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Visual Elements of User Interface Design

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Visual Elements of User Interface Design

This course is part of UI / UX Design Specialization

Instructor: Michael Worthington

293,774 already enrolled

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4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Beginner level

No prior experience required

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Beginner level

No prior experience required

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Analyze user interface conventions to evaluate structural hierarchies and functional layouts across digital screens.
Apply formal design principles, color theory, and typographic anatomy to articulate clear meaning within an interface.
Deconstruct active elements like navigation, menus, and controls to design intuitive user interaction points.
Synthesize graphic composition rules to construct consistent, functional, and visually unified screen prototypes.

Skills you'll gain

Graphic Design

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

5 assignments¹

AI Graded see disclaimer

Taught in English

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This course is part of the UI / UX Design Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 4 modules in this course

This design-centric course provides a structured, visual communications perspective on user interface (UI) creation. Organized into four key pillars, you will progress from foundational interaction concepts to the formal elements of language, shape, color, and typography. From there, you will analyze active navigational components like menus and buttons before mastering the compositional rules of hierarchy and multi-platform design. Through a series of lectures and visual exercises, you will apply these cumulative skills to design a consistent, user-friendly, static screen-based interface.

Analyze what a digital interface is and evaluate the foundational role a designer plays in its creation. By contrasting a design-centric approach with frameworks focused strictly on marketing or programming, you will establish the baseline principles used to evaluate visual user interface elements.

What's included

10 videos2 readings1 assignment

10 videosTotal 47 minutes

Course Introduction2 minutes
Introduction to Week 11 minute
What is a User Interface?3 minutes
The Relationship Between UI and UX5 minutes
Roles in UI/UX6 minutes
A Brief Historical Overview of Interface Design4 minutes
Interface Conventions: Theory6 minutes
Interface Conventions: Application8 minutes
Template vs Content8 minutes
Aesthetics & Functionality3 minutes

2 readingsTotal 20 minutes

About the course and specialization5 minutes
Interface Conventions: Review15 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 20 minutes

Week 1 Review20 minutes

Examine the foundational formal elements—including language, shape, color, imagery, typography, and icons—that constitute a user interface. You will analyze the overarching questions of content, context, and audience that frame UI/UX projects and define the overall design direction, establishing these core components as the formal building blocks for complex, screen-based visual structures.

What's included

8 videos2 assignments

Transition from static layout components to interactive user interface states. You will evaluate essential navigational conventions—including menus, buttons, and responsive icons—to analyze how a graphic interface functions and responds to user input. By introducing interactivity to static designs, this module examines how the designer directly shapes the interactive user experience.

What's included

8 videos4 readings1 assignment

8 videosTotal 53 minutes

Introduction to Week 31 minute
Static to Active2 minutes
Functionality8 minutes
Speed and Style8 minutes
Composition and Structure7 minutes
Buttons7 minutes
Not Buttons12 minutes
States and Changes8 minutes

4 readingsTotal 80 minutes

Try it Yourself: Define the Interaction15 minutes
Pattern Libraries45 minutes
Designing Better Buttons10 minutes
Try it Yourself: Examine an interface10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 180 minutes

Week 3 Review & Project180 minutes

Synthesize individual interface components into complex layouts, establishing clear visual hierarchy and structural harmony across a design. You will analyze contemporary interface conventions, design cross-screen navigation systems, and build consistent relationships between varied content types. Concluding with a multi-platform approach, this module examines how to adapt variable content for diverse screen sizes and organize complex information into user-friendly structures.

What's included

7 videos2 readings1 assignment

7 videosTotal 41 minutes

Introduction to Week 41 minute
Invisible Complexity: Making a Whole from Many Parts2 minutes
Hierarchy of Content8 minutes
Conventions and Expectations7 minutes
Structure and Grids11 minutes
Platforms and Screen Sizes4 minutes
Putting it All Together: Slice 'n' Dice8 minutes

2 readingsTotal 25 minutes

Try it yourself: UI Inventory20 minutes
Next Steps5 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 180 minutes

Week 4 Review & Project180 minutes

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Instructor

Michael Worthington

8 Courses1,215,981 learners

Offered by

California Institute of the Arts

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Frequently asked questions

To complete the assignments, you will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with graphic layout software installed; proper interface design work cannot be completed on a smartphone or tablet. Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) software is recommended, though alternative layout tools can be used. Please note that beginner-level knowledge of layout software is expected, as software mechanics are reviewed but not explicitly taught in this course.

This course brings a design-centric approach to UI/UX design from a visual communications perspective, rather than focusing on marketing or programming alone. It is the first course in the UI/UX Design Specialization and is ideal for:

Visual and graphic designers who have some foundational experience and want to build their technical skill set in UI or UX for app and web design.

Front-end or back-end web developers who want to sharpen their visual layout, design principles, and analysis skills for user interfaces.

Human-computer interaction (HCI) practitioners or students looking to strengthen their visual design foundations from an artistic perspective.

To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.