Review: UXTraining.com

This is a review of uxtraining.com’s online UX design training program. This is part of our series of reviews of online UX courses.

Update – January 2019: This review was first posted in 2015. This course has been updated in the meantime and is now a university-accredited diploma, with pricing changed accordingly.

You may also want to check out our comprehensive list of online UX courses.

Course Information

• Hosted by: uxtraining.com
• Presenter: Colman Walsh
• Length: 7 hours worth of videos at the time of publishing (with more videos being added on an ongoing basis).
• Intended Audience: Pretty much anyone and everyone! From those who are just starting out in UX all the way to experienced professionals looking to build upon their skillset.
• What You’ll Learn: A solid foundation in multiple facets of UX, with just the right amount of detail, all reinforced with real world case studies. You will walk away from this one with practical and useful ideas that will support your development as a UX professional regardless of what stage you’re at in your career and best of all – you can revisit the content when you need to.
• Assumed Knowledge: None.
• Price at time of review: €29 per month when paying on a month by month basis. Annual and corporate rates also available.

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Review

Let’s get one thing straight before we begin: this is not a review on a training course.

Seriously. UXtraining.com offers so much more than one single course – it offers an entire resource library of more than 100 (and growing) UX training videos that you can watch anytime and in any order you please. And it’s freakin’ awesome.

The very first video in this impressive library sets the scene and provides a super quick (and super helpful!) overview of what you’re in for. It’s worth watching because it includes tips on how to get the most out of the videos.

As for the videos themselves, there’s some seriously good quality content here. It’s well researched and concepts are reinforced with relatable (and often hilarious) real world case studies. This training also consistently provides the viewer with good  examples of tools to use and further reading resources including books and well written articles.

One thing that really stood out for me with these videos was the way some of the training included a video within the video. Sounds weird but it totally works! When you’re watching it, you feel like you’re actually in a classroom with the presenter (Colman Walsh) and then he’s like ‘ok lets watch a quick video’. These Inception-esque videos add value and support the point he’s trying to make – they’re not just there because he can’t be bothered talking.

We’re all pretty time poor these days and UXTraining.com seems to get this. The training videos are served up as easily digestible bite-sized pieces with most coming in at under 10 minutes each – I watched some on my phone during my lunch break!

The topics are also chunked up in a logical and straightforward manner with labels that sit firmly in the what-you-see-is-what-you-get camp! This makes it super easy to jump to the topic you’re after and get to the good part.

The Presenter

The training videos on UXTraining.com are presented by owner and founder, Colman Walsh. From the very first video, it’s very clear that Colman has a lot of experience in facilitation and training. He’s engaging, he’s very well spoken and his tone and pacing makes for an enjoyable learning experience. He also comes across as knowledgeable and authoritative without being patronising- there’s nothing more annoying than a presenter who talks to you like you’re stupid and there’s none of that going on here!  

The Website

I did run into a few issues when navigating around the website. Once I logged in, I could not find my way back to the content that I saw on the homepage. Clicking on the logo essentially refreshed the page I was on (the dashboard with the videos) and the same thing happened when I selected ‘Online Training’ in the footer. You might think that since I’m logged in (therefore have already signed my life away) I don’t need to see the general information on the homepage, but what if I wanted to explain what it is to someone else? There were sections of this review that I couldn’t complete without logging out and I honestly shouldn’t have to do that. Don’t get me wrong here- this is an incredibly valuable resource! The website just needs a little more refining to improve the overall experience.

Extras

Live chat Q&A

According to the website, there’s supposed to be a Q&A session once a month but I struggled to find it over the course of the 2+ months that I had access. I think I read somewhere that UXTraining.com would send an email to invite me to a session but that email never came.

Facebook page

UXTraining.com has a Facebook page that Coleman himself is quite active on. I’m not a big Facebook user, but I can see why it was chosen. It’s a closed group and serves as a place where you can share articles and discuss ideas with other students. It works quite well and there’s always something new to have a read of.

Download materials

Under the ‘Welcome and introduction’ section, not only did I find the welcome video (as one would expect) I also found a handy download option that gave me a reading list of blogs and books – awesome!

Pros

• You don’t have to follow the structure of the course – you can come and go as you please and watch the videos that you need to when you need to
• It’s a library rather than a course with a set number of videos so it’s always growing and there’s always something new to learn
• Content is high quality, well presented and backed up with solid references and case studies
• The presenter is exceptional

Cons

• The elusive monthly live chat session that I was never able to locate; and
• The website could use some improvement

Summary

In summary, this course rocks. If you are a UXer that has always felt insecure when it comes to your coding knowledge, put aside a few weeks over Christmas and take this course. You’ll come out feeling confident and ready to put your newly learned skills to the test.

• Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 9/10
• Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 9/10
• Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 9/10
• User Interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 9/10
• Overall rating: 9/10

Exclusive deal for UX Mastery readers!
Receive a 30% discount by using the discount code: mastery30

Take this course.