Frequently Asked Questions

Don't worry if you missed the course. We will re-run it shortly. One of the reasons we continually open and close courses is in order to control the classroom size.

Networking is a large part of our value proposition, so we want just the right number of people inside the courses. That is also why we display the "XX % percent booked" on our course icons.

No. You can set your own study schedule. There are no "live sessions" since we have members from all timezones around the world. We are a truly global community.

Thus, once you are enrolled, you can take all the time to complete a given course. Every "classroom" in each course will never close, so you’ll have permanent access to your classmates and your course material (as well as your own answers).

The Professional membership doesn't have requirements, and any person interested in becoming a member can purchase it. The Student membership is available for only full-time students at a school, college, or university.

As a student member, you'll receive the very same benefits as you would with a Professional membership - except for 2 things:You will appear as a "student" to the other members. If you want to use your membership to network and get a job, we suggest you go for the Professional membership. You can take a maximum of two courses at the same time. You can still take all courses you want during your membership period, with no extra charges – as long as you finish or drop them so that you don’t have more than two courses going on at the same time.

Yes! Once you have paid for your membership, you can take as many courses as you would like with no additional cost. No hidden fees—just pure learning and networking.

We’re a community and not a money machine. And, yeah, we hate hidden fees just as much as you do!

Start Learning

Yes. You will get a digital industry-recognized course certificate every time you complete a course. Certificates never expire and can be saved as a .jpg file, so it's easy to be shared. Also, there is no limit to how many certificates you can earn during your membership.

You can see an example of a Course Certificate at the bottom of the Course Catalogue.

We accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards—both debit and credit cards. Depending on your country, you should be able to use your debit or credit card to pay through PayPal checkout (even without having a PayPal account).

If you want to take courses just for yourself, then you’ll need an individual/professional membership, not a company membership. Company memberships are only for groups of people within the same company.

Yes, our course material is 100% online and self-paced. However, there are many ways in which the IxDF's UX design training can be applied on-ground too. For example, we offer group exercises inside each of our courses to learn from and with your peers. 

Additionally, our discussion forums enable members to engage with a worldwide community of design professionals, fostering a deeper understanding of our content and addressing real-world business challenges. You'll also have the opportunity to participate in local meet-ups held in over 450 cities, and you're welcome to host one yourself!

We provide courses for all levels of mastery and across the full spectrum, whether you're an aspiring designer, an experienced designer, or a professional looking to implement design principles in your work.

Our beginner-level courses provide a good refresher for seasoned designers—while the advanced ones will present new insights and a bit of a challenge to your current design thinking process.

Best-rated beginner design courses:

1. AI for Designers

2. Perception and Memory in HCI and UX

3. Human-Computer Interaction: The Foundations of UX Design

4. User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide

5. Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman

Best-rated advanced design courses: 

1. Conducting Usability Testing

2. Mobile UI Design

3. UX Management: Strategy and Tactics

4. Agile Methods for UX Design

5. Mobile UX Strategy: How to Build Successful Products

You will need approximately 5-8 hours to complete one lesson. Each course has between 3 and 16 lessons.

Once enrolled in a course, you will gain access to a new lesson each week, which you are free to complete without any deadlines and no end date, either.

Absolutely! Among many other perks of being part of our community, IxDF members also get to avail a whopping 90% discount on our monthly Master Classes hosted by UX experts. Aspiring designers use these wonderful resources to stay current in the UX industry. Check out our upcoming and on-demand masterclasses here: https://www.interaction-design.org/master-classes

Furthermore, we’ve partnered with the popular UI/UX design tools to give our Members exclusive discounts and you can learn more about it here: https://www.interaction-design.org/product-partners

Don't worry, we're always happy to help! If you deleted your IxDF membership by mistake and would like to reactivate your account, please send a quick email to [email protected] and our Support Team will do their best to sort this out for you.

Many exciting things are coming at the IxDF and this is the perfect time to join our ever-growing UX community. We continuously expanding our course catalog and library of UX resources to support our learners. We also run special promotions/campaigns throughout the year, so keep an eye on our social media channels or send an email to our support team at [email protected] to see if there are any special deals/discounts offered at the moment of your visit.

1. Go to the Edit Your Profile page.

2. Scroll to “Account Information.”

3. Click “Change password.”

Alternatively, you may simply change your password here.

You can find your invoice(s) in the Personal Billing tab.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to add your Interaction Design Foundation course(s) to your LinkedIn profile: 

1. Log in to your LinkedIn account, then go to your profile.

2. Below your profile description, click on the button Add profile section, choose Recommended and then select Add license or certification.

3. In the following fields add: 

• Name – Course name

• Issuing organization – The Interaction Design Foundation

• Check the field “This credential does not expire”

• Issue date - Input the date written on your certificate (e.g., May 2021)

• Credential ID – Your membership ID number – it's written on your certificate. (For non-members, you can leave this field blank or, if you prefer, insert the certificate ID, which can be extracted from the certificate link. This ID will begin with "mcc_" and be followed by a string of numbers and letters.")

• Credential URL: Input the certificate URL provided on your course page

4. Click the Save button. 

Congratulate yourself! Earning the certificate is a great accomplishment and now you can share it with the world! 

Congratulations—you graduated! To upgrade to professional membership, click the button "Change membership type" in the tab "Personal billing" of your profile page.

We send you an email with the login link about 3 seconds after you have successfully paid. Can’t find the email in your Inbox?

• Did you sign up with another email address?

