User experience, or UX design, plays a pivotal role in the success of digital products. In this era of eight-second attention spans, it is crucial to provide user-friendly and seamless digital experiences. This has led to an increase in demand for user experience design jobs.
So, why not jump on the bandwagon of this growing human-centered design industry and land a lucrative design job? Read our article to find top UX design projects that will help you kickstart your professional journey. We discuss the best projects for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners to master UX design.
5 Skills That UX Design Projects Can Help You Practice
Practice, practice, and more practice. That is the key to getting good at anything you do, including user experience design. Below are the top five skills that you will work on when you take on some of the UX design projects on this list.
- Visual design. A major component of UX design is the different graphic elements that make up a web page. This means you need to master web page typography and color to become a successful UX designer.
- UX research. UX research is often undertaken by a UX researcher. However, depending on the size of the organization, this task may fall under the purview of the UX designer. UX research involves interviewing users to collect data that helps improve a product. Data analysis and problem-solving skills are essential for effective UX research.
- Wireframing. Wireframing refers to the process of creating drawings and outlines that give you an overview of the whole product. A wireframe is essentially a guide that you can follow throughout the project, so it is important that you know how to create one.
- Prototyping. Creating a functional and aesthetically pleasing prototype is also part of the job of a UX designer. Some of the intermediate and advanced project ideas on this list require you to build a prototype.
- UX copywriting. The art of UX copywriting involves creating concise and clear SEO-friendly copy that helps transform visitors into users. As a UX designer, this skill will increase your value tremendously.
Best UX Design Project Ideas for Beginners
Below are the best UX design project ideas for beginners. These project ideas are appropriate for learners with a foundational understanding of design principles, interactive design, visual design, and user experience analytics. The projects in this section will test your visual design, product usability, and copywriting skills.
Write Copy for a Contactless Dining App
- UX Design Skills Practiced: UX copywriting, customer journey mapping
Despite popular belief, copywriting isn’t just used in sales and marketing. It also has applications in the UX design industry. Practicing UX copywriting is a great beginner project that tests your understanding of customer journey maps and UX problem-solving skills.
In this project, you will write copy for a contactless dining app. You will practice writing the text that will be displayed by the app, including the About and Checkout pages. The goal of this project is to write UX copy that encourages customers to use the food delivery app.
Produce a UX Case Study
- UX Design Skills Practiced: UX research, UX case study
Human-centered design is crucial for an optimal app experience. UX designers analyze user stories and use their findings to create a customer-friendly design. In this project, you will conduct foundational human-centered research on The Home Depot mobile app and produce a report with suggestions to improve it.
This project is perfect for those who wish to develop their skills in putting together UX case studies and conducting usability tests. Your report should include a problem statement, user stories, and a section highlighting the constraints and scope of the current app design.
Whiteboard UX Design Exercise
- UX Design Skills Practiced: Wireframing, UX case study
The goal of this project is to create sketches and wireframes for an app that helps customers find the style of jeans they are looking for in the right size. You will also create a UX case study that you can showcase in your portfolio.
This project can be great practice for your next job interview. Candidates for UX positions are often tested with whiteboard challenges during which they are presented with design problems. The goal of this type of exercise is to see how the candidate tackles a problem and to gain an insight into their thinking process.
Create a Company Logo
- UX Design Skills Practiced: Visual design, brand marketing
To complete this project idea, sign up to The Daily Logo Challenge website. You will start receiving daily logo challenges. The design requirements will vary depending on the prompts but be sure to add visual elements that match the industry in which the company operates. This is a great project to add to your portfolio because it showcases an understanding of branding. It is best suited for UX designers looking to practice foundational visual design skills.
Sharpen Design Challenge
- UX Design Skills Practiced: UX design, product design, UI design
Sharpen is a site that provides free design challenges for fledgling professionals. It gives you access to mock design briefs that you use to practice your skills in fast but effective sessions. Challenge examples include creating a scheduling application for a news station or designing a virtual reality website or a data tool for a restaurant.
Best Intermediate UX Design Project Ideas
These intermediate UX design project ideas are for entry-level UX/UI designers or product designers looking to climb into senior UX design positions. For these types of projects, you need a good working knowledge of UX tools, UX design, UI processes, and design methods.
Design a Landing Page
- UX Design Skills Practiced: UX design, visual design, call-to-action buttons, UI design
Your challenge with this project is to create a landing page with a minimalist design that helps generate leads and convert visitors into customers. It is the perfect project to showcase your visual design, UI design, SEO, and UX copywriting skills.
Make sure that the final product includes prominent call-to-action buttons. This project is a great addition to your portfolio whether you are a UX designer, UI designer, digital marketer, SEO professional, or website designer.
UX/UI Design for a Healthcare Management System
- UX Design Skills Practiced: UX design, UI design, UX copywriting
This is a great project for those looking to enter the design field in the healthcare industry. You will work on a healthcare management app, writing UX copy for the about section and the call-to-action buttons.
You will also conduct UX research, create wireframes, and work on various visual design components. This is a great opportunity to learn more about user flow, design systems, and product architecture.
UX/UI Design for an Ecommerce Site
- UX Design Skills Practiced: Wireframes, typography, visual design, UX design, user flow, UI design
As online shopping continues to grow, demand for UX and UI designers in the ecommerce space is skyrocketing. This project is a great way to showcase your website design skills and your understanding of the ecommerce sector.
In this project, your mission is to create a UX/UI design for an ecommerce site that specializes in road bikes. You will begin by sketching out the user flow and the architecture of the site using wireframes. Make sure to include home, sign-up, login, and checkout pages. Next, choose an attractive color palette. The last step is to create a high-fidelity mockup design.
