How Much is an UX Design Course?

You know you need to learn UX design, but the question remains: How much do you need to budget for a course to help you meet your goals? The short answer is it depends. UX design courses range immensely in scope, length, depth, and format, and their prices vary accordingly. This variety in UX design classes exists to help meet the goals of UX design learners, which can differ widely. 

As you may expect, the longer and more in-depth a UX design course is, the more you may expect tuition to be. College degree programs are the most expensive option, although they may not be the best training overall for those with their sights set on a career in UX design for various reasons. A professional bootcamp or certificate program can be just as, if not more, effective for helping you achieve UX design job readiness as a college degree program and for a fraction of the tuition. While the few thousand dollars a certificate-granting program will cost you will inevitably pay off in the career it enables you to launch, your UX design learning aspirations may be narrower in scale, requiring a shorter and simpler course. These will naturally be the cheapest option but could cost you more in the long run if they aren’t the best fit for your learning needs. In this article, you will learn more about your UX design course options to determine the best fit for your needs, including your budget.

College Degree Programs: The Most Expensive Option

Depending on where you are in the world, you may be able to find a UX design bachelor’s or master’s program, but these remain few and far between in the world of higher education. However, some aspiring UX designers find that adjacent degrees in subjects such as human-computer interaction, graphic design, or computer science are helpful in setting them up for success in a UX design career. Before even considering enrolling in a degree program, however, you should be aware that many hiring managers report that a bachelor’s or master’s is irrelevant to whether they are impressed with a candidate. Instead, they look for job candidates with impressive portfolios filled with impactful case studies showcasing an expert level of UX design skills. A college degree program that does not provide support in creating this portfolio will, therefore, not be the most helpful UX design class to ensure you’re job-ready by graduation. College degree programs also rarely provide the level of career support that a career-focused certificate program or bootcamp offers, despite the lengthiness and priciness of the experience.

Master’s programs are certainly far more education than is necessary to prepare for a junior UX Designer position. However, some find they offer a faster pathway to a leadership role in UX design, so they may be the best fit for some learners. Depending on the degree, a college education will be around two to four years in length and cost tens of thousands of dollars unless you have access to extensive scholarships. Read on to learn about certificate-granting UX design programs, a considerably cheaper and arguably more effective career-prep training solution for aspiring UX Designers.

Certificate-Granting Programs: Immersive Career-Focused Classes

When you’re looking for a professional training option that will help you meet your goal of launching a career in UX design, you have more accessible options than college degree programs. UX design certificate programs and certificate-granting bootcamps—terms often used interchangeably to describe similar courses—are educational programs that condense a complete career-prep experience into either a few weeks in full-time courses or a few months in part-time ones. These immersive classes typically feature intense curricula designed to walk a beginner to a professional level of expertise by graduation. Other perks include assistance in building an impressive portfolio of UX design projects, mentorship from an experienced instructor, and targeted career support, all of which have the potential to help you land your first UX Designer job more easily than a college degree might.

However, as you may expect, a certificate program for aspiring UX Designers boasting so many benefits isn’t cheap. These professional development opportunities typically cost a few thousand dollars, so you’ll want to be 100% certain of your career path before making such a significant investment in your future. The following section will describe a UX design course option perfect for beginners still debating whether UX design is right for them.

Live Training Classes: Ideal for Beginners and Unsure Students

If you’re considering pivoting in your current career or launching an entirely new one, you may wonder if UX design is the best fit for you. Those who are curious enough about the field to take an introductory UX design course but not ready to invest in a certificate program will find what they are looking for in live training classes. Typically offered in a short course format by professional training schools, these learning opportunities are relatively easy to find and budget-friendly compared to comprehensive courses. The price of live training classes can vary considerably, as these classes can range from an afternoon to a few days. You’ll usually find a price tag of a few hundred dollars on these classes, whatever the length and whether they are hosted in-person or online.

Note that classes for more advanced UX students are also available in this format. These may be shorter bootcamps focused on Figma or another tool of the trade. Also, typically in the price range of a few hundred dollars, these classes are excellent tools for filling gaps in your knowledge, helping you qualify for a promotion, or otherwise expanding your career horizons. Below, you’ll find alternative learning solutions for those experienced in UX design looking for supplementary training.

Self-Paced Classes: Excellent Supplements at Reasonable Prices

Self-paced classes are another UX design course format you may wish to explore, especially if you already have an intermediate or advanced level of expertise in the field. These courses are sometimes called asynchronous or on-demand classes and are recognizable by their prerecorded lectures (if any lectures are included) and lack of a set schedule. Training institutions that provide these UX design courses can offer these classes at a low overhead, as no live instructor is involved, and the materials may seldom be updated. Both of these features can be significant downfalls in on-demand classes and make them especially unsuited for beginners. However, learners at any level will benefit from a live instructor’s assistance when learning subjects like UX design. That said, the lower price of these courses can make them worthwhile, especially for highly disciplined UX design students, as they can range between $9.99 when on sale and a few hundred dollars, depending on their quality, scope, and content.

Free Resources: What Are They Good For?

It’s natural to want to spend as little as possible and wonder if any free UX design classes are available to meet your needs. You may wish to begin your educational journey in UX design with Noble Desktop’s free UX design seminars. Similar resources can also help you learn a new tool of the trade if you’re already acquainted with the basics of UX design. You can also find free UX tutorials, seminars, and videos on the websites of other professional training centers, YouTube, and other platforms. These resources are helpful for beginners trying to grasp what UX design is before deciding whether it’s worth learning to start a career in the field or to add value to their current one. Other free resources can be excellent supplements for answering quick questions or providing different viewpoints on challenging concepts as you are learning UX design. However, unless your UX design learning goals are extremely simple, they are unlikely to provide the quality and quantity of training you seek. UX design training at a professional level is well worth the financial investment required.

Learn UX Design Skills with Noble Desktop

Whatever your goals in learning UX design, Noble Desktop has a class for you. Their UX & UI Design Certificate program is an excellent option for those looking for a comprehensive program to prepare to launch a UX design career. Featuring 132 hours of hands-on learning, a free retake option, and one-on-one mentorship sessions you can use as career prep, this certificate program’s curriculum includes all you need to know to begin working in either UX or UI design. No experience is required to attend this UX design course, which is available on a part-time or full-time schedule. By the end of this certificate program, you will have a strong understanding of UX and UI principles, user testing, prototyping, and Figma and have a digital certificate of completion to verify this knowledge to potential employers. This certificate and the portfolio you assemble during the course will help you land your dream job in UX design.

If your UX design education needs aren’t as extensive as a certificate program, Noble’s UX Design Foundations is a primer on the fundamental principles and processes of user experience. This 12-hour course is ideal for you if you’re interested in exploring the topic to see if you may want to chart a career path in UX design in the future. Professionals working in adjacent careers may also use the UX Design Foundations class to strengthen their understanding of user experience so they can apply the concepts in their current work. Whatever the reason you may wish to master the basics of UX design and research, you can learn them through hands-on exercises, lectures, and discussions in this UX design class.

Noble Desktop also provides short courses and bootcamps in individual UX design tools, such as the Figma Bootcamp. If your next step in your UX design learning journey is to learn Figma quickly and thoroughly, this 12-hour course can equip you to succeed with the industry-standard software. In this class, you’ll learn how to use the powerful application to create user-friendly layouts, build interactive prototypes, make animations, and perform other essential steps of the UX design process. Tuition for this class covers Noble’s proprietary workbook, a free retake option, and a verified certificate of completion.