• Did you check your Spam folder?

• Use Gmail? Then also check the 'Promotions' tab.

Pro tip: To whitelist our email address, move one of the emails sent from IxDF to the Primary Inbox Tab in Gmail.

If you still cannot find it, you can always get your account info resent to you by contacting [email protected].

Yes! You can buy a membership on behalf of someone else like a friend, colleague or family member through our “gift of learning” option, here: https://www.interaction-design.org/gift-of-learning

To gift a membership, fill in the necessary details: both your information and the recipient's (name and email address) and proceed to payment. You'll get an email confirmation with your invoice, and the recipient will be notified via email about their new IxDF membership, including steps to set up their account. It's a straightforward way to share knowledge with someone in your circle.

Gifting education is a meaningful way to support someone's growth. We hope this option helps you share the value of learning with others!

When you enroll in our Student Membership, you will be asked to verify your student status. This process is simple and straightforward!

You will see an orange banner in your account that says “Please verify your student status now” Click here to start the verification process; you can also click here: https://www.interaction-design.org/profile/student-verification. It will take you to the same page.

You will be taken to a page where you have to fill out the School name and expected graduation date. Here, you can upload a picture/document that proves you’re a student of this school. Any document that states this will be accepted! Examples of this are: Your student ID, acceptance letter, or class schedules.

After filling out the information and uploading the picture/document, just check the box that says “I hereby declare that the above information is true” and click “Verify student status.”

You’re all set! Our team will review your documentation shortly. If the documentation is rejected (this rarely happens, as any type of document that proves you’re attending your school is accepted), you can verify the status again!

Certificates for membership and courses are generated using the name you entered when you created your IxDF account.

To change the name on your certificate, go to your private profile and click on Edit profile. Update your name as it should appear on your certificate.

Once done, your certificate will be updated automatically within 48 hours.

As a member of IxDF, you can earn an extra free month on your membership by inviting a friend to sign up using your unique code. Your friend will get 2 months off of their membership too!

We accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards—both debit and credit cards. Depending on your country, you should be able to use your debit or credit card to pay through PayPal checkout (even without having a PayPal account).

Your bank is probably blocking the transaction for security reasons because we’re based in a different country.

Simply call your bank to check if the "overseas charge" has triggered the security system and blocked the transaction. You can request that your bank approve the transaction before making another attempt.

If you’re still unable to process your card payment, please let us know at [email protected].

With a Professional membership, you can take as many courses as you would like at no additional cost. For example, if there are over 40 active courses, you can enroll in all of them at the same time and move from one to another as you like.

With a Student membership, you can take a maximum of two courses at the same time. You can still take as many courses as you like – free of extra charges – just as long as you finish (or drop them) so that you don’t have more than two ongoing courses at any one time.

There are no "live sessions" since we have members from all time zones around the world. We are a truly global community.

Once you’re enrolled, you can take all the time you need to complete a given course. Every ‘classroom’ in each course will never close, so you’ll have permanent access to your classmates and your course material (as well as your own answers) for as long as you have an active IxDF membership.

Don't worry if you miss the course. We will re-run it shortly. One of the reasons we open and close enrollment is to control the classroom size.

Why? Networking is a large part of your learning journey, so we want just the right number of people inside the courses. That’s also why we display the "XX% percent booked" on our course icons.

If it’s very important that you enroll now, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected].

Course certificates will be given to members when they have scored 70% or more of the total course points.

There is no specified time for certificates to be awarded. Instead, they are given to members at no extra cost as and when they have answered all questions, even if this is long after the official end date of the course.

Your answers will be graded by our experts and course instructors (not by machines) approximately two weeks after you submit your work.

We mark/grade in so-called "sprints." This is much more efficient than doing little batches every day. It's part of our lean/agile work philosophy, and this is one of the factors that keeps our membership prices so low.

No, you’ll not be locked out of any lesson or course. You’ll have access to all course materials throughout your membership, so there is no pressure to keep at the same pace as the specified lesson release dates.

Sticking to a schedule has its benefits. When you follow along with other members, you can reap the benefits of our online community, ask questions, and exchange ideas. This has the potential to accelerate your learning.

Course certificates will be given to members when they have scored 70% or more of the total course points.

There is no specified time for certificates to be awarded. Instead, they are given to members at no extra cost as and when they have answered all questions, even if this is long after the official end date of the course.

We provide courses for all levels of mastery and across the full spectrum, whether you're an aspiring designer, an experienced designer, or a professional looking to implement design principles in your work.

Our beginner-level courses provide a good refresher for seasoned designers—while the advanced ones will present new insights and a bit of a challenge to your current design thinking process.

Best-rated beginner design courses:

1. AI for Designers

2. Perception and Memory in HCI and UX

3. Human-Computer Interaction: The Foundations of UX Design

4. User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide

5. Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman

Best-rated advanced design courses: 

1. Conducting Usability Testing

2. Mobile UI Design

3. UX Management: Strategy and Tactics

4. Agile Methods for UX Design

5. Mobile UX Strategy: How to Build Successful Products

Yes! Everyone's learning journey looks different, and we encourage you to continue learning and improving your progress. To retake a course, just follow these steps:

Before you start, please note that when you drop a course, you’ll lose your progress and any answers you submit. We advise that you screenshot or save any of your answers you'd like to reuse.

