UX Certification: choosing what’s right for you

There are many different groups who will give you a UX (User Experience) certificate. Some are traditional educational institutions. Some are private consulting companies. Some are newer educational companies. Some are nonprofit industry bodies. 

In this article, I'm going to assume you've already decided that certification is important to you. I have my doubts, but a quick survey I just conducted suggested that 2/3 of people hiring for UX see it positively, so let's go with it anyway.

I'm an educator who delivers in-person workshops and creates online content, a UX consultant, and I have been on the hiring loops for a lot of individuals over the years. What follows is my personal take on the certification offerings out there. I'm sure it's biased, but my twitter handle is @uxgrump, so curmudgeon alert, I guess.

There is no "best" certificate

The effort required to attain certification varies widely. Cost and quality are not always correlated. The value of different certification options will depend on your current situation, goals, and where you are in your career. Are you:

1. New on the job market and needing to prove your skillset?
2. Established, and just wanting to keep up to date?
3. Moving from a different industry and wanting a crash course in UX techniques?
4. Experienced, and just wanting a piece of paper that proves it?

Each of these groups has a different need, and probably would benefit from a different offering.

So there's no one-size-fits-all "best" certification. Like everything else in user experience, "It depends."

The elusive factor: Experience

One thing that most certificate-seekers seem to want, and that employers are most probably looking for, is experience.

It is about knowing how and when to employ the skills you have, and demonstrating that in a way that provides business benefit.

In other words, it's not about the tactical skills or basic knowledge so much as it is about knowing how and when to employ them, and demonstrating that you can do so in a way that provides business benefit.

That's hard. It's hard enough to show experience in a resume. It's even harder in a certificate. Certification programs that include practical exercises, team work, portfolio creation, and other physical artifacts are more likely to help you demonstrate experience than ones that just note your attendance at a class. If nothing else, they'll give you something to talk about at interview. Those courses will by their nature take longer to complete, but not necessarily end up costing more.

What’s out there?

I spent a whole week diving in to what is available. I looked for programs that offer a certificate or letter of completion. It’s possible to take individual courses at a university and build your own program, but here I concentrated on learning paths that were created by the institution as a complete offering. 

I also considered companies and nonprofit industry bodies who offer certification without a training requirement. For instance, by just taking an exam or by portfolio review. 

It was a painful process. I have to say I gave up on tabulating the university offerings after a while because many of them looked old and tired, and some wouldn’t even give me curriculum or pricing information unless I contacted them. I wasn’t in for a hard sell and a load of SPAM, so screw their marketing departments, no free advertising for them!

I also noticed a large quality difference that wasn't correlated with cost. Some cheap and even free content looked very well curated. Some of the pricier options were less inspiring. 

UX Research or UX Design

I checked out certification in UX Research and in UX Design (UX + UI, I guess). The UX Design courses tended to take longer, which is to be expected. Teaching even basic visual design principles is a long process that takes a lot of practice. Building a portfolio doesn’t happen overnight.

There were also a few certifications that concentrated more on UX Strategy. These tend to have a focus on managing UX teams, selling UX in an organization, and integrating UX into the business’ processes.

Remote - but was it designed that way?

At the moment, even organizations that would normally conduct in-person courses have gone remote. Different people need different things, but the in-person courses would be best for UX Design topics that need design crit sessions and a lot of teamwork. 

Exercises that were designed to be conducted face-to-face need to be changed up to work in a remote setting.

From my own teaching experiences, exercises that were designed to be conducted face-to-face need to be changed up somewhat to work in a remote setting. I’d be surprised if most instructors have had time to do that yet. 

So I think it’s likely that courses that were designed to be remote-first are more likely to succeed in the current climate than courses that had to quickly jump into a remote platform that the instructors are learning along with their students. That's especially true for the interactive courses that have a large collaborative element.  

Variables that could make a difference

Different people need different things from a course. Here are some factors that you should consider.

• The type of tuition you receive on these courses varies. Sometimes it’s live sessions, sometimes it’s self-guided through video courses. Some of those videos are just recordings of lectures, whereas others are purpose-built video training packages.
• Who's teaching? Are they respected for their experience? Do they have any industry involvement? Does the course also offer opportunities to present to and get feedback from people who are currently working in UX?
• Some courses offer mentor calls, but check the number and frequency - weekly or monthly? Are they one-on-one or group calls?
• Is the learning experience self-guided, where you can work at your own pace, or are lessons only available at set times? Typically instructor-led courses will be scheduled whereas video training will be more free-form.
• Is the course full time or part time? That doesn't reflect on the quality of the course, but it is important if you are trying to fit this learning and certification in with your current job or other commitments.
• Is there a time limit for completion of the certification? Some certifications can be built up over time, others must be taken in one continuous chunk.
• Is there coursework that gets marked? Some people like that to gauge how well they are doing, others hate it. Is there group work? Group crits can be interesting, group projects can be great or a real pain.
• Do you end up with a portfolio? That might be less important for UX Research positions, but it can be essential for design-heavy UX roles. Courses are not the only or the best way to build a portfolio, but are a good option if you have limited alternatives.
• Is there a job guarantee (typically the offer of a refund if you don’t have a job in 6 months)? Is that something you want/need from the course? It can either mean that the course has a good network of industry contacts and great career counseling, or it can mean that it’s a certificate mill that just churns people through. 
• Is there a written exam at the end? A portfolio review? Or is the certificate more a record of completion or attendance than of attainment?

