Psychology of E-Commerce: How to Sell Online
How This Course Will Help Your Career
What You’ll Learn
- How decisions are made, and which part of the brain is really the web designer’s customer
- How to create an online environment in which people feel part of a larger group, where they are grateful for your service, and show that through purchasing your products and services
- How to know where someone's attention will be focused on your site, and how to make use of even the shortest attention span to generate sales
- What the psychology of choice is, and how you can harness it
- How to use storytelling for content that focuses on the clients and builds their commitment
- How to tap into the subconscious drivers that underlie many purchasing decisions
- How a coherent narrative can make it easier for your customers to engage with you and stay engaged
- How to keep your customers coming back in an ethical manner, thus generating repeat sales
- How to design for sharing, the next big thing in online selling
“Customer engagement is the direct route to every important business objective. It’s the pathway to everything good that a business could want.”
— Customer Experience expert Micah Solomon in Forbes
Online competition is fiercer than ever—and if you want to create a website that outperforms industry benchmarks in a big way, it’s vital that you know how to utilize your design skills to keep users engaged. The more engaged users are, the more likely they are to turn into paying customers—people who will buy your products and services time and time again, remain loyal, and ultimately become ambassadors for your brand both on- and offline.
Executing e-commerce successfully isn't easy: 69% of users abandon their shopping carts before checking out, according to Baymard Institute, a UK-based web usability research organization. That’s quite scary; what about the good news? Well, Baymard also found that many of the problems with e-commerce are solvable with changes to design.
There are many factors in designing great e-commerce experiences. You must know how to capture someone’s attention and present your goods and services in the optimal way. If you want customers who are committed, you’ll have to tell engaging stories and know how to build a long-term relationship.
In order to do all that, you will need to acquire and apply knowledge in human psychology. If you understand how your customers think, you can design for their needs. This course is based on tried and tested psychological techniques that bring together content and design so as to deliver hands-on advice for how to improve your web design and increase your customer engagement.
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Is This Course Right for You?
This is a beginner-level course, suitable for anyone wanting to take an online business to the next level:
- UX designers looking to design persuasive experiences to improve the conversion rate of e-commerce sites
- Project managers interested in building online businesses that engage shoppers
- Software engineers seeking to gain an understanding of psychology, sociability, and design
- Entrepreneurs who want their online shops to take off and perform better than the competition
- Marketers looking to improve the entire sales funnel by adopting a user-centric approach
- Newcomers to design who are considering making a switch to UX or web design
Courses in the Interaction Design Foundation are designed to contain comprehensive, evidence-based content, while ensuring that the learning curve is never too steep. All participants will have the opportunity to share ideas, seek help with tests, and enjoy the social aspects afforded by our open and friendly forum.
Learn and Work with a Global Team of Designers
You’ll join a global community and work together to improve your skills and career opportunities. Connect with helpful peers and make friends with like-minded individuals as you push deeper into the exciting and booming industry of design.
Lessons in This Course
- Each week, one lesson becomes available.
- There’s no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
- Estimated learning time: 35 hours 39 mins spread over 10 weeks.
Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 44 mins.
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0.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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0.2: An introduction to courses from the Interaction Design Foundation (37 mins)
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0.3: Let our community help you (1 min)
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0.4: How to Earn Your Course Certificate (16 mins)
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0.5: Meet your peers online in our discussion forums (6 mins)
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0.6: Meet and learn from design professionals at an upcoming meet-up (1 min)
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0.7: Gain Timeless Knowledge Through Courses From the Interaction Design Foundation (21 mins)
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0.8: Mandatory vs. Optional Lesson Items (7 mins)
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0.9: A Mix Between Video-Based and Text-Based Lesson Content (8 mins)
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0.10: Lesson 0 Discussion (6 mins)
Lesson 1: The Subconscious Mind – The Customer of Design
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 5 hours 29 mins.