1. Go to your profile and click on the course you'd like to retake.

2. Underneath your progress bar, you'll see UX Courses’ with an arrow (>) pointing to the course landing page

3. Click through to the landing page and scroll down to the bottom. Tap the red button that says, ‘Drop my course now.’

4. Head back to our UX Courses page and re-enroll yourself in the course.

You're all set to try again!

In some cases, we can open lessons for members who are retaking a course so that they don't have to wait for familiar lessons to unlock each week. If you'd like us to do this, please let us know at [email protected].

Course lengths vary to fit your schedule, so you can squeeze in short sessions daily or dive deep in longer bursts—whatever fits your busy life. Course lengths vary to fit your schedule, so you can squeeze in short sessions daily or dive deep in longer bursts—whatever fits your busy life. You can also see a rough estimate of how much time you would spend on learning in the course outline before enrolling.

Once enrolled in a course, you’ll gain access to a new lesson each week. You’re free to complete the lessons without any deadlines or end dates.

If you need to unlock lesson content sooner, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected].

After you pay for your membership, you can take as many courses as you want with no additional costs. There are no further charges on top of the membership fee.

Start Learning

1. Get approval from your manager (e.g., using the email template below).
2. Pay with your credit card (either your own or your corporate credit card).
3. Your invoice will be ready instantly — and we can modify it to meet your manager's requirements.
4. Our 14-day money-back guarantee protects you and your manager.

1. I can enroll in all the IxDF’s self-paced, online courses (in my spare time), which will help me complete current projects with better results.
2. I can network with peers from all over the world and find out how others have addressed issues we are currently facing.
3. I will be able to continuously educate myself on UX topics through the IxDF's courses and eBooks. 
4. Because of the breadth of educational materials, I will learn how to solve specific design problems.
5. I want to offer to share the key takeaways from the courses with my team.

Don't worry if you miss the course. We will re-run it shortly. One of the reasons we open and close enrollment is to control the classroom size.

Why? Networking is a large part of your learning journey, so we want just the right number of people inside the courses. That’s also why we display the "XX% percent booked" on our course icons.

If it’s very important that you enroll now, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected].

Absolutely! The IxDF is founded on principles of open content, and you are more than welcome to use our data. For us, it's a matter of making research accessible.

Just remember to place a link to our site — that's our only condition.

Take a Screenshot — with a PC

• Use the PRT SCR or PRT SC button to capture the screenshot.
• Open Paint (or in early versions of Windows MS Paint).
• Click CTRL + V to paste the screenshot into Paint.
• Save the screenshot in Paint.

Note: You can use any art package on your PC instead of Paint if you wish. We have chosen Paint because it comes as a standard part of the operating system.

Take a Screenshot — with a Mac

• Press Command + Shift + 3 to take a screenshot.
• The screenshot is saved on the desktop as a .PNG file.

Use the Snipping Tool — on a PC

• Search for ‘Snipping Tool’ inside your computer.
• Press ‘New’ (see screenshot below).
• Your screen will freeze and you’ll be able to select the area that you want to create an image from.
• Once you've selected the image, select File > Save As to save what you’ve captured as an image.

1. Click the Insert Image button on the header row of the discussion comment box.
   
2. Either drag the file to the Insert Image box or click "Choose File" and select the file from your local drive.
   
   

No, there's no limit! Feel free to invite as many friends/colleagues/acquaintances as you’d like via our Refer-a-friend feature.

All you need to do to refer someone to the IxDF is go to your profile, and click the “Refer A Friend” tab.

You’ll see a text saying, “Share your referral link.” Copy that link, and share it via social media or send it directly to interested recipients.

When people you refer sign up and stay on the platform past 14 days, rewards automatically get added to your account. You can stack as many of these up as you like. It’s a win-win!

You can track your referral performance and rewards on your Refer a Friend page in your profile.

We've decided to put the IxDF Bootcamps on hold in order to turn our focus toward our core platform.

Our annual Memberships and Master Classes are the beating heart of our community, and tens of thousands of our existing members have reached their learning and professional goals via our platform. But we wanted to push the envelope to help even more people. And that's exactly what we'll be doing.

Everyone at the IxDF is fully committed to supporting our flourishing community and helping your design career reach new heights. That's why we've decided to invest in our best, most accessible, most democratic products: so we can create a design community that includes everyone.

And we hope you’ll join, too. It’s going to be a fantastic ride.

If you still have questions, don't hesitate to reach out us at [email protected].

No, there's no limit! As long as you keep sharing your unique referral URL, and people from your network keep using it to join our community, you'll earn a commission on each successful referral.

Our free cancellation period is 14 days from the date a person signs up for a membership. Therefore, if someone cancels their membership within 14 days of signing up, you will forfeit the referral commission you earned from that person. However, if the person cancels their membership beyond 14 days since signing up, you'll still get to keep your referral commission!

It's super simple to do! Just follow the steps below:

Step 1: Navigate to your EP Panel via your profile.

Step 2: Scroll down to the section “Help Your Readers Understand a Topic” and click the blue button, “Let the IxDF Bot help you”.

Step 3: Copy/paste your blog/website's URL into the input field and hit “Next”.

Step 4: Check the suggestions from the IxDF bot. You can grab the link to our topic definitions pages via the “Copy link” function. The links will already include your unique referral code.

Step 5: Add the backlinks (our topic definitions pages with your unique referral code) to your article/blog/website, and start the process over using a new URL.

Your referral code is the last bit of information you can find at the end of every IxDF URL when you’re logged in to your IxDF account. 

