Things I Wish I Know or I do Before Enrolling Google UX Design Professional Certificate in Coursera

4 min readMar 17, 2022

After enrolling Google UX Course in Coursera for four months and ending up in course five (Which consists of seven-course) in this certificate program, I learn some things the hard way. I write this, so you do not end up making the same mistakes as I did.

Taking Notes. My bad. I need to take more notes while joining this certificate program. There are a lot of UX resources that Google provides. Link after link, reading after reading. You can only remember it if you take note of it. Some people even write in the medium as their notes. It could be your note and proof for the hiring manager. How good is that?
Documentation. My bad. I need proper documentation. Documentation is important. You will have many assignments, most of which are important. My bad. I should have saved all of them properly. First, it would be hard for your study case, which is one of the last course’s five assignments. Second, it would be hard to gather it all for your study case in case you want to apply for a job. It will be needed for your portfolio. In my case, I still can gather some, but not all of them. I am really disappointed with myself. I do believe I can do better in the next study case because we will have three study cases once we finish the certificate program.
Not Writing Earlier in Medium. You will have many readings and many external links (Other than in Coursera) to read in this certificate program. I wish I had written in Coursera with all of the loaded information that I received, and it’s a lot of it. But gladly, I know how to regain that information, open my bookmark or google it. Google knows better.
Watch Many Figma and Adobe XD tutorials. This is not what I wish. Otherwise, I did this. I was already keen on the UX field before I took this certificate program. So I have already watched so many tutorials on Youtube. It helps a lot with the assignment, especially in courses 5,6 and 7 when you need to make a case study and you do need to design in Figma and Adobe XD. As for Adobe XD, I even enrolled in a paid course in Indonesia. It is called Dumet School, a school for web design, internet marketing, and graphic designer. I took the web design program, actually. Before that, I learn about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc., before knowing that I am not really into it. But, gladly, one of the courses is UI/UX, and they teach in Adobe XD. I already took that course, so it is easier with the assignment. If you want to enroll in this google UX certificate program, you should watch many tutorials on Youtube and implement them in your assignment. Because I see some of the students who do UX design in this google UX certificate program doing terrible design (Sorry to say, even though I am not an official designer yet).
Join Google UX Design Group on Facebook. It does help a lot. I didn’t join them at the beginning when I took this certificate program. I think I will join them after the first two courses. Many people there are willing to help with your assignment, review your design, help with your surveys, or just share about burnout and craziness about your daily life while taking the course. It is an absolutely amazing community. Join them is the best decision to make while taking this certificate program.
Taking all the courses altogether with the financial aid program. Yes, I am taking financial aid. Why? Do I need to explain? Well, maybe a bit. First, I do not have a job. Second, I don’t have revenue. The thing when you take the financial aid is you need to wait 15 days until they approve it. After the first course finish (Remember, it have seven different courses), I need to wait 15 days before my second financial aid is approved. It is like 15 days wasted of waiting. It will be easier to just apply for seven of them, having it all open to enroll and just finish it all just like that. Imagine if you wait 15 days for each course, it will be 15X6 days wasted in your life of waiting. If you are not taking financial aid, it’s good, which means life is good to you. Just don’t read this point, lol.

After all, taking this certificate program is the best decision in my life. I want to be a UX designer, maybe with a little bit of coding. I do believe I can pursue my dream, and you can do it too. Follow for more UX design learning material.

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