168 Best + Free UX Design Courses & Certificates [2026]
Ranked by Michael Kuhlman, CourseDuck's founder, from student reviews across every provider. How we rank
Our top picks
- Figma UI UX Design Essentials [Udemy]
- User Experience Design Essentials - Adobe XD UI UX Design [Udemy]
- Complete Web & Mobile Designer: UI/UX, Figma, +more [Udemy]
- User Experience Design Fundamentals [Udemy]
- User Experience (UX) Fundamentals [Udemy]
- Learn Figma - UI/UX Design Essential Training [Udemy] - Best Paid Course
- UX & Web Design Master Course: Strategy, Design, Development [Udemy] - Best Paid Course
- Master Digital Product Design: UX Research & UI Design [Udemy]
- The Complete App Design Course - UX, UI and Design Thinking [Udemy]
- UX Design & User Experience Design Course - Theory Only [Udemy]
About the best UX Design courses
Frequently asked questions
- Udemy and Eduonix are best for practical, low cost and high quality UX Design courses.
- Coursera, Udacity and EdX are the best providers for a UX Design certificate, as many come from top Ivy League Universities.
- YouTube is best for free UX Design crash courses.
- PluralSight, SkillShare and LinkedIn are the best monthly subscription platforms if you want to take multiple UX Design courses.
- Independent Providers for UX Design courses & certificates are generally hit or miss.
- Average
- $109,817 a year
- Middle half earn
- $82,500 to $138,500 25th to 75th percentile
- Full range
- $25,500 to $179,500
Share of US job postings in each pay band; the dark bar holds the average, the striped bars the 25th and 75th percentiles. Source: ZipRecruiter salary data, gathered when this guide was first published in October 2026.
1
Figma UI UX Design Essentials (2026)
A 9.5 hour, project-driven walk from wireframe to interactive prototype in Figma, taught by Dan Scott, last refreshed in May 2026 and including a look at Figma Sites.
Best for: Complete beginners, or Photoshop-era designers, who want to learn Figma by building one app design start to finish.


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- One project from brief and persona to clickable prototype and developer handoff
- 19 homework assignments that a reviewer says made the material stick
- Last updated May 2026, with a section on Figma Sites
- Experienced Figma users still report picking up shortcuts and tips they didn't know
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- Essentials only: components, variants and auto layout each get a short section
- The instructor sometimes works through Figma quirks live rather than editing them out
- No quizzes, and UX theory is light next to the Figma tooling
2
User Experience Design Essentials - Adobe XD UI UX Design (2025)
A project-led Adobe XD course that takes beginners from a client brief to a prototyped website and mobile app, taught by an Adobe Certified Instructor students find easy to follow.
Best for: Complete beginners who need Adobe XD specifically and want one portfolio project taken from brief to exported assets.


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- Follows one real freelance brief from wireframes to a finished website and mobile app prototype.
- Dan explains each XD tool in plain language; beginners say they could follow every step.
- 17 assignments plus exercise and finished files, so nobody falls behind on the project.
- Refreshed in January 2025, with micro interactions, stacks and voice prototyping covered.
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- Built around Adobe XD; more than one recent reviewer says they wish it used Figma.
- Design only: a 2-star review expected to learn how to build the app, which the syllabus does not cover.
- No quizzes, and one student says the Figma and XD versions cover the same modules.
3
Complete Web & Mobile Designer: UI/UX, Figma, +more (2026)
A 26-hour Figma-first design bootcamp that runs from sketching to design systems, then adds HTML and CSS so the finished mockup becomes a live landing page.
Best for: Complete beginners who want one long, structured path through UI design in Figma plus a portfolio site at the end.


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- Step by step structure that beginners repeatedly call easy to follow
- Covers typography, color, spacing, motion and design systems, not just Figma buttons
- HTML, CSS and CSS Grid sections turn the Figma design into a working landing page
- 100+ assets and templates included, and the course was refreshed in February 2026
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- Little real UX: low-star reviews report no user research, personas or usability principles
- Lessons lean on pre-made assets, show what Figma does more than why, and the interface has drifted from the videos
- Around 26 hours long; some students found it repetitive and the delivery flat
4
User Experience Design Fundamentals (2019)
A lecture-only, theory-first tour of the five planes of UX from a 30-year practitioner, still liked for its examples and clear thinking despite a 2019 last update.
Best for: Developers, business owners and product people who want the reasoning behind UX decisions, not a Figma tutorial.


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- Clear structure built on the five planes model, so each idea has a place and the concepts stay timeless
- Memorable real-world examples reviewers keep citing: the Florida ballot, the trunk test, the value loop
- Natoli's cadence and presenting draw praise; one reviewer says he teaches you how to think, not a checklist of tools
- Balances business goals with user needs instead of preaching user-first at any cost
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- No exercises, quizzes or projects; several reviewers found the lecture-only format too theoretical to stay engaged with
- Last updated December 2019: app screenshots are a decade old and the tools section skips Figma entirely
- Repetitive in places, and a few reviewers report audio cutting out on some videos
5
User Experience (UX) Fundamentals (2020)
A free, one-hour primer from a psychologist on what UX is, what UX professionals do, and which skills the job demands, with no tools or projects involved.
Best for: People who are curious what a UX career involves and want a quick, free overview before paying for a tool-based course.