It reads: 

…ep=example-name

As long as you’re logged into your account, all IxDF links will contain your unique referral code. With your referral code attached to the links you share, you will have a cookie that lives for up to 2 years. If any member of your audience clicks on that link and subsequently signs up with us, you will earn that commission from that person.

If your available commission is over $100 USD, then you can request your payout at any time whether that’s weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. 

Our finance team pays commission requests every Friday.

Let’s say you offer your audience a 10% discount. For example, if a Professional Membership is $100 USD, then your audience would only pay $90 USD.

If someone signs up using your link, you would then earn a 20% commission from the $90 USD paid. So you’d earn $18 USD for that successful sign-up! Pretty neat, eh?

The more you link and share our free videos and articles, the more you can earn in passive income!

Some other IxDF EPs include:

- UX Pin

- UXness

- UX Planet

You can make payments using Visa, Mastercard, and American Express (accepted in all countries except India).

We also offer payment options through PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Amazon Pay in select locations.

For large accounts, we can send an invoice via email, which your finance team can pay through a regular bank transfer. For more information on this, please contact us at [email protected].

No problem at all. Even after setting up your Company Membership, you can assign new Supervisors and Coordinators and add new members whenever you want — Feel free to send an email to [email protected] and we will happily walk you through the process!

For Company Memberships, the unique dashboard provides the assigned Supervisors and Coordinators with an overview of the progress of all enrolled employees, including:

• Total number of seats used

• Total accumulated learning hours

• Total course enrollments and completions

• Total of how many members have enrolled in local groups

Additionally, the built-in leaderboard shows the rankings within your team or enterprise on:

• Total learning hours

• Total course points

• Total course completions

For a more in-depth view of a member’s progress, a detailed dashboard allows Supervisors and Coordinators to see per-member learning hours on a weekly basis and in total. The advanced dashboard also details course enrollments and completions.

Supervisors and Coordinators can additionally check the compliance of members and their activity level through course certificates and distinctions.

Supervisors and coordinators cannot read the individual course answers submitted by an employee, or see their day-to-day progress in a given course, but the result of their activities, i.e. course certificates and distinctions, is always visible on the dashboards.

To get the best benefit from a Company Membership, you should sign up at least 5 colleagues. However, the minimum number of people for a Company Membership is 2.

If multiple colleagues have existing individual memberships within our community, we can easily merge these accounts into a Company Membership – just reach out to us at [email protected] to set this up for you.

As soon as your Company Membership is set up, you can assign roles with admin rights (Supervisors and Coordinators), who can use the comprehensive dashboard to:

• Add more colleagues to the Membership

• Promote any enrolled colleagues to roles with admin rights

• Remove colleagues from the Membership if they leave your enterprise or switch roles within teams

• Manage all billing activities — e.g., add or delete a payment method

Furthermore, you can send us an email at [email protected], and we will help you with any aspect of your account.

Yes, our course material is 100% online and self-paced. However, there are many ways in which the IxDF's UX design training can be applied on-ground too. For example, we offer group exercises inside each of our courses to learn from and with your peers. 

Additionally, our discussion forums enable members to engage with a worldwide community of design professionals, fostering a deeper understanding of our content and addressing real-world business challenges. You'll also have the opportunity to participate in local meet-ups held in over 450 cities, and you're welcome to host one yourself!

During training at the Interaction Design Foundation, we design courses that encourage you and your colleagues to complete exercises within the context of your current work, rather than relying on ‘textbook examples’. This way, our training material constantly pushes members to apply new-found knowledge to daily business challenges. 

Every Company Account is entitled to priority support. Please feel free to reach out to our support team for assistance in addressing billing and membership queries, as well as for valuable tips to optimize your membership.

Sure, we will provide you with many resources to keep all enrolled members motivated and on track with their respective agendas. Your Supervisors and Coordinators will have visibility into the progress of every enrolled employee, eliminating any uncertainty about individual learning journeys.

Depending on your organization's goals, we will be able to suggest a learning path that caters to your training objectives. We focus on learning paths that accommodate all your colleagues, even if your team has the most diverse cross-functional roles. 

Throughout your membership, you will also be advised if any new courses suit your objectives. 

Furthermore, every enrolled member has unlimited access to all Interaction Design Foundation courses, so you can rest assured that learning is limitless. 

Unfortunately, no. 

User profiles and progress are not transferable within Company Memberships, meaning that when a single user is signed up within such a membership, they are enrolled for a year. You will also not be able to remove a member in order to “free up” a space for another colleague. In other words, one user’s yearly access to courses cannot be used by multiple people. 

With the incredible savings you obtain from the Interaction Design Foundation’s flat-fee pricing, it still remains highly cost-effective to add new users individually to your membership. Get in touch with us to find out how. 

As much time as you need. After you and your colleagues enroll in a course, a new chapter is released every week, but there are no deadlines or course end dates, so you can complete any course at your own pace. Your courses won’t get in the way of your busy schedule, and vice versa.

Company memberships have three roles: Learner, Supervisor and Coordinator. What you can do in a Company Membership will depend on the role assigned to you. 

• Learner: Can enroll in courses and use the platform normally. They don’t have any administrative rights and occupy a seat. 

• Supervisor: Can enroll in courses and use the platform normally. They do have administrative privileges and also occupy a seat. 

• Coordinator: This role is solely for admin purposes. They cannot enroll in any courses, and they do not occupy a seat. 

