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California Institute of the Arts · on Coursera

Visual Elements of User Interface Design

4.7(4,200) on Coursera·210K enrolled
Beginner 14 hours English Specialization
SkillsUI designTypographyColourLayoutVisual designInterface design

Is this course right for you?

Our take
A design-school introduction to the visual side of interface design — the eye, not the software. It is free to audit, and the CalArts name carries weight.

Good for: beginners who want to strengthen the visual side of UI design.

Skip if: you want the full UX process, or you already design interfaces.

Rather than teaching which Figma panel does what, it teaches the principles that make an interface look intentional: typography, colour theory, Gestalt grouping and layout grids. It is tool-agnostic, so the skills transfer across Figma, Sketch or whatever replaces them, and it is the first course of CalArts' UI/UX specialization.

What it does not do is cover the full UX process or the tools themselves — it is critique-driven and academic, so pair it with a Figma course for the software, and if you already design interfaces it will be basic. The certificate needs a subscription; the free audit covers the learning, and the fundamentals stay relevant.

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About this course

Most UI courses teach you which Figma panel does what. This CalArts course does the opposite: it teaches the visual design principles — typography, color theory, Gestalt grouping, layout grids — that make an interface look intentional rather than assembled. It's tool-agnostic, which means the skills transfer whether you end up in Figma, Sketch, or anything that replaces them.

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Instructor

CI
Coursera Instructor Network
Coursera instructor
210K+ learners8 courses4.7 instructor rating

Delivered through CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) on Coursera, drawing on the design faculty's studio-based teaching approach to visual communication.

Frequently asked questions

You can take it alone, but it is designed as the first of four courses in CalArts' UI/UX Design specialization. It lays the visual foundation the later courses build on, so taking it solo gives you strong grounding in interface aesthetics but not the full design process. If you want the complete arc through to prototyping, it is the opening step rather than the whole journey.

The visual building blocks of interface design: how language, shape, colour, imagery, typography, and icons combine to make screens clear, consistent, and intuitive. It distinguishes static from active (interactive) elements and, through hands-on assignments, has you design a static screen-based interface. The focus is deliberately on visual craft and the reasoning behind design choices rather than on coding or software mechanics.

Yes, it assumes no prior UI experience and starts from fundamentals, so beginners are welcome. As with CalArts' other design courses, though, it carries genuine art-school rigour — you are expected to engage seriously with design assignments and critique rather than passively absorb, which is what makes it valuable but also more demanding than a light introductory tour of the subject.

Within the specialization, it is followed by UX Design Fundamentals — moving from static visual elements into structuring content and building paper and digital prototypes for a multi-screen app — then two web-design courses on strategy, information architecture, and wireframes-to-prototypes. So this course's visual grounding feeds directly into the more process- and prototyping-focused work that follows.

Yes, you can audit it on Coursera and watch the lectures at no cost. The graded assignments, peer critique, and the certificate need a subscription, with financial aid available. Because much of the value here is doing the visual design assignments and getting feedback, auditing gives you the teaching but misses the practice-and-critique loop where design skills genuinely sharpen.
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Free to audit, paid certificate
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