According to a feature article in the British online publication Digital Arts, an online course developed and taught by CSE (and Cognitive Science) Prof. Scott Klemmer is one of the best in the world for learning user experience (UX) design.
The survey noted that "UX design is all about improving the user experience through creating easy-to-use products that are a pleasure to use, and customizing a product or service to take into account exactly how the user interacts with" that product. The article breaks down available UX design courses between massive open online courses (MOOCs), and at-your-own-pace software packages from the likes of Lynda.com (owned by LinkedIn), Udemy, Treehouse, Pluralsight and Skillshare (where you can choose to be either a teacher or a student).
The Digital Arts review focuses on Coursera as the primary MOOC platform for both paid and free online courses. At the top of the list was the popular Interaction Design Specialization, a series of seven courses taught by Klemmer and a capstone design project that, taken together, promise to help students "learn how to design great user experiences." "These courses are a brilliant overview on a wide range of UX aspects, and include quizzes and assignments to keep you engaged, as well as great teachers such as Scott Klemmer," writes Mimi Launder in "The 11 Best Paid and Free UX Design Courses". "These are resource-rich, tough courses that -- if you complete them -- you will gain a lot from." The article also singles out Klemmer's Human-Computer Interaction course on Coursera as one of the best free online UX courses. Klemmer's former employer, Stanford, still offers his original MOOC on Coursera free of charge. According to the reviewer, "it may not look quite as sleek as the paid course [from UC San Diego], but, well, it is free. And it offers brilliant video lectures, though none of the assignments or quizzes, unlike the paid version" available on Coursera from UC San Diego.
Klemmer is also the deputy director of The Design Lab at UC San Diego.
Learn more about the other UX design online courses on Digital Arts Online.