For a comparison chart, you can check the image below:

When you remove a member, The member will receive a very polite email from our member support staff saying that their account has now been detached from your company account. In the email, we will also explain that the member will now continue as an individual member. This means that the given member will be able to continue the membership uninterrupted—if they wish. At this point, the member can also choose not to renew the individual membership and thus leave the Interaction Design Foundation altogether.

If you are a Supervisor or Coordinator in a Company Membership, you can promote (or demote, add or remove) other members of the account. Regular members (Learners) of a Company Account cannot perform these tasks.

As a Supervisor or Coordinator, that member will be able to perform the same administrative tasks as you—for example, promote, demote, add or remove other members of the Company Membership.

After you demote a member, they will become a regular member of your Company Membership. That member will no longer be able to perform administrative tasks.

We will send a polite email to inform the person about the change of status.

For Company Memberships, the unique dashboard provides the assigned Supervisors and Coordinators with an overview of the progress of all enrolled employees, including:

• Total number of seats used

• Total accumulated learning hours

• Total course enrollments and completions

• Total of how many members have enrolled in local groups

Additionally, the built-in leaderboard shows the rankings within your team or enterprise on:

• Total learning hours

• Total course points

• Total course completions

For a more in-depth view of a member’s progress, a detailed dashboard allows Supervisors and Coordinators to see per-member learning hours on a weekly basis and in total. The advanced dashboard also details course enrollments and completions.

Supervisors and Coordinators can additionally check the compliance of members and their activity level through course certificates and distinctions.

Supervisors and coordinators cannot read the individual course answers submitted by an employee, or see their day-to-day progress in a given course, but the result of their activities, i.e. course certificates and distinctions, is always visible on the dashboards.

Unfortunately, no. 

User profiles and progress are not transferable within Company Memberships, meaning that when a single user is signed up within such a membership, they are enrolled for a year. You will also not be able to remove a member in order to “free up” a space for another colleague. In other words, one user’s yearly access to courses cannot be used by multiple people. 

With the incredible savings you obtain from the Interaction Design Foundation’s flat-fee pricing, it still remains highly cost-effective to add new users individually to your membership. Get in touch with us to find out how. 

Company memberships have three roles: Learner, Supervisor and Coordinator. What you can do in a Company Membership will depend on the role assigned to you. 

• Learner: Can enroll in courses and use the platform normally. They don’t have any administrative rights and occupy a seat. 

• Supervisor: Can enroll in courses and use the platform normally. They do have administrative privileges and also occupy a seat. 

• Coordinator: This role is solely for admin purposes. They cannot enroll in any courses, and they do not occupy a seat. 

For a comparison chart, you can check the image below:

The major difference is that with the Design League you will have a personal coach. Your coach will help you:

• Set your learning objectives so that you would gain more value over a shorter period of time.

• Boost your career by building a solid professional portfolio and reaching out to the right audience.

• Like the Student and Professional memberships, the Design League also gives you unlimited access to all our courses and textbooks.

Some of the reasons to work with a coach are:

• Something urgent, compelling or exciting is at stake (a challenge, stretch goal or opportunity)
• A gap exists in current knowledge, skills, confidence or resources
• A desire to accelerate results
• A lack of clarity with the choices that need to be made
• Success has started to become problematic
• Work is out of balance, creating unwanted consequences
• Core strengths need to be identified, along with how best to leverage them

• Discover, clarify, and align with what you want to achieve
• Encourage your self-discovery
• Elicit your own generation of solutions and strategies
• Hold you responsible and accountable, for both your achievements and areas requiring improvement

• Study their profiles. Check their areas of specialization, native language, time zone, and availability. Choose those who seem to fit well with your preferences and life schedule.
• Look for stylistic similarities and differences between yourself and the coach, and how these might support your growth as an individual or the growth of your team, for example.
• Discuss your goals for coaching within the context of the coach's specialism or the coach's preferred way of working with an individual or team.

• Open your profile by clicking the “Profile” link on the Interaction Design Foundation navigation bar.
• Click the “Interaction Design Foundation Design League Control Panel” link at the top of your profile page.
• On the Interaction Design Foundation Design League Control Panel, scroll down to the “Choose Your Activities" section.
• Explore available activities and courses to get an idea of what you could do. Take note of those that might be of interest to you.
• Talk to your coach to discuss your goals and the upcoming actions that you are plan to take in order to achieve them.
• Open each activity that you have decided to perform, and then click “Save to my activities” button.

• Training courses and self-study materials that you might benefit from
• Certification targets and requirements
• Preparation of articles and conference talks
• Project and professional activities personally recommended for you
• Targeting specific job positions or employers and meeting corresponding requirements
• Positioning and pitching yourself as a professional within the industry

Technically, we do not limit the number of times you can change your coach. However, if you want to change to a second coach within a single month, we highly recommend contacting us before doing so. This may mean that you are having difficulty selecting a coach that meets your specific needs. In this case, you might benefit from our advice.

The IxDF Local Group Initiative is run in line with our Mission Statement — educating, stimulating, and inspiring the global design community. The goal is to create vibrant local groups all over the world where people frequently meet up with great interactions. 

As a Country Manager, your role is to support Local Leaders in keeping their Local Groups active and thriving. You’ll assist Local Leaders by answering their questions, concerns, and doubts. The Country Manager should also collate and filter this feedback and report it to the Continent Manager. This also includes reporting ideas for smart work processes, better document templates, better email notifications, improvements to the Local Group Management Interface, more automatization, etc.

Sometimes you might notice a group’s activity level drop, in which case you would ensure that the Local Leader is supported and working to restore a high activity level. You can also help the current Local Leader select a co-Local Leader—or find a suitable replacement.

