Erik Kennedy – Learn UI Design
LET ME SAVE YOU SOME TIME. Honestly, there’s only one reason to read anything on this page, and it’s this: you want to learn how to create great-looking user interfaces.
If that’s not you, you can bounce along now. No hard feelings.
If you’re anything like I was, you find UI design to be confusing and open-ended. The advice out there seems vague, contradictory, and theoretical (rather than practical).
When you look at design topics like typography or color, you’re overwhelmed.
And when you see beautiful designs, they seem to be some mix of:
- Subjective
- Arbitrary
- Easy to recognize, but difficult to create
These feelings are all too familiar to me.
When I was a developer and PM, I felt this way constantly. I saw tons of great designs. I could even tell you which I liked best. But when it came to recreating something similar for myself, I was hopeless.
I saw UI designers as magical creatures who sprinkle mysterious design dust over any wireframe and make it shine. It seemed like some art school voodoo that was completely inaccessible to others – myself included.
THE HARD WAY
When I learned UI design, I had to do it the hard way. Largely self-taught, making progress an inch at a time. In the end, I learned the aesthetics of apps the same way I’ve learned any creative endeavor: cold, hard analysis. And shameless copying of what works. I’ve worked 10 hours on a UI project and billed for 1. The other 9 were the wild flailing of learning.
During that time, I came to have a disdain for the theory-heavy tripe that plagues so much design writing. You know what I’m talking about? Stuff like:
- Color theory (in reality, no designers really use it)
- The golden ratio (seems insightful, doesn’t help)
- Grids (less practical than you’d expect, given the airtime they get)
This stuff seems useful, but it failed the only metric that mattered to me: does it help me make a bad design look good?
Let’s fast-forward a few years. Now, I’ve designed interfaces for clients like Amazon, Soylent, Roam Research, and more, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars doing it. I’ve circled the globe freelancing from a dozen countries. From enterprise systems to personal side-projects, I’m confident in my ability to design whatever I need to – and have it look awesome.
“But I don’t know Arial from Helvetica” you cry. How will you ever become confident in design?
I thought you’d never ask.
What You’ll Learn In Learn UI Design?
INTRODUCTORY TOPICS
- Begin Here
- Introduction to Figma
- Introduction to Sketch
- Setting Up Your Workspace for UI Design
- How to Build Your Design Gut Instinct
- Starting a Project: Brand & Goals
- Finding & Using Design Inspiration
- 3 Ways to Design Above Your Level
FUNDAMENTALS
- Introduction: Analyzing Aesthetics
- Alignment
- Spacing
- Consistency
- Sizing
- Simplicity
- Lighting & Shadows
COLOR
- HSB
- Luminosity
- Gray: The Most Important Color
- Variations: The Most Important Color Skill
- 3 Techniques to Fix Clashing Colors
- Picking a Primary UI Color
- Creating a Brand-Based Palette
- Dark Interfaces
- Gradients
TYPOGRAPHY
- Intro to Typography
- The Good Fonts Table
- Choosing Fonts: Overview
- Choosing Body Fonts
- Styling Text I: The Basic Rules
- Brand & Letterform
- Styling Text II: Interactive Apps
- Pairing Fonts
- Styling Text III: Editorial
USER INTERFACE COMPONENTS
- Component Libraries I: Controls
- Component Libraries II: States
- Vector Illustration
- Icon Design
- Photography & Imagery
- Lists & Tables
- Charts & Data Visualizations
DIGITAL PLATFORMS & PARADIGMS
- Responsive UI Design
- Designing Multi-State Screens
- Accessibility
- Overlaying Text on Images
- Truncating Text
- Mobile: iOS
- Mobile: Android/Material Design
- Grids
COMMUNICATING DESIGN
- Creating a Design Portfolio
- Interviewing for Design Jobs
- Finding Clients
- Presenting Your Designs
- Click-Through Prototyping
- Developer Handoff
Learn Ui Design Is Right For You If…
- You’re eager to learn and practice UI design
- You’ve tried designing something before – and it didn’t come out so great
- You know learning UI design will add value to your career (thousands of dollars or more)
- You’re self-motivated when it comes to learning – after all, no one’s standing over your shoulder telling you to do your homework
- You’ve got some interest in tech (the more you enjoy geeking out about software, the quicker you’ll learn)
Learn Ui Design Is Not Right For You If…
- You just want to finish a single design – not learn skills to serve you for years
- You believe you can become a better designer by passively watching videos (newsflash: you will have to do the homework assignments if you want to improve)
- You’re not a self-motivated learner (this is an online course, after all. I’m not handing out grades)
Sale Page: Erik Kennedy – Learn UI Design