In my journey to find out more about different areas of the tech world I completed a number of easy access online courses.
I began at FutureLearn which has a great number of short, online courses on a huge range of topics. I have currently completed:
Introduction to Cyber Security – The Open University
Digital Skills: Digital Marketing – Accenture
Digital Skills: User Experience – Accenture
Each of the courses was a great introduction to the area but the User Experience course piqued my interest the most so I looked around for other introductory courses.
Through an online search, I came across Career Foundry and completed their seven day short course. This left me wanting to know more but not yet ready to take the step to pay a lot of money for a longer, more intense course. Coursera was also mentioned to me as a good starting place. After having a look, I signed up for another free course; Introduction to User Experience Design by Georgia Tech. This course focused around a four step design process (requirements gathering, designing alternatives, prototyping and evaluation) along with some related techniques. This was a much deeper look at the design process and, although it used a lot of new terminology, was accessible enough for someone with no experience in the area to understand. It also provided lots of links to additional reading around the different parts of the course.
I am now hoping to start the Treehouse Techdegree program on UX design, starting with the free trial to see how I get on!
Hannah Belshaw 