Another exciting aspect of being a Country Manager is periodically connecting with your community via your newsletter. Every 3 to 6 months, you’ll write to the Local Groups community sharing success stories and updates to foster a sense of union within the community.

Your time investment is small—about 1-2 hours a week—but your impact is huge!

Welcome to IxDF Local Groups—we’re happy to have you here.

Inspired ideas, meaningful conversations, and a ton of learning opportunities await you. You may even meet your future employer, employee, client, or friend. Only you can set your limits.

Why wait another minute longer, it’s time to dive into your very first local meetup. Upcoming events are visible in your Local Group's calendar. But if waiting for the next event feels unbearable (we love the enthusiasm), why not create a meetup and invite people from your Local Group?

Go to your Local Group's page, scroll down, and click the blue "Create a meetup to meet other designers" button. You can set up an "Online Hangout," a "Cozy Meetup," or a "Large Meetup." Pick the event that best suits your style.

One last tip: Keep an eye out for upcoming events delivered to your inbox.

Upcoming events are visible in your Local Group's calendar. But if waiting for the next event feels unbearable (we love the enthusiasm), why not create a meetup and invite people from your Local Group?

Go to your Local Group's page, scroll down, and click the blue "Create a meetup to meet other designers" button. You can set up an "Online Hangout," a "Cozy Meetup," or a "Large Meetup." Pick the event that best suits your style.

One last tip: Keep an eye out for upcoming events delivered to your inbox.

If your local group events update at the speed of dial-up, we encourage you to reach out to the Local Leader(s) and ask if he/she/they would like some help. You might even get promoted to local leader which will allow you to go right ahead and promote the next Local Group meeting.

Upcoming events are visible in your Local Group's calendar. But if waiting for the next event feels unbearable (we love your enthusiasm), why not create a meetup and invite people from your Local Group? Go to your Local Group's page, scroll down, and click the blue "Create a meetup to meet other designers" button. You can set up an "Online Hangout," a "Cozy Meetup," or a "Large Meetup." Pick the event that best suits your style.

Each city has one single local group and we encourage you to get involved. You can reach out to the local leader to see how you can help out!

Upcoming events are visible in your Local Group's calendar. But if waiting for the next event feels unbearable (we love your enthusiasm), why not create a meetup and invite people from your Local Group?

Go to your Local Group's page, scroll down, and click the blue "Create a meetup to meet other designers" button. You can set up an "Online Hangout," a "Cozy Meetup," or a "Large Meetup." Pick the event that best suits your style.

One last tip: Keep an eye out for upcoming events delivered to your inbox.

Even more reason to join a Local Group :-) Local groups are comprised of a great mix of seasoned professionals and complete newcomers. You'll learn a great deal by being a member and who knows? One day, you might be the one helping a newcomer on their journey. That’s the magic of our community!

As a Continent Manager, you'll have the exciting task of assigning and supporting Country Managers in your continent. Your job is to keep group activities thriving. If things slow down, team up with Country Managers to motivate Local Leaders. And if needed, you can always assign a new Country Manager to keep the energy high.

You’ll gather feedback from Country Managers and work with IxDF developers to improve the local group system, notifications, and guidelines. You’ll also be tasked with keeping our 'Local Leader FAQs' up-to-date and providing helpful guides for Local Leaders. Ensuring everyone has the support they need.

Your time investment is small—about 3-4 hours a week—but your impact is huge!

The IxDF Local Group Initiative is run in line with our Mission Statement — educating, stimulating, and inspiring the global design community. The goal is to create vibrant local groups all over the world where people frequently meet up with great interactions. 

As a Country Manager, your role is to support Local Leaders in keeping their Local Groups active and thriving. You’ll assist Local Leaders by answering their questions, concerns, and doubts. The Country Manager should also collate and filter this feedback and report it to the Continent Manager. This also includes reporting ideas for smart work processes, better document templates, better email notifications, improvements to the Local Group Management Interface, more automatization, etc.

Sometimes you might notice a group’s activity level drop, in which case you would ensure that the Local Leader is supported and working to restore a high activity level. You can also help the current Local Leader select a co-Local Leader—or find a suitable replacement.

Another exciting aspect of being a Country Manager is periodically connecting with your community via your newsletter. Every 3 to 6 months, you’ll write to the Local Groups community sharing success stories and updates to foster a sense of union within the community.

Your time investment is small—about 1-2 hours a week—but your impact is huge!

Our online Discussion Forum called ‘Interaction Design Foundation Community’ is the place to have all queries answered. All questions are welcome—so never hesitate to reach out. You’ll get instantly connected to Interaction Design Foundation Local Leaders, Country Managers, and group members.

We’re here to help so why not head over now and leave us your first question?

Local Leaders are the first point of contact for facilitating meet-ups in their city. You’ll directly impact designers playing a vital role in meetups for networking, education, and connection.

A Local Leader will:

• Schedule meet-ups for your Local Group. Local Group meet-ups are free and can be attended by both the Interaction Design Foundation members and non-members.

• If a Local Group member decides to create a Local Group meet-up, you can provide assistance to the member so that the meet-up runs as smoothly as possible.

• Set up and maintain a Facebook and LinkedIn group for your Local Group. This allows the Local Group members to stay in touch and also facilitates the creation of meet-ups.

• Once a month, link up with your Country Manager(s), who are your first point of contact. You can do so by simply dropping them an email with brief updates on what the Local Group has been up to.

