing out
    2.5 Sizing
        The only 5 text sizes you'll ever need
        Sizing elements on mobile vs. desktop
        The 3 heuristics of proper sizing of UI elements
    2.6 Simplicity
        The 6 strategies of making a messy design look clean and simple
        Removing clutter from busy data tables
        How you know when a design is "clean enough"
    2.7 Lighting & Shadows
        How to use shadows to mimic real world lighting
        The 2 major types of lights and what they mean for UI design
        6 techniques for making shadows in different situations
        Advanced lighting effects

III. Color

    3.1 HSB
        An introduction to Hue, Saturation, and Brightness
        Developing an intuitive understanding of the HSB system
    3.2 Luminosity
        Why luminosity is such an important property in color
        Practical situations in which luminosity can help you find the right color
        Luminosity's role in accessibility
    3.3 Gray: The Most Important Color
        Why gray is the most important - and common - color in UI design
        How to make gray match any other color
        Specific tactics for using gray on various supporting elements
    3.4 Variations: The Most Important Color Skill
        How to generate entire interfaces from just 1 or 2 base colors
        6 techniques for modifying colors in various circumstances
        When to adjust different colors to appear the same
        Why "color palettes" is a misnomer in day-to-day UI design
    3.5 3 Techniques to Fix Clashing Colors
        Major reasons colors appear to clash – or blend together – and how to fix them
    3.6 Picking a Primary UI Color
        Why you shouldn't just go with blue for your app
        Ideas for generating "non-obvious" themes (e.g. green for an environmental app)
        Why app colors are less subjective than you think
    3.7 Creating a Brand-Based Palette
        The 2 major types of secondary UI colors
        3 strategies for finding brand colors that match
        Live demos of generating secondary UI colors
    3.8 Dark Interfaces
        How to use lighting and shadows when the background is dark
        The best times to use – and avoid – dark background UI
        How to modify your color scheme for use with dark backgrounds
    3.9 Gradients
        The 3 main types of gradients
        The best way to make brilliant multi-stop gradients
        Common mistakes with gradients and how to avoid them

IV. Typography

    4.1 Intro to Typography
        The 2 fundamental skills of UI typography
        The paradox of learning typography
        The most important typographic terminology
    4.2 The Good Fonts Table
        Over 100 of the best free or cheap fonts for UI design work
        A brief analysis of each font, helping you know what brands and apps would be a good fit
    4.3 Choosing Fonts: Overview
        The 3 primary constraints of fonts in UI design
        How many fonts you should use in a project
        A 3-step process for finding good fonts
    4.4 Choosing Body Fonts
        4 hacks for finding great body fonts
        How letterform shape determines legibility
        How even a "plain" body font can match your project's brand
    4.5 Styling Text I: The Basic Rules
        How line length relates to line height and font size
        The ideal paragraph spacing, and the danger of baseline grids
        How text styling differs on mobile vs. desktop
    4.6 Brand & Letterform
        How the shape of letterforms relates directly to a font's brand
        The 5 most common brands you should be evoke with typography
        Why the "energy" of a font is a useful for UI design
    4.7 Styling Text II: Interactive Apps
        The 4 most important principles of styling text in data-heavy web/mobile apps
        Common typographical design patterns
        6 strategies for styling "data" (and everything is data)
    4.8 Pairing Fonts
        A framework for making sense of the many font-pairing strategies
        The 4 most common font-pairing mistakes
        How pairing fonts differs between clean/simple/neutral sites and heavily-branded sites
    4.9 Styling Text III: Editorial
        Special text stylings to keep in mind for text-heavy content – like blogs and articles
        Using condensed fonts
        Tips for creating drop caps

V. User Interface Components

    5.1 Component Libraries I: Controls
        How to match your components to your brand
        The 4 most important rules of creating a component library
        A deep dive into button variations
    5.2 Component Libraries II: States
        The 7 most common states – and which components they apply to
        How to prototype hover and focus states in Figma
        Creating an error message in 8 simple decisions (I promise! )
    5.3 Vector Illustration
        An overview of vector editing functionality, from nodes to networks
        When to use blend modes in illustration – and which ones
        A live example illustration you can follow along with
    5.4 Icon Design
        The 4 main requirements of good icons
        The biggest beginner mistakes when designing icons
        Matching your icon style to your brand
    5.5 Photography & Imagery
        5 simple tricks for stunning visuals
        How to identify top-notch imagery for UI design
        My favorite sites to find great free photography
        A practical overview of blend modes
    5.6 Lists & Tables
        What elements to show in a list/table – and what to remove
        Strategies for making your huge data tables smaller
        Two example redesigns – desktop & mobile
    5.7 Charts & Data Visualizations
        The two most common mistakes in making gorgeous data visualizations
        How to make a line chart look awesome
        The best workflows for creating – and coloring – a pie chart in Figma

VI. Digital Platforms & Paradigms

    6.1 Responsive UI Design
        4 overarching principles to make responsive design easier
        Plus 4 patterns to use to make any element responsive
        Dozens of specific strategies for designing responsive UI
    6.2 Designing Multi-State Screens
        The 8 states you need to consider designing for every page
        When to use different controls for waiting/loading states
        Includes a checklist cheatsheet to reference as you design
    6.3 Accessibility
        The most common mistakes in creating accessible interfaces – and how to fix them
        Why creating an accessible design is easier than you might initially think
        My favorite plugins and tools for creating accessible designs
    6.4 Overlaying Text on Images
        7 techniques for placing text on top of images in your UI
        Pros and cons for each
        Thinking about text on images in terms of accessbility and responsive design
    6.5 Truncating Text
        9 methods for truncating text
        Pros and cons for each
    6.6 Mobile: iOS
        How to "think like Apple" when designing an interface
        3 reasons to use the default iOS styles
        The most common UI paradigm that differ between iPhone and other UIs
    6.7 Mobile: Android/Material Design
        Key differences between Android and iOS design
        The most common UI controls in Android apps
        When to use – and not use – a floating action button
    6.8 Grids
        When grids shine; when they fail
        Thinking responsive when designing layouts
        The major reason to break a grid