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- Free and only about 65 minutes, so it costs nothing but a lunch break to find out whether UX interests you.
- Reviewers say the instructor explains the main points clearly and in a logical sequence.
- Covers roles, skills and process, which students in HCI classes say matches their coursework.
- Four quizzes check that the ideas stuck before moving on.
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- Too general and theoretical for some; low-star reviews wanted a picture of a UX designer's working day.
- No tools, no projects, no certificate, and the last update was April 2020.
- One reviewer found the quiz questions poorly structured.
6
Learn Figma - UI/UX Design Essential Training (2023)
A 3.7 hour Figma primer that builds one recipe app from a blank frame to a clickable prototype, praised for clear teaching but showing its age.
Best for: Complete beginners or Sketch and XD switchers who want one small mobile app built end to end in an afternoon.


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- One project carried start to finish: icons, images, text, components, then a working prototype
- Clear, easy to follow explanations that reviewers say suit total beginners
- Only 3.7 hours across 48 lectures, so it fits comfortably in a weekend
- Covers constraints and components early so design elements stay reusable
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- Recorded on an older Figma UI; students say features have been renamed or moved since
- Taught on a Mac with no Windows shortcut equivalents
- Auto Layout barely covered, and some reviewers call it a crash course rather than a full one
7
UX & Web Design Master Course: Strategy, Design, Development (2020)
A UX strategy course first and a web build course second: user research, information architecture, then three sites coded live, from a design consultant with 30 years in the field.
Best for: Business owners and new designers who want to understand why a site works before learning how to build one.


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- The UX strategy and information architecture sections are the strongest part, praised as dense and full of examples
- Three complete builds, a B2B site, a WordPress blog, and a WooCommerce store, show the theory applied
- A 30-page downloadable UX Guidebook with exercises to work through alongside the lectures
- Nearly 111,000 students and 16,000 reviews, with about 87 percent rating it four or five stars
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- Last updated March 2020; the WordPress themes and Photoshop version shown no longer match current tools
- Front-end developers say the coding half is skippable, and UX-only learners wanted less code and more UX
- Needs Photoshop and Axure trials plus a hosting plan for the WordPress sections
8
Master Digital Product Design: UX Research & UI Design (2021)
A slow, theory-heavy design course with exercises and a short Figma block, built to teach how designers think rather than which buttons to click.
Best for: Junior designers, product managers and developers who want the thinking behind design before the tools.


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- Covers design history, critical thinking and perception, topics the instructor says most curricula miss
- Exercise sections sit between theory blocks; one reviewer says the methods improved client work
- Broad enough to help designers, product managers and developers alike
- Figma section gives beginners a gentle tour of the interface and basic tools
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- Mostly theory; low-star reviewers say it lacks real-world, build-a-product practice
- Figma section is short, and reviewers ask for more hands-on exercises there
- Last updated in November 2021, so the Figma section may not match the current tool
9
The Complete App Design Course - UX, UI and Design Thinking (2019)
A three-hour primer on mobile UI and UX from the App Brewery that teaches design principles well, even though its 2019 tools and links have aged.
Best for: Would-be app builders and founders with no design background who want their first app to look and feel right.


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- Clear, engaging teaching from Angela; a recent reviewer says the UX principles still hold up years later
- Covers the whole workflow, from user flow diagrams to wireframes, mockups, and animated prototypes
- Short at about three hours, so it fits in an afternoon before you start building
- Explains the practical differences between designing for iOS and Android
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- Last updated in November 2019; reviewers say the software is outdated and some linked websites no longer exist
- Student questions go unanswered, according to one recent review
- More a tour of tools and principles than hands-on practice; no quizzes or exercises
10
UX Design & User Experience Design Course - Theory Only (2025)
What You'll Learn
- Youll learn what the relevant tools are for UX Designers.
- Youll find out how much a UX designer can earn.
- Youll learn how to research a UX project.
- Youll learn the difference between UI & UX.
- Youll learn what the responsibilities of a UX designer are.
- Youll be able to run your first user testing sessions.
- Youll know how to run competitor research.
- Youll learn how to build user profiles & personas.
- Youll learn how to create wireframes.
- Youll learn how to use InVision building mockups.
- Youll learn how to report your user testing results.
11
Figma UI UX Design Advanced (2025)
A Figma follow-up from Dan Scott that skips the basics and goes straight to variables, light and dark modes, Auto Layout and animation in under nine hours.
Best for: Figma users who know the basics and want variables, variants, dark mode and advanced prototyping in one tight run.


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- Instructor is described as well planned and clear, not clicking around while you rewatch
- Covers variables, design tokens, light and dark modes and compact layouts in one course
- 22 assignments and 107 short lectures keep it practical, about 8.8 hours in total
- Rated 4.7 from 9,956 reviews, with only 140 one and two star ratings
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- A reviewer says a few things in Figma have changed since recording and were not updated
- Some lessons need a paid Figma plan, so free users can only watch those
- Teaches software skills, not UX process or design thinking, as one reviewer wanted












