Attending this course and passing the exam earns 1 UX Certification credit, which also counts towards the optional Interaction Design Specialty.
Learn more about NN/g's UX Certification Program.
What every team member needs to know about creating user interfaces using essential principles, techniques, and methods of visual design
In this course, you’ll learn how to:
Note: We do not recommend this class for visual designers with a degree in Graphic Design, or similar, unless you are responsible for teaching visual design to others.
This course is a combination of lecture format and participatory workshop. You will participate in group exercises to reinforce the learned principles.
This course also includes:
"This is an excellent course for educating designers on visual principles. It's also approachable enough that I would recommend it to non-designers who work on projects that involve design. It's a direct view into the criteria that inform how visual design decisions should be made, and it will help designers and non-designers alike achieve a better understanding of processes that might otherwise seem subjective or even arbitrary."
Josh Vincent, Austin, TX USA
"Really helpful. Rachel was very patient and took time to answer all the questions with examples/references that helps us associate the principles easily. Its funny how we tend to overlook some of the fundamentals but that ends up being the prime reason for the over complex designs. After this course my first goal is to get the fundamentals right then the design will fall in place."
Shylu Rajakumar, Baxter, Deerfield
"I would like to recommend this course to visual design workers and people in all fields who need to consider UX-related work and user experience. It will be helpful because the necessary contents and the understandable sample composition are well made."
Serrah Lim, HP, Seoul, Korea
"It's great for those wanting to brush up on their visual design skills. I don't come from a design background so I learned from experience so it was good to actually put names to the things I'm doing and then actively use them in my job."
Heather Johnson, Leidos, Morgantown, WV United States
More Participant Comments
"I benefitted greatly from this course and feel confident I can come back to my company and apply these skills moving forward."
Carmine, WorkWave, Montclair, New Jersey, USA
"I would tell people that even if you're an experienced designer, these skills are still perishable. Rachel did a great job of satisfying the experts AND newbies in the room."
Addison E Cruver, Booz Allen Hamilton, Richmond Hill
"I have some experience with Design that I thought myself through other resources. The Gestalt principles I know, to me they seem to be the rockstars in content online about visual design. The hands-on examples of Scale, Hierachy, Balance and Contrast created a 'click' moment for me that I can actively use in my future projects. If you are doubting yourself in 'Design' in general, take this course and you will able to know where you currently stand and how you can grow your skillset."
Kevin Mol, UXRD, Utrecht, The Netherlands
"I would highly recommend anyone who is just getting started, or works on Design Systems or pretty much anyone who is wanting to brush up their skills attend this course! Rachel was just amazing, the activities she had planned in groups and individually, were engaging and immersive. I learned about principles, strategies and just tricks of the trade that would help me excel in this aspect of design. I feel like even the 6 or 7 hours weren't enough for this course as I could keep go on and on to learn more about colors, typography and so much more!"
Sonali Agrawal, Fetch Rewards, Flower Mound, USA
"Excellent course, especially if you're new to design or work with designers and need to learn their "language". So many excellent resources offered, too."
Luisa Lago, The Co-operators, Guelph, Canada
"There are many valuable theories for a Front-end UI Designer, but I'd also like to recommend this course to my UX research and evaluation field colleagues. These theories could help them on how to visualize the data more engagingly. Previously, I tried to guess and build a color palette manually using color guide tools on adobe illustrator, which takes too much time and energy. Thank you for demonstrating the Adobe color tool. It helps improve my design time management."
Mentari Fajrin, Telkom Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
"Even though I was familiar with virtually every topic discussed, it was valuable to have it organized in a way that I have a clearer understanding of when and how to apply concepts (using objective visual design concepts). This structure is a helpful reminder of all the things to think about, and gives me something practical to apply directly to my work."
Michael Casey, Philadelphia, USA
"This course does an excellent job of empowering you to look at a visual design and dissect it with constructive feedback. It is for both UI designers and UX analyst; it would even benefit a front-end web developer. I highly recommend the course."
David Felfoldi, SHERPA Global, Atlanta, USA
"Will recommend it for sure. Covered all topics related to Visual Design - good for everybody that wants to jump start or have a deeper understanding about Design."
Hugo Figueira, Hitachi, Lisbon, Portugal
"This course is very easy to follow. It's great for people looking to be introduced to visual design concepts but also for people who want to brush up on their knowledge. I felt like I was able to understand and learn very easily, as Rachel takes the time to thoroughly explain everything with case studies, examples, and activities."
Cindy, AppFolio, Los Angeles, USA
"This is a well structured course introducing visual design concepts, which enables non-visual designers like me to understand processes, name things, and make informed and objective visual design decisions. I found it a good complement to the Design Systems course."
Ingrid Pigueron, Freelance, Paris, France
"I would definitely recommend the course to people interested in the UX and others, because I think everyone would understand the content of the presentation. I was able to refresh and organize my knowledge. I liked everything, I have no objections :)"
Marta, Poland
"A course full of details, well explaining the theory behind various aspects of Visual Design as well as how to apply this theory in practice. The content of the presentation is very well structured and organized, the theory and proposed methodologies have been greatly explained. This course helped me with structuring and deepening my knowledge on the subject."
Marzena, Poland
"This class was great in helping me (a developer) understand why users like/dislike certain design elements and how to properly design features for users. The activities are engaging and helpful at reinforcing the knowledge. The knowledge is well explained and with the examples given it is easy to make connections and remember the principles for later use."
Carrie, USA
"Basics for beginners - all you need to know as Frontend Developer to cooperate with Designers and understand their work. ;-)"
Magdalena, Accenture, Katowice, Poland
"It is a really good introduction to Visual Design and it is something I recommend for everyone."