We’re pleased to know you’d like to start a Local group—creating one is easy and rewarding. When you create a new Group, you become its Local Leader and this will give you great energy and help your career immensely.

To create a Local Group, write to [email protected] with the name of your city. But first, check to see if your city doesn't already have a Local Group—you can do so via our Community section. From there on you’ll be guided through the process from start to finish.

But you don’t have to walk it alone—you’ll have support and assistance from the Country and Continent manager in your region. And once your Group is buzzing with members, you can select a co-leader or two to help you steer the ship.

In conclusion: You simply have to start a Local Group today! :-)

Think of starting your Local Group as starting a chain reaction: You add a small amount of work/energy in the beginning and very soon other people will add their work/energy, and then—suddenly—you have a thriving and self-sustaining Local Group.

We’ve grouped the next steps into two categories: important and optional.

Get the 'chain reaction' started with the most important tasks:

• Connect with your Country Manager whose name you will find on your new Local Group page. If there’s currently no country manager for your country, please connect with the Continent Manager so that he/she can appoint one.

• Read the 'Local Leader FAQs' 

• Then spend 3 minutes setting up a Facebook group. We have a step-by-step guide on how to do this if you would like some help with the task.

Optional (but highly encouraged): 

• Join the Interaction Design Foundation Community Discussion Group. There you can share ideas, experiences, and knowledge with other Local Leaders and regular members, with the goal of better serving your local group members, and ensuring success for your Local Group. What worked? What didn't? What do you plan to try next time? Feel free to share, or ask for, as much information as you’d like.

After that, you're ready to schedule the first Local Group meet-up. Please schedule it one month ahead of time—even if there are zero members in your group. Your group will attract attention and gain members as soon as people can see that there is a meet-up to attend. Without a meet-up, things will go much slower… so it’s a good idea to get this on the calendar ASAP.

No need to worry about how many people will attend; by aiming for a small group of around 4 people, you’ll already have a successful event! For the first event, choose your favorite cafe, restaurant, or company meeting room, and bring a friend or colleague for support, as non-members are welcome too. Once scheduled, start inviting people through your network ensuring you remember to note that it's free and open to everyone. Remember to share the link to your Facebook Group amongst your friends. You’ll almost immediately see that there is a strong interest in your Local Group initiative.

Reach out to us if you’d like our team to create a geo-targeted post on Facebook, LinkedIn, or X, with news about your event.

If you enjoy yourself, your attendees are having fun, and do your best before and during the event, it’ll already have been a success! Fostering a great atmosphere and a sense of connection is the key to hosting events people want to join. Avoid putting too much pressure on yourself—a small meeting at your favorite cafe with a simple agenda is better than no meet-up at all.

An agenda gives the event structure and helps everything run smoothly. No need to be too formal about it. Here are some examples for your very first meeting:

• Meet and greet: Who are the other group members?

• Why are you interested in interaction design/user experience?

• What is your job and what are your current challenges?

• How can we help each other out with these challenges?

• What do you hope to get out of this Local Group?

• How can we help each other in strengthening the local community of UX/IXD designers?

• What are the next steps; what should our next meet-up be about?
  

And for your next meet-up, draw inspiration from the following ideas:

• Meet other design professionals over coffee and share a morning/afternoon with people who are just as passionate about design as you are. You never know, you may potentially meet your future boss/employee/client/friend.

• Invite professional talks by local designers where they can share their experiences. Lots of people have ready-made talks on different subjects: Just invite them to give their talk at your meeting and they will thank you. It will be great for their career.

• Discuss the local need for Interaction Design and User Experience in your city/country.

• Discuss how you can help each other for example, if you all use your Local Group to make the local community of UX and Design Professionals more visible, more companies in your area will understand the value of UX and Design and thus invest in it.

• Discuss a specific topic or design issue you find interesting—for example, implementing artificial intelligence into your design process.

• Create a study group where you follow and discuss a specific online course/topic.

• Create a book club where you read and discuss one book at a time.

Local group meetings should be accessible, welcoming, and full of great energy. That’s all you need to get started. We encourage you to dive in, right now, without delay. Simply select a date approximately one month from now at your favorite café or your workplace if your employer agrees to it, and enjoy the inspiring atmosphere of an IxDF Local Group meetup.

Yes, yes, and yes. 

Before you start, get in touch with your Country Manager and ask if a current Social Media strategy for your continent/country is in place. In any case, you should create a Facebook group and add the Facebook group URL to your Local Group's page here on the Interaction Design Foundation website.

• Please use this title: Interaction Design Foundation — [your country/city]

• For instance, you can check out Interaction Design Foundation — India

• Make the most of social media by asking people nearby to like/join your Facebook group, and ensure you’re actively involved in moderating the group.

• Schedule and announce meetings on e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn (ask your Country Manager), X, Blogs, etc., and ask people to further share the news on their own Facebook, LinkedIn, X, etc.

• Use the Interaction Design Foundation logo and artwork.

• You can even ask the venue to promote the event with Interaction Design Foundation posters and posts on their own social media channels. This will benefit them also by increasing, and widening, their content and engagement.

All new members, within a 600 km radius of your local group, will receive an invitation email to join your group. New members will also instantly be able to browse the Local Group World Map to find and join your Local Group.

Upon request, our Social Media team will schedule geo-targeted posts on the Interaction Design Foundation Facebook channel to easily reach people in your area.

