014.8out of 5 from 412 reviews
Modern Product Design
From ambiguous brief to defensible interface.
Intermediate7 h20 lessons
Rafael Otero — Senior Lecturer in Product Design
Academy — established 2019
Learn deeply.
Build confidently.
Academy is a place to learn practical, structured skills through thoughtful courses and guided practice — taught by people who still do the work, and assessed against work you actually do.
- Courses
- 17
- Departments
- 6
- Instructors
- 12
- Paths
- 6
Course index
Michaelmas term
- 01Modern Product Design5 mod
- 02Typographic Systems4 mod
- 03Interface Craft3 mod
- 04The Practice of Critique3 mod
- 05Accessible Interfaces4 mod
- 06Architecture Under Pressure5 mod
Knowledge map — Design department
A different idea of what a course is
Most online learning optimises for completion. We optimise for the moment three months later when you have to make the decision yourself.
Read, then do
Every lesson ends with an exercise built around your own work rather than a sandbox. The reading is short because the practice is the point.
Judgement over technique
Technique can be copied in an afternoon. We teach the reasoning underneath it — what the rule protects against, and what to do when it stops applying.
Assessed honestly
Assignments are marked against the brief, not against a model answer. Quizzes are low-stakes, retryable and explained afterwards.
Featured courses
A selection from across the catalogue — the courses our instructors most often recommend as a starting point.
024.9out of 5 from 336 reviews
Typographic Systems
The grid, the scale and the argument on the page.
Intermediate5.4 h16 lessons
Ilse Varga — Head of Design Studies
034.9out of 5 from 264 reviews
Accessible Interfaces
Designing so that more people can actually use it.
Intermediate5 h15 lessons
Yuki Mori — Senior Lecturer in Interaction
044.9out of 5 from 298 reviews
Architecture Under Pressure
Designing systems for the day they fail.
Advanced6.9 h18 lessons
Tomas Ekelund — Principal Engineer in Residence
Learning paths
Sequenced routes through several courses, ordered so that each one makes the next cheaper. Take a path, or take a single course.
- Product DesignFrom discovery to a defensible interface.4 courses · Intermediate
- Modern EngineeringThe platform, the data and the failure.3 courses · Advanced
- Creative LeadershipDirection, critique and a practice that lasts.3 courses · Advanced
- Digital StrategyPositioning, pricing and the plan underneath.3 courses · Intermediate
- Research PracticeAsking, gathering, synthesising, reporting.3 courses · Intermediate
- Writing & CommunicationProse that carries an argument.3 courses · Intermediate
Who teaches here
Academy instructors are practitioners first. They teach a small number of courses, closely, and mark work themselves.
Ilse Varga
Head of Design Studies
Typography · Editorial systems
Tomas Ekelund
Principal Engineer in Residence
Distributed systems · Reliability
Nadia Rahman
Professor of Product Strategy
Positioning · Pricing
Colm Bradaigh
Reader in Prose Composition
Essay form · Editing
How learning works
Four movements, repeated. The structure is deliberately plain so that the material can be demanding.
- 01
Enrol
Choose a course or a path. Everything opens immediately — there is no cohort start date to wait for.
- 02
Read
Lessons are short, written and designed to be finished. A module is roughly ninety minutes of reading.
- 03
Practise
Each lesson closes with an exercise on your own material. Assignments extend the exercise into something assessable.
- 04
Assess
Quizzes check comprehension; assignments check judgement. Completing both closes the course and issues a certificate.
Inside a course
Every Academy course is organised the same way: modules that build, lessons that finish, and assessment attached to the material rather than bolted on afterwards.
Product
Modern Product Design
A working course in product design for people who have to ship. It begins where most briefs begin — vague, over-scoped and politically loaded — and works through discovery, structure, interface and the argument you make when someone senior disagrees with you.
5
Modules
20
Lessons
7h
Reading
- 01What a Brief Is Actually AskingMaking discovery explicit enough that somebody else could repeat it.18m
- 02Separating the Symptom from the ProblemThe working method for information architecture, reduced to what actually matters.22m
- 03Constraints Worth KeepingThe judgement calls behind interface structure, and what each of them costs.16m
- 04Writing the Problem StatementA close look at critique and the failures it is meant to prevent.24m
- 01Five Conversations Beat One SurveyWhere scoping usually goes wrong, and how to notice it early.20m
- 02Watching People WorkThe judgement calls behind evidence, and what each of them costs.26m
- 03Reading the System You InheritedA close look at discovery and the failures it is meant to prevent.22m
- 04Turning Notes into ClaimsHow information architecture works in practice, once the deadline is real.18m
- 01The Decisions Behind the ScreenMaking interface structure explicit enough that somebody else could repeat it.24m
- 02Naming Things People Already Have Words ForWhere critique usually goes wrong, and how to notice it early.20m
- 03Flow, State and the Cost of a Wrong TurnThe judgement calls behind scoping, and what each of them costs.26m
- 04Sketching the SkeletonThe working method for evidence, reduced to what actually matters.18m
The learning workspace
Progress, assessment, discussion and deadlines in one place. Everything you see below is computed from your own activity — nothing is stored as a separate number.
- Progress derives from the lessons you have actually completed.
- Quiz performance is the average of your best attempt on each quiz.
- A course closes only when every lesson, quiz and assignment is done.
- Certificates are issued from that same completion state, never separately.
- Sign in to the demo
Continue learning
Modern Product Design
Course progress65%
Curriculum
13
Lessons
completed
83%
Quiz avg
best attempt
1
Submitted
assignment
Figures shown are the demo learner’s starting state
Academic departments
Six departments, each with its own emphasis and its own idea of what rigour means.
- 5 courses
Design
Form, judgement and craft.
- 3 courses
Technology
Systems that hold up under pressure.
- 3 courses
Business
Strategy with its arithmetic attached.
- 2 courses
Humanities
Language as an instrument of thought.
- 2 courses
Creative Practice
Sustained making, not occasional inspiration.
- 2 courses
Research
Evidence before conviction.
Open resources
Guides, essays and toolkits from the teaching faculty. Free to read, no enrolment required.
Completion, recorded
Finish every lesson, pass every quiz and submit every assignment, and Academy issues a certificate of completion. It is a record of work done — deliberately modest, and clearly marked as a demonstration.
Academy
Certificate of Completion
This is to record that
Elena Marchetti
has completed
Modern Product Design
Demo certificate — not an accredited credential
Start with one course.
Sign in with the demo student account and work through a lesson, a quiz and an assignment. The whole journey takes about fifteen minutes.
Demo data. Nothing is stored outside your browser.