UX Training and Certification

These are the courses that offer a UX Research or potentially Interaction Design path to certification. They focus less on developing visual design skills and more on the psychology of interaction, and/or how to measure it.

• School of UX a 5-day intensive intro course. These were in-person based in London, but now are offering as a remote option. No coursework or exam (certificate is for attendance).
• General Assembly UXD course is remote, pre-recorded video-based so you learn on your own schedule. There is no coursework or exam, so this certificate is based on attendance.
• NN/g UX Certificate attend five day-long tutorial sessions from a long list of options. Normally in-person, Nielsen Norman Group have made a big effort to get their live remote conferences running well. Then take five half-hour exams to achieve certification. You can take the tutorials and exams at different times they are offered, until you have the required five. Can focus on a specialty; interaction design, UX management, or UX research.
• HFI Certified Usability Analyst (CUA) You can take the test for $800 but HFI also offer 10 days worth of lecture style content in 4 courses, in-person (currently on hold) or online. This option focuses more on user testing and research techniques. People often put the "CUA" after their name like it's a degree. I don't know why.
• Bentley University UX Boot Camp is a five-day live remote event offered at set times. Certification is based on attendance rather than coursework or exams.
• HFI Certified UX Analyst (CXA) You can take the test for $800 but HFI also offer 10 days worth of lecture style content in 4 courses, in-person (currently on hold) or online. This certification focuses on persuasive design techniques and strategy. It's quite a strange mix of courses. Requires CUA certification.
• NN/G UX Master Certification Like the UX certificate, but requiring 15 one-day tutorials, and the corresponding 15 half-hour exams. No time limit of completing all 15, so you could do it at 3 or 4 NN/g conferences over several years.
• Bentley University UX Certificate is an intensive classroom-based program that takes you through the design process from discovery to (design) delivery. Industry involvement. My understanding is that this has been offered online for a while, so they should have the process sorted out.

UX/UI Training and Certification ("UX Design")

This set of courses tend to cover the UI (user interface) side of things along with the UX (user experience) side. So adding content that talks about the methods and practice of interaction design along with the behavioral side.

• UX Design Institute Diploma in UX Design remote-only over 6 months, offered at set times with coursework and an exam at the end.
• DesignLab UX Academy remote-only over 15 weeks offered at set times.
• CareerFoundry UX Design Program complete this remotely over 5 months full-time or 10 months part-time on your own schedule (pre-recorded video-based lessons).
• Springboard UX Design Bootcamp remote-only over 6 months part time, on a set schedule.
• Bloc Designer Track is a remote-only 8 month part time course on a set schedule.
• General Assembly UX Design Immersive runs over an 8-12 week period. They've always offered a remote version, so this one could work well as a remote-only course.
• Flatiron school UX/UI design bootcamp is in-person only, so they're not running it right now.

Traditional university courses bundled as a certificate

I already mentioned that the university sites seemed designed to frustrate me. Sometimes, like with Bentley, the institution has obviously worked with industry to create a super-practical, work- and employment-focused curriculum that offers practical experience and industry experts. That's why I added them to the section above. Other times, it looks like someone threw a couple of existing degree modules together to create something that covers the main bases.

Do you really want to take a user experience course from an institution with poor user experience?

That's if I could even get as far as seeing a curriculum without entering my details and getting contacted back. Yes, universities are out to make a dollar too and their marketing techniques are from the early 2000s. Do you really want to take a user experience course from an institution with poor user experience?

Some of the courses also have a level of accreditation, because they're offered by accredited institutions. Others don't. But how much does that matter for non-degree programs? It's not clear. The one place where accreditation might help out is if you subsequently decide to pursue a Masters degree. You'll already have some credits towards that degree.

You may have to meet certain residency requirements for a couple of the courses, although most, because they aren't accredited, can be offered to anyone.

This is one situation where I think it's essential that you discover whether this is the first year the course has been offered online, and whether that's just a stopgap measure until campuses re-open. There have been news articles about lecturers struggling to get to grips with virtual courses and some of the institutional software for enabling this is just horrific.

Also, I'm not seeing any reduction in cost compared to the full in-person experience. For this type of institution, I think I'd expect that. Attending a university gives you access to many other facilities; computer labs, library, specialist tools, the whole campus. Taking a course remotely should reflect the reduction in ancillary benefits.

SMU (Dallas), UC San Diego, CA State Fullerton, University of Washington, and Oregon State all have courses that looked OK. There are sure to be others. Cornell, Drexel, and Baltimore also offer programs but no pricing info so no links for you!