You can promote your Local Group via word of mouth, your website/blog, and by reaching out to other local bloggers who can help you get the word out on their social media channels.

Your local group is open to all—people do not have to be paying members of the Interaction Design Foundation to participate. We would love to see them become members in the future and further their careers with our courses, but it’s not a requirement. Therefore, you can invite anyone you think would be interested in coming along!

The Interaction Design Foundation has over 1 million followers across all our social platforms, and this will certainly help draw attention to your Local Group (or an individual event).

Upon request, our Social Media team will then help promote your Local Group or Event via geo-targeted outreach through the Interaction Design Foundation’s social media channels.

Yes, absolutely! You can ask others to help you and possibly rotate the responsibility of organizing the meet-ups. By promoting other members to become Local Leaders, you'll find that they will add their energy and all of a sudden you will have an enormously active Local Group.

You can promote a regular member and make him/her a Local Leader simply by clicking this button in the member list of your Local Group:

Where a city already has an active and open IxDF local group, members are unable to create a new group. Instead, we encourage other members to make contact with you and we encourage you to promote such designers to Local Leaders if they’re interested. That way, you can grow the Local Group together to the benefit of all members. However, the decision regarding the leadership of the Local Group is completely yours.

We'll be sorry to see you go but we totally understand that life gets busy sometimes.

Here is what you do:

• First, if you are the only Local Leader of your group, you need to find someone who can take over the responsibility and privilege of being Local Leader. You should look through the profiles of the people in your Local Group and decide who would be the best choice for continuing your great work.

• Connect with that person and ask if they are up for the challenge.

• Once they accept, you can then find them in the member list of your Local Group and you’ll need to press the 'Promote to Local Leader' button:

Now you are then ready to step down as the Local Leader.

Go to your Local Group page, find your member card in the member list, and click the "Demote to regular member" button on your card. We’ll hopefully see you in the near future!

The IxDF Local Group Initiative is run in line with our Mission Statement — educating, stimulating, and inspiring the global design community. The goal is to create vibrant local groups all over the world where people frequently meet up with great interactions. 

As a Country Manager, your role is to support Local Leaders in keeping their Local Groups active and thriving. You’ll assist Local Leaders by answering their questions, concerns, and doubts. The Country Manager should also collate and filter this feedback and report it to the Continent Manager. This also includes reporting ideas for smart work processes, better document templates, better email notifications, improvements to the Local Group Management Interface, more automatization, etc.

Sometimes you might notice a group’s activity level drop, in which case you would ensure that the Local Leader is supported and working to restore a high activity level. You can also help the current Local Leader select a co-Local Leader—or find a suitable replacement.

Another exciting aspect of being a Country Manager is periodically connecting with your community via your newsletter. Every 3 to 6 months, you’ll write to the Local Groups community sharing success stories and updates to foster a sense of union within the community.

Your time investment is small—about 1-2 hours a week—but your impact is huge!

Our online Discussion Forum called ‘Interaction Design Foundation Community’ is the place to have all queries answered. All questions are welcome—so never hesitate to reach out. You’ll get instantly connected to Interaction Design Foundation Local Leaders, Country Managers, and group members.

We’re here to help so why not head over now and leave us your first question?

Local Leaders are the first point of contact for facilitating meet-ups in their city. You’ll directly impact designers playing a vital role in meetups for networking, education, and connection.

A Local Leader will:

• Schedule meet-ups for your Local Group. Local Group meet-ups are free and can be attended by both the Interaction Design Foundation members and non-members.

• If a Local Group member decides to create a Local Group meet-up, you can provide assistance to the member so that the meet-up runs as smoothly as possible.

• Set up and maintain a Facebook and LinkedIn group for your Local Group. This allows the Local Group members to stay in touch and also facilitates the creation of meet-ups.

• Once a month, link up with your Country Manager(s), who are your first point of contact. You can do so by simply dropping them an email with brief updates on what the Local Group has been up to.

An Interaction Design Foundation Local Group is for local, design-minded individuals who are interested in being part of a wider design community. Joining an Interaction Design Foundation Local Group has the potential to expand your local career network—whether you’re interested in learning new skills, gaining new job opportunities, new clients, or a great new dedicated employee.

You can invest as much or as little time as you wish—it’s entirely up to you and dependent on your goals. There are multiple ways you can connect with like-minded professionals and build your network. They include:

Online: Join the online community in your city and network via online discussion boards.

Local meetings: We highly recommend this. Local group meet-ups are usually very fun and highly inspirational, and they will help you create an even stronger local career network. Whether you’re looking for new job opportunities, new clients for your company, or a great new dedicated employee, we bet you’ll find them in your local group!

IxDF Local Groups, run by Local Leaders are a great way to network and connect with your local community. You might expect to find:

• A relaxed yet professional networking event over coffee where you’ll meet professionals in other industries, be inspired by the various ways interaction design is being used and implemented in your local area, get to know your next boss/employee/client/friend, and meet up with people who are just as passionate about design as you are.

• Attend professional talks by local designers who graciously share their experiences.

• Discussions surrounding the local need for, and adoption of, interaction design and user experience in your city/country.

• Discussions surrounding a specific topic or design issue relevant to your city/country.

• A study group where you all follow and discuss a specific online course/topic.

• A book club where you read and discuss books.

Even more reason to join a Local Group :-) Local groups are comprised of a great mix of seasoned professionals and complete newcomers. You'll learn a great deal by being a member and who knows? One day, you might be the one helping a newcomer on their journey. That’s the magic of our community!