Are you looking to do the Google UX Certification for your career progression and still thinking whether it will help to make you stand out of the league of other engineers?
In this post, I will discuss Is Google UX Certificate is Worth it? I will be sharing my experience and let you know the pros and cons of these certificates.
The Google UX certificate is possibly the most talked-about UX certificate of all time, owing to the fact that it comes from the world’s most powerful I.T. business, Google. It’s also been trained by Google employees. Is it worthwhile, and should you enroll in 2021?
What is Google UX Certificate?
To give you a quick rundown of the Google UX course, it is a Coursera-hosted course. It will take around six months to complete. That is how long most people will take to finish it.
Because it is one large course divided into seven smaller courses, you will need to complete seven separate smaller courses to complete the UX certificate. During the course, they will largely be using Google tools such as Google Docs to document your UX process, as well as Figma and XD.
Figma and XD will also be covered in this session. Figma will be utilized for high-fidelity designs such as app designs, while Adobe XD will be used for responsive web design.
This course covers not only the UX design process, but also soft skills such as job preparation, interview preparation, and what you’ll need to be a great UX designer.
The Google UX certificate is made up of video lectures, real-world assignments that must be submitted on time, short quizzes, surveys, and exercises that you must complete on a regular basis. It also entails receiving and acting on Coursera team comments.
So, if you send in an assignment, they’ll offer you comments, and you’ll try to improve it. The course itself is in English, and there are no subtitles available. There is a distinction to be made here: this Google UX certificate is a Coursera certificate hosted by Google, not a Google-only certificate.
This course has one of the top ratings on Coursera, thus I’d conclude that people prefer this course to others. You’ll have four weeks to cover one section of the curriculum or one part of the course because the curriculum is separated into distinct weeks.
The first is your UX fundamentals, and after that, they cover the complete UX design process, which includes design thinking. Now, for those of you who are wondering who the instructor is, there will be many instructors teaching you different aspects of the course.
Most of these instructors are well-read and speak clearly, so you won’t have any trouble understanding what they’re saying and won’t need to go over the material again and again to get the concept.
That was a quick rundown of the Google UX certification.
Of course, you can learn more about it on their website and on other media sites where they have extensively covered this course; you can gain a thorough understanding of it before diving in. However, several advantages and disadvantages are not included on most of these websites.
Of then, why would Google inform you that the course isn’t up to par? Only an outsider’s perspective can tell you whether something is good for you or not.
Pros of Google UX Certification
Let me list down the Pros of the Google UX Certification below. The things that I liked about the course.
- They’re not utilizing a lot of jargon, so only a few technical terminologies will be used throughout the session. To begin with, they sought to make it straightforward and easy to grasp for newcomers. As a result, for a beginner, this is the ideal course to start with.
- I like how simple the course information is to grasp before you start. Seeing such a long course structure might be very daunting at times. However, they’ve made it appear so simple over the top that it’ll start to look easier once you get into it.
- It’s one of the most cost-effective courses offered by such a reputable firm. The typical cost of a certificate course is between $500 and $1000. You’re not making a one-time payment, and all you’re getting from Google is a UX design course. You can take any other course once you’ve gotten into the Coursera environment. But if you can’t afford the $200-$300, which I believe some people can, you may apply for financial aid, which means they will either give you a substantial discount or make it absolutely free for you.
- I was blown away by the presence of a community section. Yes, they have a discussion board. You may message people directly, which is unusual given that most other paid courses just offer recorded videos and materials. Despite this, they lack a strong community on their site.
- Another advantage is that they also help you get started with Figma and XD. Their only requirement is that you have no prior knowledge of UX or UI. You’ll have no trouble picking things up, whether it’s utilizing a tool like Figma or XD or grasping the foundations or terminology of UX, even if this is your first time looking at a course.
- In addition, unlike many self-paced courses, this one includes submission deadlines. So, if you’re taking the first part of the course, you’ll be required to submit specific assignments by a certain date, which is always listed at the top of the dashboard. This way, you can keep track of what’s going on while also motivating and inspiring you to meet your deadlines. So, if you’re paying for it, odds are you won’t back out after a specific period of time. Again, I believe it is an excellent technique to encourage individuals to complete job on time.
- The soft skills are the final and most important benefit. They also educate you how to communicate with individuals, such as product managers or other designers, how to communicate with your interviewer, and how to comprehend the job market and the UX design business in general. Most self-paced courses do not cover all of these topics, and even if they do, they just skim the surface. They have a module that covers all of these soft skills, which I greatly appreciate.
