How can I learn UX/UI design?

I’ve been designing for 2 years — here’s what I wished someone had told me about learning UX design when I was first starting out. I strongly believe that you don’t need an expensive course or a degree for this.

Here’s a no-BS guide with 8 tactical steps to become a UX designer:

  1. Learn technique by copying
    - Download Figma
    - Screenshot your favorite web/mobile app
    - Recreate 1–2 screens in Figma
    - Use Figma’s help center & Discord if stuck
    - Design 50 screens this way.

    In my first few years as a designer, I ended up doing 75 projects. You'll stumble but will build stronger technical abilities than most university grads.
  2. Mock projects
    - Generate a prompt at sharpen.design
    - Give yourself 3-7 days to attempt it
    - Google each stage of the design process; spend 1 day applying each stage (eg: research, ideation, prototyping, etc)
    - Document everything & present in a Notion doc
    - Get critiqued on it at the end of the week (see Step 3 below)
    - Complete 10 mock projects

    This is an upgrade from the first step, you will now start applying the technical skills you formed above.
  3. Weekly design critiques
    - Go to ADPList website (100% free; I’m not paid to recommend it)
    - Schedule calls with 'entry-level' designers (2-3 yrs of exp)
    - Ask for a design critique on 1 project every week
    - In the call, share your challenges
    - Repeat *every* week

    You can't design in a void, you need real-world feedback and this is how you get it.
  4. Actively train your design eye
    - Every day, pick a design category (eg: logo design)
    - Browse 10–15 designs in this category (on Behance, Dribbble, 99Designs)
    - Spend 1min on each piece and put it into 'good' or 'bad' design category + note why

    This will help you start developing an intuition for what good & bad design means.
  5. Passive design inspiration
    - Increase the surface area to get design inspiration
    - Replace your Chrome new tab with Panda plugin
    - Sign up for curated design newsletters (eg:     uxdesignweekly.com)
    - Pay attention to design choices around you (eg: in a grocery store)

    This will help you get design inspiration which you will in turn apply to weekly projects.
  6. Watch YouTube videos (30 mins/day)
    Find good design content on YouTube. Search:
    - Recorded talks from old conferences (eg:     youtube.com/c/WeAreDesignX)
    - Mock design interviews (eg:     youtube.com/watch?v=E8HJLU)
    - Design vlogs or critiques

    Immerse yourself in all things design.
  7. Real-world projects
    Once you've done 10–20 mock projects and gotten critiques on it, it's time to apply your learnings:
    - Email local NGOs to volunteer free design help (website upgrade, logo, etc)
    - Check 99Designs, Upwork, etc for small projects
    - Participate in hackathons
    - Do this for experience & learning, not money
  8. Find community online
    - Join Slack communities (    designerslack.community)
    - Attend free design events online
    - Find good designers on Twitter and ask them questions, etc

    The goal is to meet like-minded people at a similar stage, and to learn + grow with others.

That’s it. If you follow this process rigorously for at least 3 months, you will sky-rocket in your ability to think, design, and iterate on your craft. After that, I’d recommend looking into:

Hope this helps! :)