Human-Computer Interaction: The Foundations of UX Design
How This Course Will Transform Your Career
In This Course, You'll
Get excited about designing products and experiences people truly love. From medical apps that save lives to educational tools that bridge learning gaps, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is at the heart of every great User Experience (UX) Design. You'll learn what people enjoy and how to use that knowledge to create meaningful, engaging solutions. No design background? No problem. You already have transferable skills, like empathy, problem-solving, communication, and organizing information, so you have more HCI knowledge than you realize. HCI blends psychology, design, engineering, and ethics to help you craft experiences that feel intuitive and make it easy for people to fulfill their needs and reach their goals. That's what we human beings love. More love means higher business profits and a salary that reflects your value.
Make yourself invaluable when you discover the science behind great design. Protect yourself against AI with timeless, human-centered skills that it can never replace. Studies show that tech and design-related occupations will grow 23% by 2031, much faster than the average. HCI skills are in demand across every industry. This course helps you structure your existing skills and apply them creatively, from idea to delivery. With your HCI skills, it's easy to drive customer loyalty and business success because you know how to design for people. Level up in your current role or use your new skills to break into a career in design and tech.
Gain confidence and credibility as you build experiences so effortless they feel like second nature. It's easier than you think. With ready-to-use templates for global navigation, personas, and more, you'll get everything you need to immediately apply your skills and create user-centered results people keep coming back to. Build a standout portfolio and fast-track your career with optional hands-on exercises. This course will give you real-world human-centered design solutions, such as a website, app, or smart device, to showcase your in-demand skills.
It's Easy to Fast-Track Your Career with the World's Best Experts
Master complex skills effortlessly with proven best practices and toolkits directly from the world's top design experts. Meet your expert for this course:
Alan Dix: Author of the bestselling book “Human-Computer Interaction” and Director of the Computational Foundry at Swansea University.
Gain an Industry-Recognized UX Course Certificate
Use your industry-recognized Course Certificate on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website.
Our courses and Course Certificates are trusted by these industry leaders:
Why Learn Human-Computer Interaction?
Human-Computer Interaction falls under the umbrella term of User Experience (UX) design. UX design is your fast-track to a meaningful, secure, and rewarding career.
Worried You'll Lose Your Job to AI? UX Design Skills Make You AI-Proof
UX design builds on your core human strengths such as emotional intelligence, deep human understanding, critical thinking, intuition, and imagination.
AI can't replicate your uniquely human ability to design for real emotions and needs such as joy, comfort, curiosity, safety, and a sense of belonging. These deeply human insights are your superpowers. With UX design skills, you'll turn them into products and experiences people truly love. You become irreplaceable, confident and in demand.
And yes, we'll also show you how to use AI to accelerate your results.
Feeling Stuck in the 9–5? Design Your Freedom
Tired of feeling undervalued, anxious, or trapped in your career? UX design skills open doors to freedom, flexibility, remote work, and a career you're excited about—without starting from scratch.
Stop wondering if you could be more. Start realizing your full potential today.
UX Design is Booming: Accelerate Your Career to Higher Salaries and Impact Across All Jobs and Industries
Salaries for people with design skills are soaring, often surpassing $200K in cities like San Francisco, and job growth is strong (13% globally). Why? Because companies thrive when their users are happy. Companies that invest in great design outperform the S&P 500 Index by a whopping 228%.
Design a Life You Love
Great design is all about helping people meet their needs and achieve their goals through intuitive, meaningful, and delightful experiences. Skills in design will empower you to create experiences and products that make people's lives easier and more fulfilling. And when people love what you create, your business thrives, and your salary potential grows. You get the ultimate double win:
You'll feel deeply fulfilled by designing experiences and products people love.
You'll be financially rewarded for your real-world impact.
Course Overview: What You'll Master
- Each week, one lesson becomes available.
- There's no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
- Estimated learning time: 18 hours 2 mins spread over 4 weeks.
Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction
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0.1: Get Help, Career Advice, and Job Opportunities (1 min)
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0.2: How to Get Your Course Certificate (16 mins)
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0.3: Grow Your Global Network and Build Your Brand (11 mins)
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0.4: Global Skills, Local Jobs: Build Your Network in Your Area (1 min)
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0.5: Gain Timeless Skills Through Courses from IxDF (21 mins)
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0.6: Mandatory vs Optional Lesson Items (7 mins)
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0.7: Learn Smarter: The Perfect Mix of Video and Text (6 mins)
Lesson 1: Human-Computer Interaction: The Foundations of UX Design
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1.1: Welcome to Human-Computer Interaction: The Foundations of UX Design (21 mins)
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1.2: What are the Fundamentals of Human-Computer Interaction? (31 mins)
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1.3: How Has Technology Evolved to Affect Your Daily Life? (54 mins)
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1.4: Technology Changes. So What? (1 hour 4 mins)
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1.5: Who Uses Computers? (1 hour 8 mins)
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1.6: Conversations: Community-Based Learning and Networking (6 mins)
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1.7: Congratulations and Recap (2 mins)
Lesson 2: Learn How to Build Systems That People Can Use
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2.1: Get Started with Interaction Design (7 mins)
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2.2: What Are We Designing? (34 mins)
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2.3: What is Design? (31 mins)
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2.4: Put Users at the Heart of Design (33 mins)
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2.5: Case Study: Technology Probes (20 mins)
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2.6: How do I do it ALL? (31 mins)
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2.7: User Focus Overview: Understanding Users (14 mins)
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2.8: Make Users Real with Personas (30 mins)
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2.9: Build Your Portfolio: Personas (10 mins)
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2.10: How to Use Cultural Probes to Understand Your Users (19 mins)
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2.11: Build your Portfolio: Cultural Probes (9 mins)
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2.12: How to Use Technology Probes to Understand Your Users (18 mins)
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2.13: Storytelling with Scenarios (32 mins)
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2.14: Build your Portfolio: Use Scenarios (8 mins)
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2.15: Understand Context (29 mins)
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2.16: Help Users Realize Their Goals: Navigation Design (20 mins)
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2.17: Learn the Four Rules of Local Navigation (30 mins)
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2.18: Use Modes and Modal Interfaces Carefully (32 mins)
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2.19: The Big Picture: Global Navigation (26 mins)
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2.20: Creating Predictable Dialogs (14 mins)
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2.21: Understand the Broad Picture: Wider Still (48 mins)
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2.22: Conversations: Community-Based Learning and Networking (6 mins)
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2.23: Congratulations and Recap (2 mins)
Lesson 3: How to Design Screens that Meet Users' Needs
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3.1: Learn the Basics of Screen Design (12 mins)
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3.2: Use Grouping to Organize Your Screen Design (22 mins)
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3.3: Case Study: How does Gmail use Grouping? (12 mins)
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3.4: Screen Alignment: Understand Your Users Before You Start (34 mins)
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3.5: Learn How to Use White Space and Redundant Coding (32 mins)
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3.6: How to Design Controls for Physical Devices (22 mins)
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3.7: General Principles of Screen Design: Design for Interaction (36 mins)
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3.8: Aesthetics are Vital in Building Trust when You Design Your Screens (16 mins)
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3.9: How to Use Color and 3D (21 mins)
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3.10: Design for Other Cultures (24 mins)
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3.11: Iterative Prototyping Isn’t Always the Solution (44 mins)
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3.12: Build your Portfolio: Interface and Interaction Design (10 mins)
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3.13: Conversations: Community-Based Learning and Networking (6 mins)
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3.14: Congratulations and Recap (2 mins)
Lesson 4: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up
How Others Have Benefited
Miriam Glaser, Germany
“Alan is really passionate about these topics and his examples always help a lot to understand some things in the real world and also the difficulties. The course is a great size/length to start with HCI!”
Susana Perez, Czech Republic
“This course was beautifully produced. I really liked that what the instructor said was emphasized with text and animations, truly combining listening/reading. Also, I really enjoyed the very practical examples, such as Gmail and the microwave controls. It's a great introduction to HCI, and I wish I had taken this as my first IxDF course, but even as my 16th, it was enjoyable and helped cement my learning.”
Michael Stilwell, United States
“Very thorough explanation of concepts. I really like how he explains things as his communication style meshes well with me.”
How It Works
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Take online courses by industry experts
Lessons are self-paced so you'll never be late for class or miss a deadline.
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Get a Course Certificate
Your answers are graded by experts, not machines. Get an industry-recognized Course Certificate to prove your skills.
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Advance your career
Use your new skills in your existing job or to get a new job in UX design. Get help from our community.
Start Advancing Your Career Now
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