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UX Design Fundamentals

Beginner English SpecializationFREE
SkillsUX designInformation structureUser experienceDesign thinkingContent organisation

Is this course right for you?

Our take
Michael Worthington's CalArts course on the foundations of user experience — how content gets organised and structured so an experience actually works for people.

Good for: A hands-on, beginner introduction to UX foundations.

Skip if: You want a specific tool (Figma) tutorial or advanced UX research.

It's hands-on and beginner-friendly, the opening course of CalArts' UI/UX Design Specialisation, which makes it a strong first step for someone entering UX. Just know what it is and isn't: it's about the underlying thinking, not a Figma tutorial, and not advanced UX research — those are separate pursuits you'd reach for later.

Audit it free on Coursera; a certificate needs a subscription (about $49/month) or Coursera Plus, with financial aid available, and it signals the learning rather than a design credential. UX foundations don't go out of style (as of 2026).

Comparison · LBS

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About this course

UX Design Fundamentals introduces the foundations of user experience: how content is organised and structured to create an experience that works for people. From CalArts and instructor Michael Worthington, it's a hands-on, project-based course that builds a designer's way of thinking rather than just teaching a tool.

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Instructor

MW
Michael Worthington
Coursera instructor

Michael Worthington is faculty in the Graphic Design program at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), one of the most respected art and design schools in the US. The course reflects CalArts' design-school approach.

Frequently asked questions

Yes — the CalArts UI/UX specialization it belongs to uses Figma as its main tool, and this course has you build paper and digital prototypes. But it leads with the UX process and design thinking rather than tool tutorials, so you learn Figma in service of good design decisions rather than as a button-by-button software course. The tool supports the thinking, not the other way round.

Yes. It assumes no prior UX experience and teaches the fundamentals — moving from ideation and sitemapping through to prototypes for a multi-screen app — building on the visual-elements course before it. As with CalArts' other design courses, it carries real rigour and expects genuine project work, so beginners who engage properly gain a lot, but it is not a passive skim.

CalArts leans more into design craft and the 'why' behind decisions, with art-school rigour; Google's UX certificate is broader, more structured, more beginner-supported, and carries stronger brand recognition for job screening. Choose CalArts for design depth and aesthetic judgement, Google for a comprehensive, employer-recognised path. Some people do Google first for breadth, then CalArts for sharper design sensibility.

Yes, you can audit it on Coursera at no cost. The graded assignments, peer critique, and the certificate require a subscription, with financial aid available. Since so much of the value here is doing the prototyping projects and receiving feedback, auditing gives you the lectures but misses the practice-and-critique loop that actually builds design skill.

As a single course within the four-part specialization, it typically runs a few weeks at a modest weekly pace, faster or slower depending on how much you invest in the project work. Because it is hands-on — building prototypes rather than only watching — the real time goes into doing the exercises properly, which is where the learning happens.
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