Sorry non-USA readers, I just couldn't bear to go global with my analysis.

I also didn't go as far as listing undergraduate degree and masters programs at universities. That's a whole different topic, but if you have the time and money a degree program is another way to get educated (and sort-of certified) in UX. All the same caveats apply.

Certification only (no training)

A couple of institutions and industry bodies offer certification without taking training. If you're already super-experienced this might be a good choice.

• BCS Foundation Certificate in User Experience is offered by the British Computer Society ("The chartered institute for IT" in the UK). They've created a standard syllabus and certification that anyone can choose to teach to, based off the ISO usability standard. One hour, closed book, 40 multiple choice questions, 65% pass mark (£192 or approx. $250). This is VERY basic. They will also later be offering a Practitioner certificate that includes a portfolio review.
• Society of Graphic Designers of Canada will certify individuals based on a portfolio review and annual membership ($300).
• CXPA certification (CCXP). This Customer Experience certification costs $720 for an exam you must take at a third party testing center. Gives you a year's membership too, after which $495. Also requires continuing professional education to maintain certification.
• Association of Registered Graphic Designers will certify individuals based on an 80-minute open book exam and a portfolio review. $550, then $380/yr to maintain.
• HFI CUA (exam only - no training) - this is the exam-only option from the courses described above. $800.
• Neither IxDA (Interaction Design Association) or UXPA (User Experience Professionals Association) offer certification.

If you follow this route, seek out practice questions before you take the exam, and see if you can find at least a glossary or overview of the area produced by the certifying organization so you know what terms they use for stuff that you might know under a different name.

Online training (certificates for course completion)

Are you a self-starter? Can you work independently? Can you set your own schedule? Are you happy with courses that don't have a grade attached to them? Then a learning path comprised of online training courses might be one way for you to learn a whole new set of skills.

More typically, this type of content is great for keeping up to date with a topic area, or for learning a new technique or concept. It's not designed to be an accredited certification of your experiences. The most that these certificates prove is that you watched the course and maybe answered a quiz.

Don't get me wrong - I think this training is great. I create it myself. I wouldn't typically lump it in with the rest of these certification offerings except for the fact that for some people, 1) it might actually be much more relevant, and 2) it's WAY cheaper.

• YouTube is the wild west of course content. Vimeo is slightly better. They are free, but who knows who uploaded it? You might stumble across a gem, or you might end up watching badly produced marginal videos. My tip is to find the Channels for specific conferences you enjoy, and watch the content that they upload. Some starting points might be Mind The Product, UX New Zealand, Clearleft, Webstock, or UXDX. There are many more. This isn't training so much as thought-provoking content from experienced practitioners who can tell you how it really is. I enjoy watching videos from related disciplines to broaden my scope rather than just focusing on pure UX stuff.
• Gymnasium offer free courses in basic UX techniques, with course certificates. The ones I checked out were very well produced - high quality for a free offering.
• The Interaction Design Foundation is a private, not-for-profit company that offers a series of UX and design courses by subscription fee.
• Dr. Susan Weinschenk's company Team W offers three online self-paced training bundles in UX Design, UX Methods, and UX Strategy, at $495 each. They suggest each certificate will take 30-40 hours to complete. There's an exam at the end of each course. One nice added benefit of these is personalized feedback and career advice in email.
• Udemy (per-course charge), Skillshare (subscription), Pluralsight (subscription), and Coursera (subscription) all offer UX courses. Some are great. Some are shaky-cam videos of university lectures in dimly lit auditoriums. Coursera partner with universities to offer certification and even degrees. You can "audit" some of these free of charge, only paying if you want the certification at the end.
• LinkedIn Learning (subscription) provide professionally-produced content recorded in-house from instructors who are vetted for their industry experience. Yes, I'm biased because I have many courses there, but I chose that platform for a reason.
• Several universities have MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) content online - Stanford, MIT, etc. These can sometimes be the shaky-cam university lectures, but at least they are free and from institutions with a pedigree.

Update Feb 2021: I gave in and created a list of the UX courses on LinkedIn that I think constitute a good syllabus for people wanting to get into the field. I added homework assignments and projects too, so that you can gain experience and build your portfolio as you learn. This is entirely self-guided, but it's a cheap, high-quality option. And yes, there is the *option* of certification if you really, really want it.

Helpful? Give me feedback

If you find a course that’s not on this list, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. It probably just means I didn’t find it (I did get pretty curriculum-ed out). Use the courses listed here to compare and contrast against the ones you find. Ultimately, it’s up to you to choose what’s best for you. 

If you think there’s a specific course that I should have added, let me know in the comments. I want this to be a useful resource and for that to happen, I need your help to make it comprehensive.

Of course, this article still doesn’t answer the question of which courses are best received by potential employers. I still want to find that out. I’m just trying to sum up the energy to take on that piece of research. Let me know if you'd find that valuable.