The Practical Guide to Usability
In This Course, You'll
Get excited as you master usability to create products and services people love. Users don't notice good usability, but they never forget bad design. If you had to choose between a product requiring a manual and one that's intuitive from the start, you'd choose intuitive usability every time. This course helps you turn complexity into simplicity and frustration into love. Studies show that 79% of people abandon websites due to poor usability. Think of the advantage you gain when you identify problems early and design solutions users genuinely love. Usability skills future-proof your career because they're rooted in timeless human behaviors. AI can't replace your unique ability to understand user frustrations and turn them into intuitive experiences.
Make yourself invaluable by learning how to think like your users. A well-designed user interface can boost a website's conversion rate by up to 200%. This course equips you to observe user behavior, uncover hidden pain points, and make data-backed decisions that increase loyalty, efficiency, and profits. Usability ensures your designs connect with people on a human level, whether you create software, marketing campaigns, or operational processes. All industries and roles benefit from great usability. You already practice usability intuitively when you arrange apps for easy access or label folders clearly—professional usability naturally builds on these skills.
Gain confidence and credibility with ready-to-use templates, real-world examples, and clear guidance you can immediately apply. No matter your background, you'll be guided to easily master heuristic evaluations, cognitive walkthroughs, and user testing to transform “good enough” designs into firm favorites. You'll apply best practices directly to your work, designing products and services that are not only functional but loved. This course empowers you to create meaningful experiences, enhance your career, and make a lasting impact on people's lives.
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 experts for this course:
Marc Hassenzahl: Professor of Ubiquitous Design/Experience & Interaction in the Department of Business Computing at the University of Siegen.
William Hudson: User Experience Strategist and Founder of Syntagm.
Gain an Industry-Recognized UX Course Certificate
Use your industry-recognized Course Certificate on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website.

