Review of Interaction Design Foundation’s Course — Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide
After graduating with a computer & communications engineering degree, I believed that working as a software developer would be the most obvious choice. I tried my hand at that as a Front-End Developer for close to a year. However, it did not feel right.
And then I asked myself, what do I really want to do?
I want to work on designing services and products without coding them. I want to work individually but also be part of a team. And that was the first spark that I needed.
You might wonder, did I get into User Experience design right away?
Unfortunately, I did not.
However, my last job as a Technical Business Analyst has confirmed, yet again that I want to become a UX Designer.
After doing enough research, I signed up to take the classes by the Interaction Design Foundation.
What’s the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF)?
The IxDF is an educational organization founded in 2002 that produces educational materials online. Its headquarters is in Aarhus, Denmark. Although the material provided is not accredited, it’s trusted by industry leaders such as IBM and Adobe.
We’re market leaders in online design education because the world’s leading experts create our content and because we’re specialized in design. Our courses cover the entire spectrum of UX design from beginner to advanced.
— Interaction Design Foundation, About Us page
How do I sign up?
The IxDF’s website is easy to navigate.
By clicking on the “Join our community” button, the user can choose their preferred payment plan.
The IxDF offers two payment plans:
The only difference is that the Design League provides the user with a Personal Coach.
I signed up for the Professional option as it fits my budget.
How do I choose my courses?
If you do not know which course to take first, the IxDF has you covered.
By selecting one of the 10 learning paths, the IxDF will recommend a list of courses from beginner to advanced courses.
Since I want to become a UX Designer, I selected that. The first course that was recommended is Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide.
Review of Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide Course
The course is divided into 7 lessons including an introduction and wrap-up lessons. The bulk of the material is divided into 5 lessons. Once I started the course, I had access to Lesson 0 and 1. A new lesson becomes available every week as to not overwhelm the learner.
The estimated time is 18 hours 12 mins spread over 6 weeks. However, you might notice that it took me more time to complete it which is fine.
According to IxDF
There’s no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
The course material is a mix of articles and videos created by industry experts. This helps keep the material interesting.
A lesson’s material is spread over several sections with a time estimate for the full lesson and each section.
All sections end with a Take Away paragraph(s) that sum up the main points and a References segment with links to external literature.
In addition, the IxDF provides the learner with templates curated by its experts. These templates can be used by the learner to complete his/her own design projects.
The learner gradually completes the course by answering the questions at the end of the section. Multiple choice questions are corrected automatically, while open-ended ones are corrected by the course professors.
At the end of each lesson, the learner is encouraged to share with his/her peers any thoughts about the lesson or the exercise(s) when found.
This course introduced me briefly to different Design Thinking methods and in-depth to Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school)’s non-linear design thinking method of: Empthize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.
Would I recommend this course to others?
The short answer is Yes.
The long answer is Yes, however, the learner needs to also do his/her part. It’s not enough to passively go through the course and complete the lessons. The learner should put the time to understand the material and apply it to the suggested project.
The learner can use this project in their portfolio as his/her first case study.
The Take Away
I would recommend the Interaction Design Foundation to individuals that are looking to take UX courses that cover a range of topics.
