Certificate in User Experience with Specialty recognition in Interaction Design
Price: USD 4,333.00 (approx SGD 5,831.78)
Duration: 10 half-days (9AM to 12.30PM)
Delivery format: Zoom
Other tools used: Miro, Google Docs
Link to NN/g page: https://www.nngroup.com/training/
There are 2 types of certification; a UX certificate and a Master's certificate.
- Complete any 5 courses + all exams = 1 UX certificate
- Complete any 15 courses + all exams = Masters
To get speciality recognition, you will need to complete 5 courses from the same speciality. i.e. 5 interaction or research or management courses.
Courses I took thus far:
- Writing Compelling Digital Copy
- Persuasive and Emotional Design
- Visual Design Fundamentals
- Designing Complex Apps for Specialised Domains
- Effective Ideation Techniques for UX Design
Following is a summary of each course and my key takeaways.
1. Writing Compelling Digital Copy
Instructor: Kate Moran
Course topic:
Key takeaways:
- When crafting content, people tend to assume that B2B customers are more knowledgeable about the product. So the copy used tend to be more jargon-y and technical. However, this might not be true as usually the B2B customers who buy the products might be procurement officers who are not the actual user and are not invested in finding out more about the product.
- You wouldn’t know which copy works until you test it and measure it.
- In general, casual tone of voice is the best because users find it more friendly, trustworthy and desirable.
What could be better:
- More examples on how to write clear error messages.
2. Persuasive and Emotional Design
Instructor: Therese Fessenden
Course topic:
Key takeaways:
- Persuasive design is not about tricking users into doing what they don’t want. That’s dark patterns.
- Trust is the foundation for persuasive design
What could be better:
- Nothing. This course is very comprehensive.
3. Visual Design Fundamentals
Instructor: Rachel Krause
Course topic:
Key takeaways:
- It is easier to design first by blocking large sections of the design
- The 60-30-10 Rule for applying colour in designs to create balance
- How to apply the Golden Ratio in design
What could be better:
- I wish the session is longer and we can see how Rachel would redesign a page. What goes through her mind during the design process. Learning the theories is easy, but applying it is another game altogether.
- It would also be interesting to see how Rachel start a design project. From getting the brief, to her research methods, how she eliminates the idea and come to her final design idea, how to get stakeholder buy-in, etc... But I guess that’s like the whole process and might be totally out of scope for this topic on Visual Design Fundamentals. 😅
4. Designing Complex Apps for Specialised Domains
Instructor: Kate Kaplan
Course topic:
Key takeaways:
- Generalist applications for everyday domain focus should be on usability whereas complex applications for specialised domains should be on usefulness.
- We should design for spatial predictability in complex apps and provide guardrails.
- There are 2 types of progressive disclosure; staged disclosure and responsive enabling.
What could be better:
- Nothing. This course provided a lot of examples of apps that are waaaaay more complex than the ones I’ve ever designed.
5. Effective Ideation Techniques for UX Design
Instructor: Kate Moran
Course topic:
Key takeaways:
- The optimal number of people to include in an ideation workshop should be 10 or less.
- In the ideation stage, it is better to focus on quantity than quality of the design. i.e. Try crazy 8s. No such thing as a bad idea.
- My new favourite go-to ideation technique: Opposite Day
What could be better:
- The activity could be clearer. Maybe it’s my comprehension problem, but I couldn’t really apply what was taught during the short zoom breakout activities. Would have been better if one or two examples were given before we start on the activities.
Not sure if anyone is interested but here’s my desk setup for the 10 days of class
- Dell Monitor: For viewing the class via Zoom
- MacBook Pro: For typing any notes into Evernote. Sometimes the instructor and moderator will give links to websites and other resources.
- iPad Pro and Apple Pencil: For writing down notes in the PDF, imported into GoodNotes
- A stack of A4 paper and pen: For fast sketching like doing the crazy 8s activity. Pen and paper just feels easier to use than an iPad Pro and Apple pencil.
Materials
The materials are available 1 hour prior to the start of each course. Materials given in each module typically includes:
- A password protected PDF with all the slides for the course
- Reading list
- Free report (if any)
- Free templates (if any)
How to get access to your materials:
- After logging into NN/g website, you will see a list of Upcoming Classes.
- Click on Download Slides and you will be directed to this page to download the materials
Exam
At the end of the course, a link to the exam will also be available. Each exam is 1 hour, with 30 MCQ questions. You can pause the exam at any time for a toilet break etc.
After submitting the exam, you will know your results within 10 to 15 minutes. For me, I could see my results instantly. When I completed all 5 courses, I was notified of my UX certificate via email within the next 2 to 3 hours.
Here’s how my certificate looks like:
Before I end... 2 tips of preparing for the exam
- The questions are pretty straight forward and most of the answers can be found in the slides. It’s also an open-book exam so you can simply ‘search’ the pdf for the answers. 😅 Key thing is to understand the concepts.
- Take note of the questions your instructors might ask during class. Sometimes these are part of exam questions too.
If you have any questions about the course, you can DM me on Instagram @ux.fionalim.