VII. Communicating Design

    7.1 Creating a Design Portfolio
        How to get portfolio projects when you don't have paying clients yet
        Best practices and examples of great portfolios around the web
        Tips for telling a good story with your project writeups
    7.2 Interviewing for Design Jobs
        The 5 most common types of interviews – and how to succeed at each
        How to avoid common design interview pitfalls and red flags
        How your past work deck differs from your portfolio
    7.3 Finding Clients
        The best methods for a new freelancer to find clients
        Best practices for turning one job into many
        The worst places to find new clients
    7.4 Presenting Your Designs
        The most common mistake when presenting a design
        How to get the best possible feedback (and not have a design go straight to hell)
        A sample presentation with example questions that I answer
    7.5 Click-Through Prototyping
        How to use Figma's prototyping functionality
        The 4 main goals of a prototype
        Workarounds for one of the biggest drawbacks of click-through prototypes
    7.6 Developer Handoff
        The most important things you can do for a developer when handing off a file
        How a developer looks at your design file
        A checklist of things to cover with your develop

II The Community: Student Slack Channel

Learning design is a tough thing to do alone. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had someone to ask questions, get feedback, and bounce ideas off of?

With Learn UI Design, you’ll get full access to a special Slack Channel where you can do all of that:

    Submit (and receive feedback) on every single homework
    Get design reviews on your own personal projects
    Ask questions from the community mentors
    Talk shop with other designers and folks in tech

Slack community mentors

    Erik Kennedy

    Founder, Learn UI Design

    Humble brag, but relevant: I’ve probably seen more beginner UI designs than anyone on earth . 10,000+ submissions later, I’m still in the Slack channel, answering questions, giving feedback, and working to improve the course.
    Leah Huyghe

    Lead Product Designer, Meta

    Leah took Learn UI Design in late 2018 and was hired by Meta a few months later. Now she’s back, this time as a Community Mentor, doling out wisdom on UI, UX, process, and career.
    Shane Doyle

    Lead Designer, Threefold Systems

    Coming in hot from County Wexford, Ireland, Shane took Learn UI Design in 2017, and used the lessons from it to get hired as a designer – and promoted to lead – within one year. Look out for Shane’s hard-hitting feedback – delivered in a pleasant Irish lilt.
    Jenny Yakovenko

    Senior Designer, Ob’vious

    As a self-taught designer (coming from the world of cartography ), Jenny quickly realized there’s a large gap between useless theory and practical design advice. Learn UI Design resonated with her when she took it in 2019, and after getting promoted shortly thereafter, she now returns as a student mentor.

III The Bonus: Live Redesign Vault

Completely separate from the main lessons of the course, the Live Redesign Vault is 36+ hours of video recordings of me, Erik, redesigning student submissions.

The events are live – and all students are invited. But the vault is where they’re cataloged and tagged by color, fonts, overall brand, and platform – so you can reference them for inspiration and best practices.

As with the video lessons, no rush. You have lifetime access.
Live Redesign Vault screenshot

Choose from 38+ redesigns

Cataloged by colors, fonts, and brand used

Fully-narrated rationale for design decisions

Easily see the before/after and more

When it comes to learning how to create beautiful designs, this is the most comprehensive course on earth:

    Lifetime access to 53 video lessons, complete with cheatsheets, skill-building homework assignments
    A supportive community of beginning designers, mentored by top alum
    A vault containing dozens of past redesigns of student submission.

Get Course Notifications

I’ll be the first to admit this course is not for everyone. And while there is a 30-day 100% money-back guarantee, I want to save you the hassle of signing up, unless you’re in a very specific demographic:
Learn UI Design is not right for you if...

    You just want to finish a single design – not learn skills to serve you for years
    You believe you can become a better designer by passively watching videos (newsflash: you will have to do the homework assignments if you want to improve)
    You’re not a self-motivated learner (this is an online course, after all. I'm not handing out grades)

Learn UI Design is right for you if...

    You’re eager to learn and practice UI design
    You've tried designing something before – and it didn't come out so great
    You know learning UI design will add value to your career (thousands of dollars or more)
    You’re self-motivated when it comes to learning – after all, no one’s standing over your shoulder telling you to do your homework
    You’ve got some interest in tech (the more you enjoy geeking out about software, the quicker you'll learn)

Frequently Asked Questions

Question:
Is this just UI, or does it cover UX as well?”
Answer:

Short: it’s focused on visual design (UI), but often covers UX-related concepts incidentally.

Long: UX (“how it works”) and UI (“how it looks”) are sister disciplines. It’s impossible to do one well without the other.

Therefore, I reference UX ideas/topics constantly in Learn UI Design, but it’s not about them per se. If you’re more interested in UX (that is: interaction design, usability, user research, etc.), check out Learn UX Design

Question:
Can I see some of the course for free?”
Answer:

No.

Well, actually, I have published one lesson from Learn UI Design on YouTube.

But apart from that, no.

Why? Because I’ve published so much stuff for free already — a design blog, email tutorials, a YouTube channel, tips on twitter, etc.

Learn UI Design is not a different type of design advice than what I put out there for free — it’s simply much more organized and much more thorough.

So if you find my free content useful, you’ll likewise love the course.

Question:
Am I too much of a beginner for this course?”
Answer:

No.

