Why This Mini-course?

Hi! I'm Caleb Peterson, a frontend developer and Certified Usability Analyst.

User Experience design seemed almost magical to me when I first encountered it.

As I worked alongside some extremely talented UX designers, and did a lot of reading, I began to realize that, like quality software development, the field of UX design has patterns.

Although there is no substitute for directly talking to your users to understand their terminology, mental model, and expectations, there are some heuristics and best practices which can be quickly applied to take the rough edges off of any application.

The best part is, these fundamental practices are universally applicable!

A great User Experience has always been important. In the age of web apps and app stores when the competition's offering is literally a click away, UX is now a powerful differentiator!

Nathan Barry's email marketing platform has absolutely taken off over the last 6 months. Partially due to a branding focus on a large and growing group of "creators". But also due to a sizeable UX advantage over many of its competitors.

— First Issue of the Exploding Topics Newsletter