Differences between UX Classes and UX Certificate programs
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Differences between UX Classes and UX Certificate programs

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by Jennifer Smith
Differences between UX Classes and UX Certificate programs

American Graphics Institute offers both individual UX courses as well as a UX certificate program. Both of them are ways to learn about user experience design, yet they are different programs, and serve the unique needs of individuals at different stages of their careers. To address questions about these programs, this describes the differences between UX classes and UX certificate programs offered at AGI.

UX Classes

Individual UX classes are regularly scheduled public courses designed for professionals that want to gain essential UX skills. These are short-term, high-impact UX training programs, and help get someone up to speed on user experience skills needed for their role, or to brush-up on best-practices for leading design and development projects that include UX components. The Introduction to UX Design Principles course is the foundation of all the UX courses offered at American Graphics Institute. As a licensed school, American Graphics Institute provides a certificate of completion for participation in this course.

UX Certificate Program

The UX Certificate program at American Graphics Institute is for a design or development professional looking to obtain a wide range of the skills needed for a career in a user experience design role. This is a state licensed certificate program with 11 UX classes and 84 class hours required to receive the certificate. Although there are some UX courses that are only available as a part of the certificate program, the UX certificate curriculum starts with the Introduction to UX Design Principles course. This specific course can be taken on its own, or as a part of certificate program. If the course is taken independently, the course can later be counted towards the certificate program.

Who attends UX training

The individual user experience courses are popular with a wide range of professionals, ranging from existing UX managers, UX designers, UI designers, along with developers, product managers, and business analysts. While some graphic designers who are looking to make a switch to a UX design role participate in the individual courses, most individuals who are looking to make a transition to a UX career opt for the complete UX certificate program. The UX certificate provides a more comprehensive set of training for individuals seeking to start work in a UX design role. Similarly, existing UX and UI designers who have not had formal training both benefit from the more comprehensive UX certificate program course of study.

About the author

 is a user experience designer, educator and author based in Boston. She has worked in the field of user experience design for more than 15 years. She has designed websites, ecommerce sites, apps, and embedded systems. Jennifer designs solutions for mobile, desktop, and iOT devices. Jennifer holds a Master of Science (MS) degree in Human Factors in Information Design, a Bachelors degree with a concentration in Commercial Art. When not teaching at American Graphics Institute, Jennifer Smith is an adjunct professor at Boston University.

Jennifer delivers UX training and UX consulting for large Fortune 100 companies, small start-ups, and independent software vendors.She has served as a Designer in Residence at Microsoft, assisting third-party app developers to improve their design solutions and create successful user experiences. She has been hired by Adobe and Microsoft to deliver training workshops to their staff, and has traveled to Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and across the U.S. to deliver courses and assist on UX design projects. She has extensive knowledge of modern UX Design, and worked closely with major tech companies to create educational material and deliver UX workshops to key partners globally. Jennifer works with a wide range of prototyping tools including XD, Sketch, Balsamiq, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blend for Visual Studio. She also works extensively in the fields of presentation design and visual design.

Jennifer is also an expert on Photoshop, digital image editing, and photo manipulation. Having written 10 books on Photoshop, and having consulted and provided training to major media companies and businesses around the globe.

Jennifer is the author of more than 20 books on design tools and processes, including Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies, Adobe Creative Cloud Digital Classroom, and Photoshop Digital Classroom. She has been awarded a Microsoft MVP three times for her work with user experience design in creating apps for touch, desktop, and mobile devices. Jennifer holds the CPUX-F certification from the User Experience Qualification Board and assists others in attaining this designation in leading a UX certification course at American Graphics Institute.