Cons of Google UX Certification
Now let me list down the cons of Google UX Certification. The thing that I did not like and things that can be improved in the future to make this course worthier.
- The first disadvantage is that it is extremely googly in nature. The essential idea is that when they teach you something, it’s not from the perspective of a generic UX designer; it’s from the perspective of the Google environment. So anything they’re doing at Google will be taught to you from that perspective, and believe me when I say that not everyone works like Google. There are numerous distinctions between a startup and Google, or between huge local and multinational enterprises such as Google.
- Also, a short reminder that they will be utilizing Google technologies to the greatest extent possible. Things like Google Docs and Google Notes will be used throughout the course, which I don’t believe is a negative thing considering Google is used by a lot of businesses. However, there may be a change in nature for those that like Microsoft.
- This class has been recorded. It already has everything you need. As a result, many people who enroll in the course will find that it is not arranged according to their preferences. It’s organized around what UX designers should be learning or studying, as well as how they should be studying, which varies by country. All of Google’s UX designers have already logged all of this information for you, so they will not be speaking with you face to face. If you have any queries for the mentors, the prospects of getting answers from them are slim, given that there are hundreds of thousands of people enrolled in the course right now. As a result, the personal touch that many people thrive in will be missing. This is a significant drawback when compared to other courses where you might be taught by a coach through Zoom or Google Meet. The thing about such courses is that they’re geared toward beginners or those who only want to cover the basics till they can acquire a basic internship or employment. They don’t always go into great detail about distinct ideas like user research or usability testing. They’re focusing on the fundamentals, on what’s required rather than what’s most advantageous. The necessary things may not always be beneficial to every organization or every student in his profession. So, in this scenario, I’d have to deduct points because they don’t go into great detail about each mechanic, in terms of UX or UI design.
- After the course is completed, it is completed. It’s finished once you receive the certificate. There’s a good chance you’ll cancel your subscription, stop paying Coursera, and stop checking out the material. So, if you want to be a member of a community, or form a WhatsApp Group with a large number of people, this isn’t the place for you. It does have community elements, but they are only available if you subscribe to a Coursera course. There is no lifetime access, no lifetime assistance, no postgraduate support, and no postgraduate counseling. It’s just that you finish the course and that’s it.
Shoud you do Google UX Certification?
If you think that the above-mentioned pros outweigh the cons then you should definitely pursue this course. And in that case, It will be beneficial as well.
I’d say it’s not a significant concern for most people, but for anyone who feels lost after taking this course, there’s no way to go back and seek help.
Another disadvantage I see with this is that most of the instructors aren’t professional instructors. This is more of a personal issue for me.
So, I’m sad to report, they might be reading from a script or a teleprompt in front of them, but I believe an instructor teaches best when he has some teaching experience. Most of these Google UX designers may not be capable of becoming excellent teachers, and this is just my perspective.
I, for one, have learned through time and do not hold the educators responsible for this. I believe they should have received some instruction or mentorship training before jumping on board with this.
Conclusion
So here’s my final assessment, or my own judgment on whether or not you should take this course. This is the greatest place to start if you are a newbie with little to no experience of UX and UI and want someone to teach it to you in a way that is both understandable and affordable.
Again, you must approach this course with the mindset that this will be your first important move. There will be numerous additional steps. You’ll need to gain experience, complete internships, and possibly take a few more courses before you get the hang of it.
But if you can get beyond those thoughts and the disadvantages I just outlined, and you’re serious about learning something new, regardless of whether it’s from Google or someone else, this is a course you should take.
In most circumstances, I don’t believe that reviews lie, and even if you look at the negative reviews or the reviews with fewer stars, they’re not criticizing the course, they’re criticizing certain aspects that they didn’t like. It wasn’t a criticism of the course; rather, it was an admission that “OK, this is something that didn’t suit us personally.”
I went over the entire course, including the structure, material, curriculum, and everything else, and I think this is a great place to start. This is the place to go if you have no idea what you’re doing and want to learn a lot about the design process, how it works, and have the confidence that you’re learning from Google employees.
That is a major deal for a lot of people, and I understand why. In this scenario, Google has that trust that they would produce quality content, and they have in most cases delivered on that trust. So, on a scale of one to five stars, I’d give it a solid four out of five. I’m deducting one star for all of the drawbacks I mentioned.
These were my thoughts at the time. These were the viewpoints of other students. If you have any personal experiences with this Google UX certificate, please include them in the answer box so that other people who want to take the course or who might decide to do it today can learn everything they need to know before starting.
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