Learn UI Design is created to guide you from zero experience to a professional level of UI design skills. Although many students have entered with formal training in visual design, the majority have none.

Question:
Am I too advanced for this course?”
Answer:

Likely not.

I always tell more advanced prospective students to email me their portfolio, and I’ll let them know if I thought they were too advanced for Learn UI Design.

However, even among students I’ve told not to join who did anyways, they only report loving the course and getting a ton out of it.

Why? I suspect it’s because the curriculum is entirely original. I went to engineering school, not art school — and my take on design shows it. Read my color framework or my step-by-step algorithm for pairing fonts. If this is useful stuff you have not encountered in your own years of experience, you’ll feel similarly about the rest of the course.

Oh — and if you don’t, there’s always a refund policy (see next question).

Question:
Is there a money-back guarantee?”
Answer:

Yes – there's a 30-day 100% money-back guarantee.

30-day 100% Money-Back Guarantee

Try Learn UI Design for 30 days. If you like it, great – you've got lifetime access to the 53 lessons, homework assignments, and resources (including future updates/additions). And if you don't like it? Just email and ask for a refund within 30 days – no conditions, no questions asked.

Question:
What app do you use?”
Answer:

I use Figma.

However, you can use any design app you'd like. Sketch and Adobe XD are the next most popular. However, since they all have such similar interfaces, functionality, and even shortcut keys, it matters less which one you pick and more that you simply have a good reason for picking one. Students have successfully completed the course in these 3 apps and others.

Please note: Learn UI Design is not a course about Figma. It’s a course on the underlying, unchanging principles of visual design.

While I happen to cover Figma functionality — from the basics, all the way through prototyping, animations, interactive variants, and more — that is only incidental to teaching you how to do great design work.

Question:
How can I get my work to pay for Learn UI Design?”
Answer:

First of all, smart thinking!

Here's a guide for your employer that goes over common questions for businesses enrolling their employees in Learn UI Design, including:

    Benefits to the employee
    Group discounts (they're surprisingly large)
    Invoices, certificates, and more

Question:
Are there enterprise discounts?”
Answer:

Yes.

Groups of 5+ seats get a 30% discount. Groups of 10+ seats get a 40% discount. Groups of 20+ seats get a 50% discount. If you are enrolling 5+ people, please contact me today (even if enrollent is not officially open).

Question:
Do I get immediate access to all videos?”
Answer:

Yes.

As soon as you sign up, you will get immediate access to the entire video series (including resources, homework assignments, and cheatsheets), as well as an automated invitation to the student community.

Question:
Do I have lifetime access to the course?”
Answer:

Yes, all students have lifetime access to the course.

As long as this course exists, you will be able to watch any video, complete any homework assignment, and see any resource. You can start the course the minute you buy it, or a year later – it's up to you.

Question:
Will Learn UI Design help me get a job?”
Answer:

Yes.

Not only is it everything I wish I had known when I first started designing, it’s also packed with specific advice taking you from zero to hired:

    How to create a design portfolio (even when you don’t have any projects yet)
    How to find clients
    How to ace a design interview

If you’re self-motivated enough to watch the videos, build your skills, and create a portfolio, there’s no better way to find a design job.
Wait, wait – who are you?
Erik – that's me!

Hey, my name is Erik Kennedy. I’m the creator of Learn UI Design and Learn UX Design.

I’m also a freelance UX/UI designer based in  Seattle, WA.

My clients have ranged from Y-Combinator startups to Fortune 100, including folks like the below:

    Soylent
    Amazon
    GiveWell
    Philo

I’ve also spoken in the US and abroad at businesses, meetups, and universities (like UC Berkeley, Yale, and UW). And my design writing has been read by over a million people.

So my design career has been an amazing ride.

But before all that, I was on a different path: engineering school. That’s right… a developer . When I first tried my hand at design, I felt doomed.

It looked awful.

Of course, I had my excuses. I didn’t go to art school. I didn’t know crap about aesthetics.

I majored in engineering – it’s almost a badge of pride to build something that looks awful.

But the passion for design stuck. And I ended up teaching myself UI design the same way I’ve learned anything: cold, hard analysis.

To cut it as a designer, I had to come up with tricks & tactics I could apply to whatever app I was working on in the moment. I mixed those strategies with the best of what I could find scattered across a myriad of books and blog posts.

And it worked. Here I am.

Still kickin’. Still designing.

In the interim, I quit a nice, cushy job at Microsoft, made the jump to freelance, and:

    Upped my annual pay
    Worked with who I wanted, when I wanted
    Enjoyed that #freelancelife unlimited unpaid vacation

On top of that, my wife and I spent a year literally circling the globe on a trip we’ll never forget. It was an amazing opportunity, but it was only possible because UI design is a valuable skill that businesses are willing to pay top dollar for.

Whatever reason you have for learning UI design — whether it’s getting a job, freelancing, launching a side project, or just upping your skills — I think you’ll find Learn UI Design is the very best way to do it.

Join thousands of happy students — it’s time to master UI design.

