Free course, 4 chapters, 27 lessons

Free UX Course: Skills that AI cannot replace

AI already makes the screens. It cannot tell you who they are for, what they actually do, or why the good-looking one still fails. That judgement is the job now, and it is the part nobody is automating.

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The fundamentals

The elements and principles of design, with real interfaces as examples. Balance, contrast, emphasis, hierarchy, white space, Gestalt and more. Free to read, in any order, no course required.

Proportion Principle of Design
Design Fundamentals

Proportion Principle of Design

What proportion means in design, how size and visual weight relate, and how to use scale to guide attention. Clear examples from apps, posters and architecture.

7 min read

  1. 11 Gestalt Principles of Design
  2. Alignment Principle in Design: Importance & Examples [Infographics]
  3. Balance Principle of Design
  4. Color Harmony in Design: What the Color Wheel Says, and What People Prefer
  5. Color Theory in Design
  6. Contrast Principle of Design
  7. Emphasis Principle of Design
  8. F-Pattern vs Z-Pattern: How People Scan Pages, and Which to Design For
  9. Gestalt: Closure
  10. Gestalt: Common Fate
  11. Gestalt: Common Region
  12. Gestalt: Continuation
  13. Gestalt: Figure-ground Relationship
  14. Gestalt: Proximity
  15. Gestalt: Similarity
  16. Gestalt: Symmetry
  17. Hierarchy Principle of Design
  18. Kerning vs Tracking vs Leading: The Three Kinds of Space in Type
  19. Law of Prägnanz: Why the Eye Takes the Simplest Reading
  20. Legibility vs Readability: What distinguishes them?
  21. Line in Design: Types & Examples
  22. Movement Principle of Design
  23. Negative Space vs White Space
  24. Pattern in Design
  25. Point in design
  26. Proportion Principle of Design
  27. Repetition Principle of Design
  28. Rhythm Principle of Design
  29. Rule of Thirds: What is it and how to use it?
  30. Scale in Design
  31. Texture In Design: Types & Importance
  32. The 11 Principles of Design and Art
  33. The 60-30-10 Rule in UI Design: How to Split Your Colors
  34. The 7 Elements of Design and Art
  35. The Golden Ratio in Design: What It Is, and Where It Actually Helps
  36. Typeface vs Font: What Is the Difference, and Does It Still Matter?
  37. Types of Grids in Design: Manuscript, Column, Modular, Hierarchical and Baseline
  38. Uniform Connectedness: Why a Line Can Group Things Better Than Space
  39. Unity Principle of Design
  40. Variety Principle of Design
  41. Visual Weight in Design: What Makes One Thing Feel Heavier Than Another
  42. Wabi-sabi: Exploring the Design Principle of Imperfection
  43. White space in Design

All 80 articles

Why this exists

I started this site in 2019 as bestDesignTrend, mostly to write down answers to design-tool problems that were annoying to find. Readers kept asking to be taught UX instead, so the writing moved to the foundations: the elements and principles of design first, then the mindset that separates UX from UI.

AI can produce screens, personas and research reports in seconds. It cannot tell you whether any of it is true. That is the whole reason the course exists. Knowing what frustrates people, what moves them toward a milestone, and what they keep coming back for is learned, not generated.

Everything here comes out of working product design, with real interfaces as the examples. Nothing is gated and nothing is for sale.

Shirish ShikhrakarUX Engineer and Designer

Free course, 4 chapters, 27 lessons

Become the person in the room who understands the user when everyone else is guessing.

Design for what people do, test your ideas before you build, interview people, and turn what you learn into decisions.

  1. 1Design for behaviour, not screens
  2. 2Find out if you're wrong, before you build
  3. 3Ask what happened, not what people want
  4. 4Turn notes into decisions
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