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1.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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1.2: Making a Decision – The Thought Process (22 mins)
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1.3: The Three Parts of Your Brain (22 mins)
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1.4: The Old brain (19 mins)
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1.5: The Midbrain (19 mins)
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1.6: The New Brain (21 mins)
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1.7: Emotional Perception (22 mins)
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1.8: Emotions Control How We Act (21 mins)
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1.9: The Subconscious Mind – Working While We Aren’t (19 mins)
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1.10: The Subconscious Mind – Speed and Accuracy (28 mins)
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1.11: Do We Really Know What We Like? (19 mins)
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1.12: Know Your Audience (47 mins)
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1.13: Cultural Differences and Their Impact on Web Design (29 mins)
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1.14: Gender Differences and Why They Matter In Web Design (25 mins)
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1.15: Practical Exercise (10 mins)
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1.16: Congratulations and Recap (6 mins)
Lesson 2: Introducing Social Validation
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 4 hours 16 mins.
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2.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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2.2: The Bystander Effect (20 mins)
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2.3: Bringing the Bystander Effect Online for Help (24 mins)
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2.4: The Power of Strangers (14 mins)
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2.5: Reviews and Ratings (26 mins)
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2.6: Rational Resistance to Social Validation (46 mins)
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2.7: Social Networking is for Much More than just Sales (29 mins)
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2.8: Obligation, Obligation, Obligation (17 mins)
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2.9: Harness a Refusal to Drive Sales (19 mins)
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2.10: Harness a Concession for Commitment (18 mins)
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2.11: “No Strings Attached!” (30 mins)
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2.12: Open Discussion (7 mins)
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2.13: Congratulations and Recap (6 mins)
Lesson 3: Design to Grab Attention
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 41 mins.
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3.1: Welcome and Introduction (6 mins)
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3.2: The Basics of Successful Online Marketing (16 mins)
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3.3: Key Components of a Website (48 mins)
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3.4: Images in Web Design (27 mins)
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3.5: Video and Web Design (22 mins)
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3.6: Colour Schemes and Web Design (31 mins)
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3.7: Discussion Question (7 mins)
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3.8: Congratulations and Recap (6 mins)
Lesson 4: Choice is Not All That it Appears
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 4 hours 43 mins.
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4.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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4.2: Options and Selling Online (15 mins)
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4.3: Social Validation of Choice (24 mins)
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4.4: Taking a Choice Away – Introducing Scarcity (21 mins)
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4.5: Invoking Privileges to Make Sales (25 mins)
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4.6: Price and Quality Perception (19 mins)
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4.7: No, you’re not having this – Why Banned Products Sell (17 mins)
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4.8: Choice Overload – Overwhelming Your Customers (27 mins)
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4.9: Avoid Logic! Why Knowing Why You Want Something May be Harmful to the Outcome. (22 mins)
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4.10: Immediate Reward and Long-Term Payoffs through Choice (17 mins)
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4.11: Buy it now! The Instant Sales Technique (50 mins)
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4.12: Price Comparison for Bigger-Value Sales (15 mins)
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4.13: Product Placement – Premium Sales Slots (21 mins)
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4.14: Discussion Question (7 mins)
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4.15: Congratulations and Recap (2 mins)
Lesson 5: It's all About Them, Gaining Commitment
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 36 mins.
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5.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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5.2: The Internal Dialogue and Why it Matters to Designers (16 mins)
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5.3: You and Your – The Most Powerful Words in Communication (26 mins)
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5.4: Keep the Audience Entertained and Boost Your Engagement (16 mins)
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5.5: The Inconsistency of Self and Why It Helps Designers (29 mins)
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5.6: Human Inconsistency – Changing Someone’s Self-Viewpoint Through Design (47 mins)
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5.7: The Power of Public Commitment (23 mins)
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5.8: Gaining Commitment – Using Reciprocity to Drive Sales (20 mins)
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5.9: Surveys and Reviews that Build Commitment (24 mins)
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5.10: Discussion Question (6 mins)
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5.11: Congratulations and Recap (6 mins)
Lesson 6: Build Similarity and Then Make them Afraid to Lose
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 26 mins.