Learn UI Design is great! Tons of ACTIONABLE tips and hours of practical advice on all important design topics – positioning, alignment, spacing, typography, colour… What I found to be the best part is when Erik fires up Sketch to show you how to apply the theory on real UI designs. I feel much more confident when approaching a new design project after going through the course!”
Dražen Lučanin

Dražen Lučanin

Founder, Punk Rock Dev

I've gone to art school and done a lot of online courses, but this is the first design course that just gets to the meat of what I need to learn to level up. There's no fluff. Every lesson is packed with useful content and exercises.”
Evonne Okoye

Evonne Okouye

UX/UI Motion Designer

Hey Erik, I’ve got a success story – I landed a dream job in a world-class design agency. Learn UI Design helped make it happen. Thanks again for the valuable course – I return to the videos often.”
Bill Barham

Bill Barham

Product Designer, Meta Agency

Of all the money I’ve spent learning this is hands down the best investment (MUCH more valuable than the bootcamp that cost 10x as much)”
Shane Williams

Shane Williams

UX PM, Lenovo

This is one hell of a well-planned course. It's like learning how to fly a plane by actually sitting in the cockpit with the pilot – Erik is constantly designing/redesigning real-world examples right in front of you, explaining why X is good or bad, and how to go about making it even better.”
Mudassir Ali

Mudassir Ali

Frontend Developer, Canva

Learn UI Design is the ONLY course I’ve found that provides the reasoning *why* this design choice is better than another… I feel like I owe you a personal thank you for taking the time to provide me with the *why* behind the design decisions… The course is worth every single penny.”
Laura Strader

Laura Strader

Senior UX Designer, Udo
Learn UI Design 2.0
The Complete Online Video Course

Want to be notified when Learn UI Design opens for enrollment? Sign up for Design Hacks – which also features original design tips, and already has over 50,000 people on it. Can’t be that bad, right?

 

I’ve been watching Erik Kennedy’s Learn UI Design course to bone up a bit... If you're serious about wanting to get better at design, this is the course for you.”
Chris Coyier

Chris Coyier

Founder, CSS-Tricks.com

Learn UI Design has made my work here at Google so much better. I even had a coworker ask how I got so much better at design – and now he's enrolled too!”
David East

David East

Dev Advocate for Firebase, Google
Google

Learn UI Design is the best money I've ever spent in my (short) career – and I'm not even done with it yet!”
Jagoda Gniadek

Jagoda Gniadek-Probulska

Product Designer, Healios

Shortly after completing Learn UI Design, I landed my first job as a UX/UI designer. Listening to Erik’s design rationale helped me develop a healthy thought process and explain all of my design decisions with confidence. One of the best investments I’ve ever made!”
Christian Laing

Christian Laing

UX Designer, Home Depot

Let me save you some time. Honestly, there's only one reason to read anything on this page, and it's this: you want to learn how to create great-looking user interfaces.

If that’s not you, you can bounce along now. No hard feelings

If you’re anything like I was, you find UI design to be confusing and open-ended. The advice out there seems vague, contradictory, and theoretical (rather than practical).

When you look at design topics like typography or color, you're overwhelmed.

And when you see beautiful designs, they seem to be some mix of:

    Subjective
    Arbitrary
    Easy to recognize, but difficult to create

These feelings are all too familiar to me.

When I was a developer and PM, I felt this way constantly. I saw tons of great designs. I could even tell you which I liked best. But when it came to recreating something similar for myself, I was hopeless.

I saw UI designers as magical creatures who sprinkle mysterious design dust  over any wireframe and make it shine. It seemed like some art school voodoo that was completely inaccessible to others – myself included.
The Hard Way

When I learned UI design, I had to do it the hard way. Largely self-taught, making progress an inch at a time. In the end, I learned the aesthetics of apps the same way I’ve learned any creative endeavor: cold, hard analysis. And shameless copying of what works. I’ve worked 10 hours on a UI project and billed for 1. The other 9 were the wild flailing of learning.

During that time, I came to have a disdain for the theory-heavy tripe that plagues so much design writing. You know what I’m talking about? Stuff like:

    Color theory (in reality, no designers really use it)
    The golden ratio (seems insightful, doesn’t help)
    Grids (less practical than you’d expect, given the airtime they get)

This stuff seems useful, but it failed the only metric that mattered to me: does it help me make a bad design look good?

Let’s fast-forward a few years. Now, I’ve designed interfaces for clients like Amazon, Soylent, Roam Research, and more, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars doing it. I’ve circled the globe freelancing from a dozen countries. From enterprise systems to personal side-projects, I’m confident in my ability to design whatever I need to – and have it look awesome.

“But I don’t know Arial from Helvetica” you cry. How will you ever become confident in design?

I thought you’d never ask.

I’ve been a professional Visual Designer for 5 years and the course still showed me new stuff – both in the basics and advanced stuff. Just get Learn UI Design. It's a no-brainer.”
Oskar Bader

Oskar Bader

VIsual Designer, Metafinanz Informationssysteme

Learn UI Design's straightforward approach, illustrated with real-life examples and tutorials, was extremely helpful and eye-opening. I would highly recommend this course for UX designers wanting to add UI design to their toolkit.”
Sarah Kim

Sarah Kim

UX Design Lead

This hands-on course is easily the most effective way I've found to learn UI design”
Aaron Franks

Aaron Franks

Software Engineer, Reelhouse

Introducing
Learn UI Design 2.0

The Complete Online Video Course
53 Video-Based Lessons

Over 35 hours of video lessons, filled with strategies and live examples covering all major areas of UI design. Watch me, Erik, as I actually design dozens of examples right in front of you.
Watch from any device

Learn UI Design works on phones and tablets too, so you can watch from your desk or on the go.
Skill-Based exercises

Dozens of assignments tailored to efficiently hone your UI design skills.

Take a shot at them – then post in the student community for feedback from the student mentors.
Learn UI Design PDF cheatsheets
Cheatsheets & Checklists

Old-school? No doubt. But it works.

Get over a dozen printable PDF cheatsheets and checklists with key design reminders and frameworks.

I keep these on my office wall. You’ll want to too.
Student Slack Community Slack icon

Come for the design feedback, stay for the community. Learn alongside other aspiring designers.

