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Experiments
UX Design Course
RoleDesigner & Developer
TeamSolo · Claude
PlatformWeb · Next.js
Timeline2024
Overview
In my own pursuit of going deeper on behavioral psychology and UX principles, I found that the best material was scattered across books, conference talks, and academic papers with no structured path connecting them. So I built one — in collaboration with Claude. Claude acted as a curriculum co-author: helping map conceptual dependencies between topics, stress-test the module sequencing, and draft quiz questions that actually test comprehension rather than trivia. The result is a self-paced web course covering 86 topics across 7 modules, deployed as a live Next.js app with per-topic quizzes and progress tracking.
Challenges
Content Architecture
Organizing 86 topics into a coherent sequence that builds conceptually — not just alphabetically or by popularity — required mapping dependencies between ideas. I worked through the module order with Claude iteratively, treating it like a design critique: proposing a sequence, identifying where a learner would hit a gap in prior knowledge, and restructuring until the progression felt earned. The final order (human decision-making → behavior change → product understanding → design → measurement) reflects how understanding actually compounds.
Engagement Beyond Passive Reading
A course that's just articles is a blog. Each topic needed a mechanism to test comprehension and create a moment of active recall. I used Claude to generate quiz questions for each topic — not generic multiple choice, but questions targeted at the specific misconceptions a designer is likely to carry into that concept. Four questions per topic keeps the bar meaningful without being punishing.
Approach
7 Modules, Sequenced with Intent
The curriculum starts with why humans behave the way they do (Fogg, dual-process theory, behavioral economics), moves through how to design for behavior change, and ends with how to measure it. Claude helped me think through where each topic logically sits — which concepts are load-bearing for others, and which are better introduced after a learner has context. The module sequence is the invisible design work that makes the content feel cohesive rather than encyclopedic.
Per-Topic Quizzes with Progress Tracking
Every topic has a 4-question quiz tracking read and quiz-passed states independently. Claude drafted the initial question set for each topic, which I then reviewed and edited for accuracy and relevance — a collaborative authoring loop that was significantly faster than writing 344 questions from scratch. The dual-state progress model makes the distinction between having read something and actually understanding it explicit.
Built to Be Extended
The content model is a flat array of topic objects — adding a new topic is a one-line addition. The quiz questions are co-located with the topic data, not in a separate CMS, which keeps authoring fast. This architecture was designed with the AI personalization direction in mind: the data shape is already compatible with a model reading and responding to it dynamically.
Vision
Where This Was Headed: AI-Personalized Learning
The direction I wanted to pursue but didn't fully realize: using Claude to dynamically shape the course to each user's context. Rather than fixed quiz questions, the model could generate examples relevant to the product domain a user is actually working in — Fogg's Behavior Model framed around a fitness app for one learner, around enterprise SaaS for another. Adaptive difficulty, domain-specific examples, and a conversational explainer for topics a user is stuck on would turn this from a reference into a genuine learning companion. Working with Claude throughout the build made this vision feel genuinely achievable — the gap between what exists and what's possible here is mostly product decision, not technical limitation.
Outcomes
Shipped and Live
The course is deployed at ux-design-course.vercel.app with 86 topics across 7 modules, full quiz mechanics, and progress persistence. It functions as a reference I return to when I need to ground a design decision in a behavioral principle — and a template for what AI-assisted course authoring can look like at speed.
A Different Kind of Portfolio Artifact
Most portfolio pieces show what I can design. This one shows how I think about the field — and how I work. Using Claude as a collaborator throughout the build, from curriculum sequencing to question writing to architecture decisions, is the same approach I bring to product design work. The tools are new; the underlying practice of thinking carefully before building hasn't changed.