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6.1: Introduction – Build Similarity, and Then Make them Afraid to Lose (7 mins)
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6.2: We Buy From People Like Us (22 mins)
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6.3: Rapport – How to Create It and the Science of Attraction in Design (23 mins)
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6.4: The Power of Endorsements for Brands and Products (21 mins)
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6.5: Decision Fatigue and Why Less Choice is Better (26 mins)
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6.6: Fear of Loss Provides Motivation to Buy (46 mins)
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6.7: Taking Value Away from Your Customers can Enhance Your Sales (31 mins)
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6.8: Considerations of Privacy and Security in Online Products (22 mins)
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6.9: Discussion Question (6 mins)
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6.10: Congratulations and Recap (6 mins)
Lesson 7: Learn to Tell a Story
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 10 mins.
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7.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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7.2: Everyone Loves a Story, and We are All Natural Storytellers (17 mins)
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7.3: Chunking Information – How do you eat an elephant? (26 mins)
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7.4: Sympathetic Bonding and Why It’s Useful in Design (17 mins)
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7.5: Pictorial Superiority – A Picture May be Worth More than 1,000 Words (51 mins)
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7.6: Words are Pictures (21 mins)
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7.7: Bringing Your Story Together (20 mins)
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7.8: Don’t Tell People Something; Show Them (23 mins)
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7.9: Discussion Exercise (7 mins)
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7.10: Congratulations and Recap (6 mins)
Lesson 8: Integrity Matters, Long-term Relationship Building
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 13 mins.
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8.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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8.2: The Sales Ladder – The Start of Something Bigger for Your Business (20 mins)
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8.3: Acquisition vs. Retention and What It Means for Your Online Business (29 mins)
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8.4: Reputational Capital - Why it Matters (48 mins)
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8.5: Increasing sales through reputation (26 mins)
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8.6: How to Deliver Value to Increase Online Sales (32 mins)
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8.7: Trust and the Issues that Customers Face when Making Purchasing Decisions Online (22 mins)
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8.8: Discussion Exercise (7 mins)
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8.9: Congratulations and Recap (6 mins)
Lesson 9: Sociability and Going Viral
To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 21 mins.
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9.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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9.2: Assumption: A Recipe for Disaster (31 mins)
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9.3: Social Evolution and Why We Need to Communicate (20 mins)
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9.4: Why the Internet Exists (28 mins)
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9.5: Introducing Viral Marketing (1 hour 6 mins)
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9.6: Membership Sites – Persuading the Masses (21 mins)
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9.7: What is The Next Big Thing? (20 mins)
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9.8: Discussion Exercise (7 mins)
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9.9: Congratulations and Recap (6 mins)
Lesson 10: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up
To be scheduled.
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10.1: Get Your Course Certificate (1 min)
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10.2: Course Evaluation (1 min)
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10.3: Continue Your Professional Growth (1 min)
Learning Paths
This course is part of 1 learning path:
How Others Have Benefited
Hsin-Jou Lin, United States
“My major is Psychology and I'm now working in e-commerce. I've learned about from college, but don't have a chance to apply on real world. This course provides a step-by-step lesson for me to apply Psychology to my work.”
Fernando Martinez Carreon, Mexico
“Well, I've started with one of the courses and felt it was fair to write once again just to say you that you are a great team of human, cognitive and pedagogy centered professionals. I'm really glad that I've become a member and have all of these tons of information for self-paced learning, the content I read it's great so far!”
Natalie Verdon, Australia
“How wonderful.......I am looking forward to all I can learn and share with the community. You have a brilliant site and wonderful offerings.”
How It Works
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Control your learning.
Lessons are self-paced so you’ll never be late for class or miss a deadline. Learning and life, hand in hand.
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Earn Course Certificates.
Your answers are graded by experts, not machines. Get an industry-recognized Course Certificate to show you’ve put in the work.
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Advance your career.
Grow your professional knowledge by watching Master Classes, networking within our UX community, and more.
Start Advancing Your Career Now
Join us to take “Psychology of E-Commerce: How to Sell Online”. Take other courses at no additional cost. Make a concrete step forward in your career path today.
Advance my career nowFrequently Asked Questions
When I finish a course, do I have to pay extra to get my certificate?
Can I take more than one course at a time?
With a Student membership, you can take a maximum of two courses at the same time. You can still take as many courses as you would like – free of extra charges – just as long as you finish or drop them so that you don’t have more than two ongoing courses.