(There’s plenty of abrasive, competitive design communities out there — but we’re not one of them )
Watch Over a Pro's Shoulder
Animated GIF of lesson on fixing clashing colors

3.5 Fixing Clashing Colors
Animated GIF of lesson on styling text in editorial designs

4.9 Styling Text III
Animated GIF of lesson on designing icons

5.4 Icon Design

Learn UI Design is packed full of live video demos. Follow along as I create dozens of layouts, color schemes, elements, and more. From blank canvas to finished design, you'll see how the process looks at every step of the way.

Articles can be helpful, slide decks can be illustrative — but live videos combine the best of both worlds. I’ve designed these videos to be like watching over my shoulder as I share the frameworks, tips, and tricks that have helped me design UI for companies of every size.

In total, we’ll cover every major area of interface design.

Which lesson will you do first?

Get Course Notifications

The color videos BLEW MY MIND! This is EXACTLY what I’ve needed to learn for years. I could never name it, but you just showed me. I’ve been paying attention to color for decades, and have NEVER seen this ANYWHERE. Thank you, Erik!”
Kelly Kuran

Kelly Kuran

Chocolatier, Pinkoko Confections

Fonts have always been a complete mystery to me. But just from watching just the first two typography videos, I am actually capable of pairing fonts – with exquisite results! Learn UI Design's pragmatic approach to design has taught me infinitely more than what reading any design books ever did!”
Anders Nysom

Anders Nysom

Freelance Web Developer

I’m partially red-green colorblind, and I never thought I could ‘get' color. I just watched Secondary UI Colors and had a bunch of ‘aha’ moments. These last two videos hit a serious home run, and lifted the veil. I never realized how easy colors actually were. THANK YOU!”
David Garrison

David Garrison

Senior Principal Software Engineer, Harris Corporation
Inside the Course

Learn UI Design includes access to three things:
I.
Learn UI Design Video Series

The Lessons:
Video Series

35+ hours of video content, along with cheat sheets, top resources, and skill-building homework assignments.
II.
Slack

The Community:
Slack Channel

Get personal feedback on your designs – homework assignment, personal projects, and more.
III.
Live Redesign Vault

The Bonus:
Redesign Vault

Dozens of sample redesign videos I’ve done from student submissions. 36+ hours of narrated design content.

There is no other course that covers so extensively the skills you need to design beautiful UI, as well as the skills you need to be a good designer (and it’s more than just pretty pictures– see unit VII).

Let’s take a closer look at each of the 3 parts.
I UI design in 53 lessons: The Video Series

Work through it lesson by lesson, or skip around to what you’re most curious about at the moment. I get it — 35+ hours of video is a lot, even watching at 2x speed. But every minute is something I wish I had known when I started designing UI.
I. Introductory Topics

    1.1 Begin Here
        How to use this course
        What makes for an ideal UI project for learning
        A few of my all-time favorite intro design resources
    1.2 Introduction to Figma
        A primer on Figma functionality
        How to create and modify text, shapes, backgrounds, and more
    1.3 Introduction to Sketch
        A primer on Sketch functionality
        How to create and modify text, shapes, backgrounds, and more
    1.4 Setting Up Your Workspace for UI Design
        Other files you should keep on your computer for use in UI design
        The most common hotkeys for speeding up UI design
        Top tutorials for learning Sketch (or your UI app of choice)
    1.5 How to Build Your Design Gut Instinct
        A 2-step process for building your gut instinct
        What to focus on so you can improve as quickly as possible
        How to break down and analyze a "good" design
    1.6 Starting a Project: Brand & Goals
        The 80-20 of branding – the most common brands designers should be able to create for
        The most powerful questions for helping you determine your brand
        How knowing your brand and goals can help make a good-but-plain design great
    1.7 Finding & Using Design Inspiration
        The best places to find inspiration
        My strategies for finding inspiration
        Setting up systems to keep inspiration close at hand when you need it
        How to use design inspiration without copying
    1.8 3 Ways to Design Above Your Level
        How to move forward when there's a thousand things you could change
        A strategy for how to iterate on designs efficiently
        When to say "enough is enough" when you're designing

II. Fundamentals

    2.1 Introduction: Analyzing Aesthetics
        How the "Design Fundamentals" in this course differ from most courses or articles
        The six techniques you'll be using in every single design you ever do
        How you know these principles aren't just "opinion"
    2.2 Alignment
        The importance of alignment
        The trick to aligning tables and padded elements
        Centering asymmetric elements
        Vertically aligning text
        How an element's shape changes how you align it
        The importance of alignment in an era of responsive design
    2.3 Spacing
        The 4 most important rules of spacing
        How to add whitespace in data-heavy apps
        Unique spacing concerns in mobile apps
    2.4 Consistency
        A simple trick for all designing with as much consistency as possible
        When to break consistency – and how to do it effectively
        How to draw the line between consistency vs. standing out
    2.5 Sizing
        The only 5 text sizes you'll ever need
        Sizing elements on mobile vs. desktop
        The 3 heuristics of proper sizing of UI elements
    2.6 Simplicity
        The 6 strategies of making a messy design look clean and simple
        Removing clutter from busy data tables
        How you know when a design is "clean enough"
    2.7 Lighting & Shadows
        How to use shadows to mimic real world lighting
        The 2 major types of lights and what they mean for UI design
        6 techniques for making shadows in different situations
        Advanced lighting effects

