"Learning UX Design with the Interaction Design Foundation - a review"

Six years ago I fell in love with Design Thinking, it started with a short online teaser but I got the opportunity to take a three day academy shortly after that. At my former employer Accenture, I was able to start applying design thinking directly after the academy and even taught it to many colleagues and clients in Europe. My focus was on the methodology, workshop design and flow and of course the outcomes. For specific expertise like UX design or technology engineering I made sure to have experts on board. This gave me a unique peek behind the scenes of these crafts and I noticed my energy and enthusiasm went up when working with service designers and UX designers. So that’s what I want in my career.

My challenge? I do not have a university degree in product design, HCI or similar. I do think I have relevant ingredients from all my experience on projects, coaching, teaching so it is a matter of enriching my skill set. With a little bit of searching in the rich learning environment at Accenture I found the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) and with some positive feedback from colleagues I decided to sign up.

IxDF offers a self-paced online learning platform with a great mix of courses full of theory, case studies, videos and practical exercises hosted by experts in the field like Frank Spillers, Alan Dix, William Hudson and many more. I pay an annual fee for unlimited access to all the courses and available literature and discount for different bootcamps. I also have a chance to connect with a community of members.

There are two strategies to pick a course. You can choose a track, for example: UX Designer, Researcher, Usability Experts etc. This will give you a learning curriculum in 3 or 4 levels starting with introduction courses and the deeper you go, the more specialized the content will be. The alternative is to just look around and pick courses you like. I am following a hybrid alternative, being Dutch as my excuse. I am going through the UX Designer track but I am also taking courses like ‘How to create a UX Portfolio’ or ‘Service Design: How to Design Integrated Service Experiences’ as I find these a valuable addition. The first mentioned course is super useful as it provides me with many tips & tricks how to translate my past experience into portfolio items but also how to use practical exercises in the different courses to enrich my portfolio.

Sometimes I have the focus and energy to do this an entire day and other moments I spend an hour here and there. The setup of the courses is very well suited for that and accessible with different devices.

The courses are divided in modules, the first two modules are released as soon as you sign up and the next module is released after approximately a week. Some modules are text only and some modules are supported by video so your brain can learn in different ways. You close the module with a series of automatically graded multiple choice questions or open ended questions which are graded within two weeks. Often these modules are just a starting point as they are filled with additional materials like downloadable templates, links to literature and links to videos. At the end of the course you can generate a course certificate which is posted on your profile and which can be shared on social media.

So far I am very happy with my choice and I trust IxDF will support me in my next career steps. I continue to learn via the different courses I take and continue to work on my portfolio while applying to UX jobs.