I missed the enrollment, and now the course is closed. What can I do?
Don't worry if you missed the course. We will re-run it shortly. One of the reasons we continually open and close courses is in order to control the classroom size.
Networking is a large part of our value proposition, so we want just the right number of people inside the courses. That is also why we display the "XX % percent booked" on our course icons.
Do I have to be online at an exact time to study?
No. You can set your own study schedule. There are no "live sessions" since we have members from all timezones around the world. We are a truly global community.
Thus, once you are enrolled, you can take all the time to complete a given course. Every "classroom" in each course will never close, so you’ll have permanent access to your classmates and your course material (as well as your own answers).
Will I receive a Course Certificate?
Yes. You will get a digital industry-recognized course certificate every time you complete a course. Certificates never expire and can be saved as a .jpg file, so it's easy to be shared. Also, there is no limit to how many certificates you can earn during your membership.
You can see an example of a Course Certificate at the bottom of the Course Catalogue.
I have answered questions in a lesson; when will they be marked/graded?
I have updated my name, but my course certificate is not updated — how can I change it?
I have started my course later than the specified date, are my answers still going to be marked?
Sure! We will be marking all your answers for as long as you are an active member.
How are courses graded?
For how long will I have access to the course materials?
You will have access to the course materials for the entire duration of your membership. So, if you pay for a one-year membership, you will have access for one year. Renewing your membership for a second year means you will have access to one more year, and so on.
New lessons are starting before I have completed the previous lesson(s). Am I going to be locked out of these unfinished lessons?
No, you will not be locked out of any lesson or course. You will have access to all course materials throughout your membership, so there is no pressure to keep at the same pace as the specified lesson release dates.
All we recommend is that you try to stick to the same schedule as other participants. The reason is they may have moved on to other lessons, thereby meaning you could miss out on the social aspects of the course(s).
Do I have a specific date to award my certificates?
No, you can generate your certificate as soon as you score at least 70% of the total course points.
When will I receive my Course Certificate?
Course certificates will be given to participants when they have scored more than 70% or more of the total course points. For example, if a course contains ten lessons each with ten questions, you will receive a course certificate when the instructor has awarded you at least 70 points (70% of the total course points).
There is no specified time that certificates will be awarded — instead, they are given to participants as and when they have answered all questions, even if this is long after the official end date.
How do I add my Certificate to my LinkedIn profile?
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to add your Interaction Design Foundation course(s) to your LinkedIn profile:
Log in to your LinkedIn account, then go to your profile.
Below your profile description, click on the button Add profile section, choose Recommended and then select Add license or certification.
3. In the following fields add:
Name – Course name
Issuing organization – The Interaction Design Foundation
Check the field “This credential does not expire”
Issue date - Input the date written on your certificate (e.g., May 2021)
Credential ID – Your membership ID number (it's written on your certificate)
Credential URL: Input the certificate URL provided on your course page
4. Click the Save button.
Congratulate yourself! Earning the certificate is a great accomplishment and now you can share it with the world!
How do I add the Interaction Design Foundation Membership Certificate to my LinkedIn Profile?
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to add your Interaction Design Foundation course(s) to your LinkedIn profile:
Log in to your LinkedIn account, then go to your profile.
Below your profile description, click on the button Add profile section, choose Recommended and then select Add license or certification.
3. In the following fields add:
Name – Membership Certificate
Issuing organization – The Interaction Design Foundation
Check the field “This credential does not expire”
Issue date - Input the date when you joined our community (e.g., May 2019)
Credential ID – Your membership ID number (it's written on your certificate)
Credential URL: Input the certificate URL provided on your profile page
4. Click the Save button.
It is as simple as that. Now, anyone who visits your profile can see your certificate!
How much will I have to pay for the courses?
After you pay for your membership, you can take as many courses as you want with no additional costs. There are no further charges on top of the membership fee.
Do you provide mostly beginners' or more advanced courses?
How long does it take to complete a course?
You will need approximately 5-8 hours to complete one lesson. Each course has between 3 and 16 lessons.
Once enrolled in a course, you will gain access to a new lesson each week, which you are free to complete without any deadlines and no end date, either.