III. Color

    3.1 HSB
        An introduction to Hue, Saturation, and Brightness
        Developing an intuitive understanding of the HSB system
    3.2 Luminosity
        Why luminosity is such an important property in color
        Practical situations in which luminosity can help you find the right color
        Luminosity's role in accessibility
    3.3 Gray: The Most Important Color
        Why gray is the most important - and common - color in UI design
        How to make gray match any other color
        Specific tactics for using gray on various supporting elements
    3.4 Variations: The Most Important Color Skill
        How to generate entire interfaces from just 1 or 2 base colors
        6 techniques for modifying colors in various circumstances
        When to adjust different colors to appear the same
        Why "color palettes" is a misnomer in day-to-day UI design
    3.5 3 Techniques to Fix Clashing Colors
        Major reasons colors appear to clash – or blend together – and how to fix them
    3.6 Picking a Primary UI Color
        Why you shouldn't just go with blue for your app
        Ideas for generating "non-obvious" themes (e.g. green for an environmental app)
        Why app colors are less subjective than you think
    3.7 Creating a Brand-Based Palette
        The 2 major types of secondary UI colors
        3 strategies for finding brand colors that match
        Live demos of generating secondary UI colors
    3.8 Dark Interfaces
        How to use lighting and shadows when the background is dark
        The best times to use – and avoid – dark background UI
        How to modify your color scheme for use with dark backgrounds
    3.9 Gradients
        The 3 main types of gradients
        The best way to make brilliant multi-stop gradients
        Common mistakes with gradients and how to avoid them

IV. Typography

    4.1 Intro to Typography
        The 2 fundamental skills of UI typography
        The paradox of learning typography
        The most important typographic terminology
    4.2 The Good Fonts Table
        Over 100 of the best free or cheap fonts for UI design work
        A brief analysis of each font, helping you know what brands and apps would be a good fit
    4.3 Choosing Fonts: Overview
        The 3 primary constraints of fonts in UI design
        How many fonts you should use in a project
        A 3-step process for finding good fonts
    4.4 Choosing Body Fonts
        4 hacks for finding great body fonts
        How letterform shape determines legibility
        How even a "plain" body font can match your project's brand
    4.5 Styling Text I: The Basic Rules
        How line length relates to line height and font size
        The ideal paragraph spacing, and the danger of baseline grids
        How text styling differs on mobile vs. desktop
    4.6 Brand & Letterform
        How the shape of letterforms relates directly to a font's brand
        The 5 most common brands you should be evoke with typography
        Why the "energy" of a font is a useful for UI design
    4.7 Styling Text II: Interactive Apps
        The 4 most important principles of styling text in data-heavy web/mobile apps
        Common typographical design patterns
        6 strategies for styling "data" (and everything is data)
    4.8 Pairing Fonts
        A framework for making sense of the many font-pairing strategies
        The 4 most common font-pairing mistakes
        How pairing fonts differs between clean/simple/neutral sites and heavily-branded sites
    4.9 Styling Text III: Editorial
        Special text stylings to keep in mind for text-heavy content – like blogs and articles
        Using condensed fonts
        Tips for creating drop caps

V. User Interface Components

    5.1 Component Libraries I: Controls
        How to match your components to your brand
        The 4 most important rules of creating a component library
        A deep dive into button variations
    5.2 Component Libraries II: States
        The 7 most common states – and which components they apply to
        How to prototype hover and focus states in Figma
        Creating an error message in 8 simple decisions (I promise! )
    5.3 Vector Illustration
        An overview of vector editing functionality, from nodes to networks
        When to use blend modes in illustration – and which ones
        A live example illustration you can follow along with
    5.4 Icon Design
        The 4 main requirements of good icons
        The biggest beginner mistakes when designing icons
        Matching your icon style to your brand
    5.5 Photography & Imagery
        5 simple tricks for stunning visuals
        How to identify top-notch imagery for UI design
        My favorite sites to find great free photography
        A practical overview of blend modes
    5.6 Lists & Tables
        What elements to show in a list/table – and what to remove
        Strategies for making your huge data tables smaller
        Two example redesigns – desktop & mobile
    5.7 Charts & Data Visualizations
        The two most common mistakes in making gorgeous data visualizations
        How to make a line chart look awesome
        The best workflows for creating – and coloring – a pie chart in Figma

VI. Digital Platforms & Paradigms

    6.1 Responsive UI Design
        4 overarching principles to make responsive design easier
        Plus 4 patterns to use to make any element responsive
        Dozens of specific strategies for designing responsive UI
    6.2 Designing Multi-State Screens
        The 8 states you need to consider designing for every page
        When to use different controls for waiting/loading states
        Includes a checklist cheatsheet to reference as you design
    6.3 Accessibility
        The most common mistakes in creating accessible interfaces – and how to fix them
        Why creating an accessible design is easier than you might initially think
        My favorite plugins and tools for creating accessible designs
    6.4 Overlaying Text on Images
        7 techniques for placing text on top of images in your UI
        Pros and cons for each
        Thinking about text on images in terms of accessbility and responsive design
    6.5 Truncating Text
        9 methods for truncating text
        Pros and cons for each
    6.6 Mobile: iOS
        How to "think like Apple" when designing an interface
        3 reasons to use the default iOS styles
        The most common UI paradigm that differ between iPhone and other UIs
    6.7 Mobile: Android/Material Design
        Key differences between Android and iOS design
        The most common UI controls in Android apps
        When to use – and not use – a floating action button
    6.8 Grids
        When grids shine; when they fail
        Thinking responsive when designing layouts
        The major reason to break a grid

VII. Communicating Design

    7.1 Creating a Design Portfolio
        How to get portfolio projects when you don't have paying clients yet
        Best practices and examples of great portfolios around the web
        Tips for telling a good story with your project writeups
    7.2 Interviewing for Design Jobs
        The 5 most common types of interviews – and how to succeed at each
        How to avoid common design interview pitfalls and red flags
        How your past work deck differs from your portfolio
    7.3 Finding Clients
        The best methods for a new freelancer to find clients
        Best practices for turning one job into many
        The worst places to find new clients
    7.4 Presenting Your Designs
        The most common mistake when presenting a design
        How to get the best possible feedback (and not have a design go straight to hell)
        A sample presentation with example questions that I answer
    7.5 Click-Through Prototyping
        How to use Figma's prototyping functionality
        The 4 main goals of a prototype
        Workarounds for one of the biggest drawbacks of click-through prototypes
    7.6 Developer Handoff
        The most important things you can do for a developer when handing off a file
        How a developer looks at your design file
        A checklist of things to cover with your develop

II The Community: Student Slack Channel

Learning design is a tough thing to do alone. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had someone to ask questions, get feedback, and bounce ideas off of?

