An architect learning UX — a review of the Interaction Design Foundation
Currently, I work as an architect in a interior design office. But, my job is less about designing homes and more about helping the team to deliver multiple projects in their respective deadlines. So, I’ve been looking into ways to optimize the whole process and be more efficient. Eventually, thanks to my girlfriend who works with Product Management, I came across the term UX and, as I took a peek into it, I saw a lot of similarities with the architectural field: creative processes; visual deliverables; prototyping; even bibliography. Hence, I decided to take some courses to better understand this world, and maybe, if I’m hooked enough, jump right into it.
However, the internet has an infinity of UX courses, this being a trending career, and I’m trying to learn fundamentals, which give a more solid basis and are better to apply, specially in my situation of using an expertise from a different field to my current field. So, I’m looking for a course or platform that allows me to learn such fundamentals of UX, and not just trending tools or methods.
That’s when I stumbled across an article, comparing some of the biggest learning platforms, and saw the Interaction Design Foundation and its User Experience courses, which seemed to meet my learning expectations. I checked their website, talked to one of its (very friendly) founders and enjoyed the overall experience. There was also the possibility of a 14-day free trial, which allowed me to better experience their methodology and basically sealed the deal for me to really engage in their courses and the world of UX.
First of all, the whole platform has a vast portfolio of courses, going from the basics (User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide) to more specific themes like Accessibility and Augmented Reality. The structure of the courses suggests that you take it slow, helping you to not get overwhelmed and give up the studies. Also, they live what they teach, the platform experience is intuitive and easy to browse through, and even the process of learning is fluid and stimulating. You can either look for specific themes, if you already work with UX and are looking for a more focused learning experience or, if you’re a new explorer like me, you can engage in what they call a ‘learning path’, a structured learning process. The community is also super friendly and brings valuable feedbacks when you post your work in the discussion forums, though here might be one critic, the platform forum feature make it a little hard to find specific conversations.
So far, I’ve taken three courses. User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide — if you have no idea at all what is UX, it will give you the basics and show paths to learn more. Become a UX Designer from Scratch — here you take a look at frequently used methodologies and get to practice with an optional project. Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide — though now they changed the name to ‘The Ultimate Guide’, it teaches you this versatile tool and also allows you to practice with a project that could be used for your portfolio. All of them allowed me to either improve my portfolio, or implement new techniques in my job, like prototyping faster to test ideas.
Overall, the Interaction Design Foundation is a good platform and brings you the following benefits:
- accessible cost (you pay a monthly or annual fee, and can access all the courses in the platform, which makes it extremely cheap as you take more courses)
- ease of use, making it a fluid learning experience
- a vast portfolio with courses that teach you from the basics to the more complex themes
- a very attentive support team
- a friendly and supportive community