John Lindén, Kindred Group, Stockholm, Sweden
"Rachel is very knowledgeable about UX design. She is a great and fun facilitator. I definitely have learned a lot from this course. I would encourage people take this course from Rachel that learn about visual design principles and fundamentals, which will help improving the quality of their work."
Weiwei Ji, Arkansas Tech University, Russellville, AR
"Even though this course gives you "fundamentals", it's great either for beginners and experts who would like to improve their design skills. The tools, tips and information are really helpful for designers and non-designers."
Leslie Meléndez, Human Resources, Jalisco, Mexico
"Really worth taking if you can appreciate or practice good design and how it applies specifically to websites and apps. Love the practical nature of the activities."
Mitchell Carrigan, Canstar Blue, Brisbane, Australia
"This course is an excellent overview of visual design. I teach UI/UX and have a degree in graphic design. This course covers the most essential and immediately useable principles (gestalt, elements & principles) in designing the interactive digital format."
Kathleen Watson, katsvision, Los Gatos
"I really liked everything about this course, especially the information on color."
Tassyn Miller, SEIU 775 Benefits Group, Seattle, WA
"It was slightly too basic for me, but I'd highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't spent too much time with visual design before."
Jonte Edvardson, Transfer Galaxy, Undersåker
"It's a great introduction to visual design concepts. Facilitation was engaging and there was a good mix of activities to consolidate the content."
Danya Azzopardi, SEEK, Melbourne, Australia
"Very engaging topic, extremely relevant to many facets of UX."
Brittany Manning, Unily, Atlanta, US
"It was a great refresher for me told in simple, actionable, objective terms. It cleared up my confusion around color theory."
Kody M Gunter, Student, Portland
"Absolutely a good one to take if you've been doing more or less some visual design in your daily job. I think the principles and techniques learned in this class can be applied to a wide range of work, from simply making more professional slides, to design better functioning and beautiful UI for websites.
My biggest takeaway - though might be trivial to others, is that, you can also do testing with visuals to see how it assist users when they use your product / platform. It's intriguing to me because I've always been thinking from UX perspective, which empathized more on the logic and thinking process instead of how the texture and weight of visuals affect people's perception. I enjoyed my personal eureka a lot haha!"
Grace Lo, Standard Chartered Bank, Taipei, Taiwan
"This is a very helpful overview of Visual Design principles. It will give you helpful information to better understand what is involved in design and how you can better communicate design concepts within collaborative groups."
Patti Richards, BJC Healthcare, St. Louis, United States
"The goto course to all the newbies who feel they dont know where to begin learning visual design. Rachel held me fully spell bound throughout the course and gave me a different kind of confidence to find the next steps on my own...."
Basanta Karki, Richemont, NY, USA
"Highly recommend!"
Kate Berman, Google Inc, New York City
"I'd highly recommend this course to others. I got a lot of good information.
What I liked the most was that it wasn't about learning a UI of a design software, but rather universal principles that I can apply to my designs, tool-agnostically. It really gave me a foundation. I also loved the selection of content. The instructor was very thorough and handled questions very well.
There wasn't anything I didnt like."
"This course is amazing to learn about some great visual design guidelines, best practices and to take your skills to the next level."
Max Kievits, Arcady, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
"Go in with an open mind and you will not be disappointed. Very happy with the content that was being taught!"
James Taylor, Cambridge University Press, London
"It's a course well worth it! The training is fun and interactive. I will be taking more courses from you in the future!"
Toinnett, Global Payments Integrated, Lindon, USA
"I found this course to be excellent and insightful. I loved the presentation of information and the course material. Rachel Krause was a pleasure to listen to, confident with a great personality. I would highly recommend this course to anyone."
Trevor Saint, Infigo Media, Fleet, England
"I'd recommend it if you're quite new to visual design/UX as a lot of the topics covered are the core foundations you need. It acted as more of a refresher for me but I still learnt new things including data visualisation."
Charlotte Johnson, NBS, Newcastle, UK
"This class was helpful in understanding the "why" behind good looking products."
Justine Jozwiak, Salt Lake City, USA
"Great mix of interaction design principles and design principles. I didn't know the first thing about visual design, but have always been curious about why certain good designs worked. It was great to learn the names of various rules and ratios and tools to help implement them. The exercises were perfect to put them to good use. Excellent course!"
Tim Berman, Constellation Software, Granbury, USA
"This course is a great introduction to UX. Coming from a print design background, I was nervous about learning visual design. But the material was delivered in a way that was both easy to digest, and showcased great examples of design principles in real world applications."
Jeremy Hewitt, Erie Insurance, Erie, Pennsylvania, United States
"This class helps you to better make, explain, and defend design decisions. It's an absolute must for any UX professional, from researcher to designer."
Patrick, Genentech, Portland, OR
"Perfect introduction to visual design fundamentals for everyone involved in UX, content design and other similar disciplines. I learned several new useful tools and techniques and will benefit from this in my daily work."
Raymond Karlsen, The Norwegian Tax Administration, Oslo, Norway
"Rachel, the instructor is highly knowledgable. This was a great conference. I can apply many principles learnt during the conference immediately for my customers. I loved the breakout exercises as well. They were super helpful !"
Utkarsh, Mindset Consulting, Cincinnati, USA
"Great class! I have been doing art design for years so I knew the basics, but this class really helped me apply those skills to web and UX."
Whitney, SILAC Insurance Company, Salt Lake City, USA
It’s easy to look at a design and acknowledge that it looks good. It’s often much more difficult to identify why it looks good. When UX professionals have a fundamental knowledge of visual design, they’re better equipped to identify and communicate what makes a design look good using the correct terminology and concepts.
This course explores core visual design principles and methods for creating aesthetically pleasing, but easy-to-use, user interfaces.