With Learn UI Design, you’ll get full access to a special Slack Channel where you can do all of that:

    Submit (and receive feedback) on every single homework
    Get design reviews on your own personal projects
    Ask questions from the community mentors
    Talk shop with other designers and folks in tech

Slack community mentors

    Erik Kennedy

    Founder, Learn UI Design

    Humble brag, but relevant: I’ve probably seen more beginner UI designs than anyone on earth . 10,000+ submissions later, I’m still in the Slack channel, answering questions, giving feedback, and working to improve the course.
    Leah Huyghe

    Lead Product Designer, Meta

    Leah took Learn UI Design in late 2018 and was hired by Meta a few months later. Now she’s back, this time as a Community Mentor, doling out wisdom on UI, UX, process, and career.
    Shane Doyle

    Lead Designer, Threefold Systems

    Coming in hot from County Wexford, Ireland, Shane took Learn UI Design in 2017, and used the lessons from it to get hired as a designer – and promoted to lead – within one year. Look out for Shane’s hard-hitting feedback – delivered in a pleasant Irish lilt.
    Jenny Yakovenko

    Senior Designer, Ob’vious

    As a self-taught designer (coming from the world of cartography ), Jenny quickly realized there’s a large gap between useless theory and practical design advice. Learn UI Design resonated with her when she took it in 2019, and after getting promoted shortly thereafter, she now returns as a student mentor.

III The Bonus: Live Redesign Vault

Completely separate from the main lessons of the course, the Live Redesign Vault is 36+ hours of video recordings of me, Erik, redesigning student submissions.

The events are live – and all students are invited. But the vault is where they’re cataloged and tagged by color, fonts, overall brand, and platform – so you can reference them for inspiration and best practices.

As with the video lessons, no rush. You have lifetime access.
Live Redesign Vault screenshot

Choose from 38+ redesigns

Cataloged by colors, fonts, and brand used

Fully-narrated rationale for design decisions

Easily see the before/after and more

When it comes to learning how to create beautiful designs, this is the most comprehensive course on earth:

    Lifetime access to 53 video lessons, complete with cheatsheets, skill-building homework assignments
    A supportive community of beginning designers, mentored by top alum
    A vault containing dozens of past redesigns of student submission.

Get Course Notifications

I’ll be the first to admit this course is not for everyone. And while there is a 30-day 100% money-back guarantee, I want to save you the hassle of signing up, unless you’re in a very specific demographic:
Learn UI Design is not right for you if...

    You just want to finish a single design – not learn skills to serve you for years
    You believe you can become a better designer by passively watching videos (newsflash: you will have to do the homework assignments if you want to improve)
    You’re not a self-motivated learner (this is an online course, after all. I'm not handing out grades)

Learn UI Design is right for you if...

    You’re eager to learn and practice UI design
    You've tried designing something before – and it didn't come out so great
    You know learning UI design will add value to your career (thousands of dollars or more)
    You’re self-motivated when it comes to learning – after all, no one’s standing over your shoulder telling you to do your homework
    You’ve got some interest in tech (the more you enjoy geeking out about software, the quicker you'll learn)

Frequently Asked Questions

Question:
Is this just UI, or does it cover UX as well?”
Answer:

Short: it’s focused on visual design (UI), but often covers UX-related concepts incidentally.

Long: UX (“how it works”) and UI (“how it looks”) are sister disciplines. It’s impossible to do one well without the other.

Therefore, I reference UX ideas/topics constantly in Learn UI Design, but it’s not about them per se. If you’re more interested in UX (that is: interaction design, usability, user research, etc.), check out Learn UX Design

Question:
Can I see some of the course for free?”
Answer:

No.

Well, actually, I have published one lesson from Learn UI Design on YouTube.

But apart from that, no.

Why? Because I’ve published so much stuff for free already — a design blog, email tutorials, a YouTube channel, tips on twitter, etc.

Learn UI Design is not a different type of design advice than what I put out there for free — it’s simply much more organized and much more thorough.

So if you find my free content useful, you’ll likewise love the course.

Question:
Am I too much of a beginner for this course?”
Answer:

No.

Learn UI Design is created to guide you from zero experience to a professional level of UI design skills. Although many students have entered with formal training in visual design, the majority have none.

Question:
Am I too advanced for this course?”
Answer:

Likely not.

I always tell more advanced prospective students to email me their portfolio, and I’ll let them know if I thought they were too advanced for Learn UI Design.

However, even among students I’ve told not to join who did anyways, they only report loving the course and getting a ton out of it.

Why? I suspect it’s because the curriculum is entirely original. I went to engineering school, not art school — and my take on design shows it. Read my color framework or my step-by-step algorithm for pairing fonts. If this is useful stuff you have not encountered in your own years of experience, you’ll feel similarly about the rest of the course.

Oh — and if you don’t, there’s always a refund policy (see next question).

Question:
Is there a money-back guarantee?”
Answer:

Yes – there's a 30-day 100% money-back guarantee.