Create a User Persona
- UX Design Skills Practiced: User persona creation, UX research, visual design
The UX design process revolves around an ideal user, also known as a user persona. In this project, you will use a template to help you create a user persona. The resulting profile should include an image of the user as well as a bio. You also need to include the goals and pain points as well as behaviors, attitudes, opinions, and motivations of this hypothetical user.
UX/UI Design for a Digital Marketing Agency Website
- UX Design Skills Practiced: UX design, UI design, visual design, typography, SEO, UX copywriting
Knowledge of digital marketing and branding tactics can only boost your career as a UX designer. This project will improve your understanding of these critical subjects and help you diversify your portfolio.
In this project, you will create the different visual elements of a website for a digital marketing agency. Among other things, you will come up with a color palette and typography that matches the agency’s brand. UX copywriting and SEO skills are required to complete this project as is knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and Figma.
Best Advanced UX Design Project Ideas
Below are the best advanced UX design project ideas you can use to showcase your expertise in wireframing, prototyping, user flow, Agile, UX architecture, user research, and usability testing.
Design an App Using Dovetail
- UX Design Skills Practiced: UX research, usability testing, user interview analysis, human-centered design
The goal of this project is to become acquainted with Dovetail, a popular UX cloud research software and a way to store your research finding in a single location. You will use Dovetail’s repository as a solo researcher and incorporate user interview analysis and usability testing analysis into the design of a social media app.
UX/UI Design for a Music App
- UX Design Skills Practiced: Visual design, UX copywriting, UX design, UI design, mobile app design
UX design plays an important part in creating responsive mobile applications. In this project, you will design a mobile app for a music streaming service using a UX/UI kit. This is a fairly complex project that requires wireframing, website design, and dashboard design skills. You will design the welcome, landing, and music identifier pages as well as the music genre menu. Aim for a minimalistic design with highly visible call-to-action buttons.
App Information Architecture
- UX Design Skills Practiced: Information architecture, UX research, usability testing, visual design, card sorting
If you want to pursue a career in information architecture, this project is for you. You will use Adobe XD to create an app with optimal information architecture. This idea is great for those interested in visual design, information design, interaction design, and user needs. It also involves UX research, user interviews, card sorting, usability testing, and contextual inquiries to organize information on your app.
Build a Prototype with Sketch
- UX Design Skills Practiced: Wireframing, UX prototyping, visual design, UX research, information architecture
In this project, you will use the popular UX prototyping program Sketch to build an interactive prototype. To complete this project successfully, you will have to use several features, tools, and plugins, including Sketch Cloud, Craft, and Anima. This is an advanced UX project that requires an in-depth understanding of wireframing, information architecture, usability testing, Agile methodologies, and visual design.
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Build Software From Scratch Applying UX Design Methods
- UX Design Skills Practiced: Agile project management, UX research, software development, UX design
The objective of this project is to integrate UX design methodologies into the software development process. You will build an app or website from the ground up, starting with the different stages that the UX design process involves.
Once you’ve completed all UX-related tasks, you will apply backend, front end, and software testing skills to finish the app. You will also need to learn Agile project management for a smooth development process.
UX Design Starter Project Templates
UX design starter project templates help you kickstart your project by giving you a foundation that you can build upon. Below we show you some popular templates you can use for your UX design projects.
- UX Project Plan Template. This is a great option for newbies looking for an efficient way to organize a project. It will help you map out your project and guide you throughout the development.
- UX Research Brief Template. This is another handy resource for UX designers. It comes complete with commonly used pages such as About the Client, About the Project, Project Goals, Target Audience, and Project Timeline.
- Persona Template. If you need help creating a user persona for your UX research and design process, we recommend using this template. It will assist you in creating a user persona that is in line with your business goals and target audience.
- User Flow Template. A crucial step in the UX design process is planning user flows. This template provides an example of a user flow plan you can use for guidance.
- Usability Testing Plan Template. This template breaks down the steps involved in conducting a usability test.
Next Steps: Start Organizing Your UX Design Portfolio
If you want to land a UX researcher, UX/UI designer, or UX copywriter position, having a well-organized digital portfolio is essential. Below, we give you a few tips to ensure that your portfolio makes you the top candidate for any user experience position.
Show Off Your Best Work
The process of putting together a stellar portfolio begins with selecting your best work. Choose the two or three projects that you are most proud of and make them front and center of your digital portfolio by giving them as much visibility as possible. You may want to group them under a page called Top Projects or My Best Work.
Diversify Your Portfolio
As a UX designer, you draw from several disciplines to create successful product designs and must develop expertise in everything from visual design to UX research to copywriting. Your portfolio should reflect this breadth of knowledge so make sure to also include projects that focus more on other UX design skills such as research, prototyping, and copyediting.
Add Certifications
Your digital portfolio should most certainly include a page on certifications and credentials. It is on this page where you will list any design-related certificates and degrees. This is also an excellent place to display any bootcamp training you may have. If you have attended a web design bootcamp, make sure to add it as well. Any bootcamp projects you complete should be featured on your portfolio.
UX Design Projects FAQ
What are some UX design project ideas?
Good UX design portfolio projects include creating a user persona, writing UX copy for an app, designing a landing page that effectively converts visitors into users, and building a prototype using Sketch.
What are some UX design skills?
Some essential UX design skills include wireframing, visual design, prototyping, UX research, user interface design, and UX copywriting skills. You can master these skills by working on a real project such as developing an app.
How long will it take me to learn UX design?
Learning the basics of UX design can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. However, mastering these and more advanced concepts and reaching a professional level can take years. If you are just starting out, you can learn the fundamentals in online courses or by enrolling in online coding bootcamps such as Springboard or General Assembly.
How much do UX designers make?
According to PayScale, a user experience designer earns an average salary of $75,336. Top earners can see salaries as high as $109,000.
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