Is Interaction Design Foundation a good fit for you?
Where you ever intimidated about the price tag that design education programs have ?
Did you ever felt too much pressure while juggling your career growth, education and 9 to 5 job?
We’ve all been here, but fortunately this is not the standard anymore and there is an easier way to do this.
Commitment can be hard, but not impossible.
Committing to a fixed learning schedule is a good approach if you’re aiming to expand your knowledge, but it might not work for you if you’re already struggling to find time for it on a daily basis.
A lot of the learning programs out there which focus on user experience are a long term commitment between 6 to 9 months where they recommend you dedicated at least 10 hours a week to the programme.
And for us creative professionals who also hold a job this might prove to be stressful and demanding on the long run.
I do believe that the best approach towards acquiring more knowledge is to just focus on what works for you.
If you are the beginning of your journey or you just want to stay relevant by being up to date with the latest information, you need to find your own pace.
Why should you even consider joining the Interaction Design Foundation?
Having a membership with the Interaction Design Foundation can help you have a more flexible commitment towards learning.
You have total control over the pace of which you’re going through the courses, a luxury which not all the programs out there provide. The ability to dedicate just 30 minutes a day to a course or just pause learning for two weeks if needed is the main factor for which IxDF can be a good choice for you.
The content is carefully curated and the information is nicely explained, they successfully manage to gather a lot of information on various topics and merge it all in a course format.
What should you expect from IxDF?
- A whole range of courses starting from beginner level up until the very advanced ones.
- Access to UX Master Classes at a preferential member price, the majority of them ranging between 1$ and reaching up to 3$.
- A set of downloadable templates which will help speed up your design process, members pay as little as 5$ for 15 templates.
- Self-paced format, where you get to decide when and how much time you commit to learning.
- A course certificate which is recognised by industry leaders like Adobe and IBM.
- Concrete design knowledge at the end of each course which in time and with enough practice will turn into valuable skills.
No matter of your level of expertise you can find a wide range of course to suit your needs. And even if you’re a design expert an information refresh might prove to be useful from time to time.
My experience with IxDF
When I started my membership I had previous knowledge and experience in the the field and I thought that it would be difficult to find something new and challenging for me to learn. I was wrong!
I managed to go through several courses some of which are :
- Affordances: Designing Intuitive User Interfaces
- Human-Computer Interaction
- UX Management: Strategy and Tactics
Time is a precious resource for me which at times can be volatile so this self paced approach towards learning was a very good fit for me. It allowed me to create my own learning schedule and pace which at the end of the day was not mandatory, it was a choice.
At the end of these courses I managed to acquired new information or just refresh my existing knowledge in some areas, nevertheless knowledge which definitely benefited my output as a designer.
It helped me see things from a different perspective, for example the Affordances course helped me better understand how people think when they engage with an interface, how feedback from an action should be provided in a more intuitive manner to the end users. And more importantly it taught me that no matter how much experience you users might have with digital products they will still rely their experiences and interactions with objects outside of the digital world.
Your career and learning path is your own responsibility.
If you’re just starting out in UX or you’re a seasoned professional I hope that you’re invested enough in your career in order to go the extra mile and find out what works for you in terms of acquiring knowledge.
If you decide to join the Interaction Design Foundation get 2 months off your first year with this link