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Why Learn Usability?
Usability 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: 27 hours 29 mins spread over 9 weeks.
Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction
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0.1: An Introduction to Courses from IxDF (37 mins)
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0.2: Get Help, Career Advice, and Job Opportunities (2 mins)
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0.3: How to Get Your Course Certificate (16 mins)
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0.4: Grow Your Global Network and Build Your Brand (12 mins)
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0.5: Global Skills, Local Jobs: Build Your Network in Your Area (2 mins)
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0.6: Gain Timeless Skills Through Courses from IxDF (21 mins)
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0.7: Mandatory vs Optional Lesson Items (7 mins)
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0.8: Learn Smarter: The Perfect Mix of Video and Text (6 mins)
Lesson 1: User Interface Design Guidelines
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1.1: Welcome to The Practical Guide to Usability (15 mins)
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1.2: Shneiderman’s Eight Golden Rules Will Help You Design Better Interfaces (25 mins)
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1.3: User Interface Design Guidelines: 10 Rules of Thumb (22 mins)
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1.4: Principle of Consistency and Standards in User Interface Design (26 mins)
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1.5: Visibility of System Status (7 mins)
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1.6: Match System to Real-World (11 mins)
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1.7: User Control and Freedom (6 mins)
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1.8: Error Prevention (7 mins)
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1.9: Recognition Vs. Recall (7 mins)
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1.10: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use (6 mins)
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1.11: Aesthetic and Minimalist Design (6 mins)
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1.12: Information Overload (6 mins)
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1.13: Offer Informative Feedback (36 mins)
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1.14: Help and Documentation (6 mins)
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1.15: 'Permit Easy Reversal of Actions' (9 mins)
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1.16: Provide Informative Feedback (6 mins)
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1.17: Reduce Short-Term Memory Load (7 mins)
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1.18: Support Internal Locus of Control (14 mins)
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1.19: Conversations: UI Design Failure (6 mins)
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1.20: 8 Ways to Improve the Usability of Your Website (5 mins)
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1.21: The Psychological Basis for UI Design Rules (2 hours 31 mins)
Lesson 2: Usability Considerations
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2.1: Simply Simplify (35 mins)
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2.2: Simplicity in Design: 4 Ways to Achieve Simplicity in Your Designs (26 mins)
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2.3: Simplify Navigation (12 mins)
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2.4: Consistency (14 mins)
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2.5: Shortcuts and Memory (12 mins)
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2.6: Don Norman: The Three Ways That Good Design Makes You Happy (30 mins)
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2.7: User Experience - Marc's Advice on Designing with Experience in Mind (35 mins)
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2.8: User Experience - Marc's Main Guidelines and Ethical Considerations (42 mins)
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2.9: Conversations: Simplicity in Design (7 mins)
Lesson 3: Thinking Like Users
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3.1: External Cognition in Product Design: 3 Ways to Make Use of External Cognition in Product Design (48 mins)
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3.2: 'Chunking' (8 mins)
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3.3: Banner Blindness (9 mins)
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3.4: Serial Position Effect: How to Create Better User Interfaces (18 mins)
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3.5: The Self-Generation Effect: How to Create More Memorable User Interfaces (18 mins)
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3.6: How to Prevent Negative Emotions in the User Experience of Your Product (20 mins)
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3.7: Retain Goal-Relevant Information (8 mins)
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3.8: Security (9 mins)
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3.9: Preventing Errors (7 mins)
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3.10: Conversations: Protect the Areas at Most Risk (6 mins)
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3.11: Important Superficial Decisions (10 mins)
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3.12: Conversations: Context of Use (7 mins)
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3.13: Designing Interfaces (23 mins)
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3.14: Drawing Users' Attention (9 mins)
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3.15: Slow Loading Images: Designing Interfaces (10 mins)
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3.16: Focus On Users (6 mins)
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3.17: Using Sound (7 mins)
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3.18: Conversations: Usability Considerations (6 mins)
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3.19: User Experience Design Diagram (5 mins)
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3.20: Conversations: When Usability Sucks (7 mins)
Lesson 4: Usability Testing and Evaluation
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4.1: Usability Evaluation (1 hour 15 mins)
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4.2: Recommended reading (2 mins)
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4.3: Conversations: The Importance of Usability Testing (7 mins)
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4.4: 15 methods for ensuring user acceptance and business success (3 hours 19 mins)
Lesson 5: Inspection Methods: Practice and Application
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5.1: Heuristic Evaluation: How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation (1 hour 10 mins)
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5.2: Usability Inspection Methods (13 mins)
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5.3: User Experience - Future directions of User Experience and Experience Design (42 mins)
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5.4: When to Use Which UX Methods (5 mins)
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5.5: Conversations: Carry Out a Heuristic Evaluation of a Product (7 mins)
Lesson 6: Personas: A Method of Maintaining User Focus
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6.1: Personas and User Research (26 mins)
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6.2: Personas (42 mins)
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6.3: Answering Important Questions (15 mins)
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6.4: The Science Behind Creating Personas (9 mins)
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6.5: Personas from Expert Lene Nielsen (5 mins)
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6.6: Disney Personas (10 mins)
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6.7: Conversations: Persona Templates (7 mins)
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6.8: Conversations: Share your ideas (6 mins)
Lesson 7: Practical User Testing Documentation
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7.1: User Testing: Practical Guide to Usability (11 mins)
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7.2: Recording Testing Sessions: Practical Guide to Usability (38 mins)
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7.3: User Testing Scripts: Practical Guide to Usability (22 mins)
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7.4: Checklist (14 mins)
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7.5: Conversations: Community-Based Learning and Networking (6 mins)
Lesson 8: Usability Testing: Practical Application
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8.1: Practical Issues: User-Centred Design (14 mins)
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8.2: What are the user's needs? (11 mins)
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8.3: What are the alternative designs? (42 mins)
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8.4: How do I choose an alternative design? (13 mins)
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8.5: Integrating UCD and Other Life-Cycle Models (28 mins)
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8.6: Usability Testing: What to Test? (1 min)
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8.7: Conversations: Community-Based Learning and Networking (6 mins)
Lesson 9: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up
How Others Have Benefited

Ryan, United States
“I felt the format was extremely nice. All the information was laid out so neatly that you could see your progress and navigate.”

Ana Jaramillo, Colombia
“The course material was well-structured, comprehensive, and relevant to current industry practices. The inclusion of real-world examples and case studies greatly enhanced my understanding of the concepts.”

Sarang Sudhir Pitale, India
“Amazing experience while taking the course , great learning and wish that I will get to implement all of these in my future projects.”
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