User Interface Design for Real Apps
Like Duolingo, but for User Interface Design for Real Apps. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
76 levels across 8 sections, about 152 minutes end to end, roughly 30 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Designer's Eye, Understanding the Human User, The Skeleton of the Screen, Visual Language and Style, Interaction and Feedback, The Prototyping Workflow, Testing and Refinement, and Professional Practice. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in User Interface Design for Real Apps
- Affordances are inherent properties
- Signifiers highlight affordances
- Button shape suggests use
- Importance of signifiers
- Affordances exist without labels
- Affordance vs Signifier relationship
- Identifying affordances
- Distinguishing signifiers
- Feedback must be immediate to be effective
- Mapping is the spatial relationship between a control and the thing it controls
- Affordances are the inherent properties of a UI element
- Feedback bridges the gap between a user's action and the system's reaction
- Controls should mimic the physical layout of the objects they affect
- Distinguishing between an affordance and the signifier that highlights it
- A lack of feedback leads users to repeat actions unnecessarily
- Good mapping reduces the mental effort needed to operate an interface
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives User Interface Design for Real Apps the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When a designer adds a small icon to a button, what is that visual mark called?
Get it right to open this lesson and 75 more in the app.
Where User Interface Design for Real Apps takes you
Master the art of creating intuitive, beautiful, and functional digital experiences. From psychological principles to professional prototyping, learn how to build interfaces that users love and developers can actually build.
- 1
The Designer's Eye
- Seeing the Invisible Interface
- The 'Don't Make Me Think' Mindset
- 2
Understanding the Human User
- Empathy and User Research
- Mapping the User Journey
- 3
The Skeleton of the Screen
- Layout and Grids
- Visual Hierarchy
- 4
Visual Language and Style
- Typography for Screens
- Color Theory and Application
- Iconography and Imagery
- 5
Interaction and Feedback
- Navigation Patterns
- Forms and Data Entry
- Motion and Micro-interactions
- 6
The Prototyping Workflow
- From Sketch to Wireframe
- High-Fidelity Prototyping
- 7
Testing and Refinement
- Usability Testing
- Heuristic Evaluation
- 8
Professional Practice
- Accessibility and Inclusion
- Design Systems and Handoff
- Ethics and Dark Patterns
8 sections · 19 units · 76 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
User Interface Design for Real Apps is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start User Interface Design for Real Apps today.
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