Graphic Design Masterclass: Learn GREAT Design vs UI / UX Design Specialization
Same Bayesian formula, same rubric — so the difference in scores reflects the difference in the courses, not the difference in how we evaluated them.
Skillshare · Design
Graphic Design Masterclass: Learn GREAT Design
California Institute of the Arts (Coursera) · Design
UI / UX Design Specialization
Per-criterion
138 lessons across theory, typography, colour, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. BitDegree calls it a course that leaves "no stone unturned." Strong opening two-thirds; final section — especially InDesign — is noticeably weaker than the rest.
Consistent praise for step-by-step clarity and responsiveness to student questions. Deductions for background music and insufficient screen zoom during demonstrations — both recurring complaints across reviewed opinions.
18-plus hours across three Adobe apps plus design theory for ~$14/month Skillshare subscription. Regularly updated with new AI tools and 2026 trends. Every reviewer cites price as a primary reason to recommend it — strongest dimension in the analysed corpus.
Portfolio projects across logos, magazine spreads, social graphics, and brand packages — all deployable as real work. Capped by the absence of structured peer critique; Skillshare's projects tab provides visibility but not organised feedback.
Emerging with Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign fluency is a genuine skill gain for beginners. Capped because depth rarely extends past beginner level and intermediate designers find the opening 8-plus hours too slow.
Visual-design-first curriculum with strong typography, colour and hierarchy coverage. Reviewers consistently flag it as a beginner survey — light on modern UX research, no front-end code, and several call the visual aesthetic dated.
Michael Worthington and Roman Jaster deliver calm, well-paced art-school lectures praised across our sample. The structural catch is that there is no instructor feedback on your work — every assignment is graded by other beginners.
At ~$49/month with a stated 2-month path (most finish in 3-4), all-in cost lands around $100-200 — one of the cheapest paid UX paths and dramatically below mentored bootcamps like Designlab or CareerFoundry.
Two end-to-end portfolio artefacts (a mobile interface and a responsive web project) are real and shareable. The ceiling is capped by peer-only grading and brief plagiarism complaints — reviewers report projects stolen and graded by people who don't know the field.
Gives you the vocabulary and the visual instincts of an art-school designer. Real-world job translation is the weakest area — a 2019 Hacker News post documents a graduate building a CalArts portfolio for two years and still being rejected as 'too junior'.
Scoring methodology applies identically to every course on the site — see the formula.