Master UX/UI Design

Learn what personas are and why they matter. Create a persona for a side project you have.

Map the user journey for signing up to one of your own apps. Identify every touchpoint and emotion.

Conduct a 15-min usability test — ask a friend to use one of your projects while you observe silently. Take notes.

Review your usability test notes. Identify 3 pain points. Sketch solutions by hand.

Card sorting, site maps, navigation patterns. Learn the structures behind great navigation.

Restructure the information architecture of a project you've built based on user mental models.

Blank-page recall of the full UX research process. Review Week 3 laws.

When to use each. Sketch 3 wireframes by hand (paper + pen).

Convert your paper wireframes to Figma low-fi wireframes.

Interactions, transitions, smart animate. Follow along with a tutorial.

Build an interactive prototype for a checkout flow (3-4 screens).

Show your prototype to someone. Note where they get confused. Iterate.

Components, variants, tokens in Figma. The building blocks of scalable design.

Recreate a simple component library from memory in Figma. Review Week 4.

Use your own app with a screen reader for 10 min. Feel the friction firsthand.

Contrast ratios, focus states, semantic HTML, ARIA roles. The developer's a11y toolkit.

Audit one of your projects with an accessibility checker. Fix 3 issues.

Test your designs with a color blindness simulator plugin. Adjust as needed.

Redesign a form to be fully accessible (labels, error states, keyboard nav).

Find 5 accessibility failures on popular websites. Document each with the WCAG criterion it violates.

Write the full accessibility checklist from memory. Review Week 5. Checkpoint: can you wireframe a 3-screen flow in 10 min?

Pick a popular app (Spotify, Notion). Screenshot 5 screens. Annotate what works and why using UX laws.

Find a "bad" app on your phone. Identify 5 UX problems. Map each to a violated UX law.

Redesign the bad app's worst screen in Figma. Focus on layout and hierarchy first.

Polish your redesign. Share with a design community for feedback (Dribbble, Reddit r/UI_Design).

Study 3 case studies on Behance or Case Study Club. Note the structure.

Mix it up: do a typography exercise, then a layout exercise, then a UX law quiz. 10 min each.

Review Week 6 accessibility notes. Rest and let your brain consolidate.

Pick a real project you've built. Screenshot the current UI. List 5 things to improve.

Pick colors, fonts, spacing scale, button styles for the redesign.

Wireframe the redesigned key screens (paper or Figma).

Create a polished high-fidelity mockup of screen 1.

Complete screens 2 and 3 of your high-fidelity mockups.

Build the improved UI in code. Ship it. This is where design meets development.

Write a mini case study: problem, process, solution, result. Review Week 7.

Loading states, hover effects, transitions, feedback animations. Why details matter.

Analyze micro-interactions in Stripe, Linear, Vercel. Record what you notice and why it works.

Add 3 meaningful micro-interactions to your Week 8 redesign.

Empty states, error states, edge cases — the unsexy screens that define UX quality.

Design empty states and error screens for your project. Make them helpful, not just pretty.

Random practice: pick any 3 topics from Weeks 1-8 and do a mini-exercise for each.

Checkpoint: look at any UI and articulate 3 specific improvements with reasoning. Review Week 8.

Choose: redesign a real app or design a "wish-it-existed" app. Define the problem it solves.

Create your user persona and map their journey through your solution.

Sketch wireframes on paper. Focus on information architecture and user flow.

Define site map, navigation structure, and content hierarchy.

Convert paper wireframes to digital. Get feedback from 1-2 people.

Refine wireframes based on feedback. Validate the flow makes sense.

Define your visual language: colors, typography, components, spacing for the capstone.

Build the first high-fidelity screen. Apply everything you've learned.

Continue building high-fidelity mockups. Maintain consistency with your style tile.

Complete remaining key screens. Focus on edge cases and empty states.

Start building an interactive prototype in Figma. Wire up the main flow.

Finish prototyping. Add transitions and micro-interactions.

Test your prototype with 2-3 people. Take notes on confusion points.

Iterate based on usability test feedback. Polish the final design.

Write up your capstone: problem → research → design → test → results.

Review all Week 1-3 notes. Spaced repetition: ~Day 84 review. How much do you remember?

Quiz yourself on all UX laws. Write from memory. This is your final retrieval challenge.

Set up an ongoing practice: Daily UI Challenge or daily design critique.

Identify 3 areas to deepen: motion design? design systems? UX writing? Plan your next learning sprint.

Sign up on ADPList for mentorship, r/UXDesign, or a local meetup.

Review your Day 1 screenshots vs. now. See how far you've come. You did it.