30-day 100% Money-Back Guarantee

Try Learn UI Design for 30 days. If you like it, great – you've got lifetime access to the 53 lessons, homework assignments, and resources (including future updates/additions). And if you don't like it? Just email and ask for a refund within 30 days – no conditions, no questions asked.

Question:
What app do you use?”
Answer:

I use Figma.

However, you can use any design app you'd like. Sketch and Adobe XD are the next most popular. However, since they all have such similar interfaces, functionality, and even shortcut keys, it matters less which one you pick and more that you simply have a good reason for picking one. Students have successfully completed the course in these 3 apps and others.

Please note: Learn UI Design is not a course about Figma. It’s a course on the underlying, unchanging principles of visual design.

While I happen to cover Figma functionality — from the basics, all the way through prototyping, animations, interactive variants, and more — that is only incidental to teaching you how to do great design work.

Question:
How can I get my work to pay for Learn UI Design?”
Answer:

First of all, smart thinking!

Here's a guide for your employer that goes over common questions for businesses enrolling their employees in Learn UI Design, including:

    Benefits to the employee
    Group discounts (they're surprisingly large)
    Invoices, certificates, and more

Question:
Are there enterprise discounts?”
Answer:

Yes.

Groups of 5+ seats get a 30% discount. Groups of 10+ seats get a 40% discount. Groups of 20+ seats get a 50% discount. If you are enrolling 5+ people, please contact me today (even if enrollent is not officially open).

Question:
Do I get immediate access to all videos?”
Answer:

Yes.

As soon as you sign up, you will get immediate access to the entire video series (including resources, homework assignments, and cheatsheets), as well as an automated invitation to the student community.

Question:
Do I have lifetime access to the course?”
Answer:

Yes, all students have lifetime access to the course.

As long as this course exists, you will be able to watch any video, complete any homework assignment, and see any resource. You can start the course the minute you buy it, or a year later – it's up to you.

Question:
Will Learn UI Design help me get a job?”
Answer:

Yes.

Not only is it everything I wish I had known when I first started designing, it’s also packed with specific advice taking you from zero to hired:

    How to create a design portfolio (even when you don’t have any projects yet)
    How to find clients
    How to ace a design interview

If you’re self-motivated enough to watch the videos, build your skills, and create a portfolio, there’s no better way to find a design job.
Wait, wait – who are you?
Erik – that's me!

Hey, my name is Erik Kennedy. I’m the creator of Learn UI Design and Learn UX Design.

I’m also a freelance UX/UI designer based in  Seattle, WA.

My clients have ranged from Y-Combinator startups to Fortune 100, including folks like the below:

    Soylent
    Amazon
    GiveWell
    Philo

I’ve also spoken in the US and abroad at businesses, meetups, and universities (like UC Berkeley, Yale, and UW). And my design writing has been read by over a million people.

So my design career has been an amazing ride.

But before all that, I was on a different path: engineering school. That’s right… a developer . When I first tried my hand at design, I felt doomed.

It looked awful.

Of course, I had my excuses. I didn’t go to art school. I didn’t know crap about aesthetics.

I majored in engineering – it’s almost a badge of pride to build something that looks awful.

But the passion for design stuck. And I ended up teaching myself UI design the same way I’ve learned anything: cold, hard analysis.

To cut it as a designer, I had to come up with tricks & tactics I could apply to whatever app I was working on in the moment. I mixed those strategies with the best of what I could find scattered across a myriad of books and blog posts.

And it worked. Here I am.

Still kickin’. Still designing.

In the interim, I quit a nice, cushy job at Microsoft, made the jump to freelance, and:

    Upped my annual pay
    Worked with who I wanted, when I wanted
    Enjoyed that #freelancelife unlimited unpaid vacation

On top of that, my wife and I spent a year literally circling the globe on a trip we’ll never forget. It was an amazing opportunity, but it was only possible because UI design is a valuable skill that businesses are willing to pay top dollar for.

Whatever reason you have for learning UI design — whether it’s getting a job, freelancing, launching a side project, or just upping your skills — I think you’ll find Learn UI Design is the very best way to do it.

Join thousands of happy students — it’s time to master UI design.

Learn UI Design is great! Tons of ACTIONABLE tips and hours of practical advice on all important design topics – positioning, alignment, spacing, typography, colour… What I found to be the best part is when Erik fires up Sketch to show you how to apply the theory on real UI designs. I feel much more confident when approaching a new design project after going through the course!”
Dražen Lučanin

Dražen Lučanin

Founder, Punk Rock Dev

I've gone to art school and done a lot of online courses, but this is the first design course that just gets to the meat of what I need to learn to level up. There's no fluff. Every lesson is packed with useful content and exercises.”
Evonne Okoye

Evonne Okouye

UX/UI Motion Designer

Hey Erik, I’ve got a success story – I landed a dream job in a world-class design agency. Learn UI Design helped make it happen. Thanks again for the valuable course – I return to the videos often.”
Bill Barham

Bill Barham

Product Designer, Meta Agency

Of all the money I’ve spent learning this is hands down the best investment (MUCH more valuable than the bootcamp that cost 10x as much)”
Shane Williams

Shane Williams

UX PM, Lenovo

This is one hell of a well-planned course. It's like learning how to fly a plane by actually sitting in the cockpit with the pilot – Erik is constantly designing/redesigning real-world examples right in front of you, explaining why X is good or bad, and how to go about making it even better.”
Mudassir Ali

Mudassir Ali

Frontend Developer, Canva

Learn UI Design is the ONLY course I’ve found that provides the reasoning *why* this design choice is better than another… I feel like I owe you a personal thank you for taking the time to provide me with the *why* behind the design decisions… The course is worth every single penny.”
Laura Strader

Laura Strader

Senior UX Designer, Udo
Learn UI Design 2.0
The Complete Online Video Course

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