Month 1: Foundations of UI/UX Design

Week 1: Design Fundamentals

Topics:

• UI vs. UX: Key differences and their roles.
• 5 elements of UX design.
• Laws of UX (e.g., Fitts’s Law, Hick’s Law).
• Careers in UX Design.

Assignments:

• Analyze 3 apps (e.g spotify, a banking app, your favorite app) and identify examples of “good” ux and “bad “ux”.
• Create a file summarizing 3 laws of UX and how they could apply to improving the apps you analyzed for bad ux.

Resources:

<aside> 💡

• Laws of UX (Read the book for indept understanding).
• The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
• https://www.coursera.org/articles/ui-vs-ux-design
• https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/ux-vs-ui-what-s-the-difference
• https://www.smu.edu/meadows/newsandevents/news/2025/what-are-the-differences-between-ux-and-ui
• https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/blog/laws-of-ux/
• https://www.educative.io/answers/what-are-the-five-elements-of-ux-design
• https://www.codecademy.com/resources/docs/uiux/design-methodologies/five-elements-of-ux-design
• https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/blog/5-elements-of-ux-design/
• https://designlab.com/blog/ux-designer-career-path-options
• https://fourthrev.com/blog-how-to-become-a-ux-designer-in-2025/
• https://www.tealhq.com/career-paths/ux-designer
• https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/what-does-a-ux-designer-actually-do/ </aside>

Week 2: Design Thinking and User-Centered Design

Topics:

• The Design Thinking framework.
• Empathy mapping and identifying user pain points.
• Tools like “How Might We” and Crazy 8s.

Assignments:

• Create an empathy map for a user persona based on a problem scenario.