Best Design & Creative courses
The 31 Design & Creative courses programmers recommend to each other on Hacker News, ranked by how many people recommended each one, how strongly, in how many separate threads and over how many years (40 recommendations, 2006 to October 2026). 10 of them are free. How ranking works.
Pixar in a Box
Khan Academy · beginner · free
Commenters suggest it as a low-pressure way to get exposure to animation, simulation, and storytelling, with one saying it helped them even though it is not very deep.
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (Brandon Sanderson)
BYU · mixed · free
Commenters recommend it as a practical, detailed guide to writing fiction, with one calling the "description and viewpoint" lecture the best tool for non-fiction writers learning fiction craft.
How to Draw
The Great Courses · beginner · paid
Commenters say it changed their view that drawing is a natural gift, and one calls its content and style perfect for someone restarting drawing.
Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction
Coursera · beginner · free
Commenters suggest it as a starting point for UX thinking, calling it useful if you are building websites or apps and recommending it before books on UX design.
Songwriting
Coursera · beginner · free
Commenters praise it as very well presented and well organized, with clear steps for lyric writing and useful feedback from classmates.
Classical Music Lecture Series (Robert Greenberg)
The Great Courses · beginner · paid
Commenters call Greenberg an excellent lecturer whose courses are illuminating and accessible to beginners.
Intro to programming shaders for art
YouTube · beginner · free
A commenter calls Eli Fieldsteel's intro to SuperCollider course fantastic and says it helped them get started with the language.
Figure Drawing course (Stan Prokopenko)
YouTube · beginner · free
Commenters credit it as an excellent, down-to-earth place to start that teaches foundations useful for drawing, painting, and digital art.
Matthew Bird RISD lectures
Rhode Island School of Design · free
One commenter calls Matthew Bird's RISD lectures wonderful and says they watched all of them.
Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society
Coursera · beginner
The commenter calls it their favorite course they have taken and says it feels like being an apprentice to a practicing product designer.
Drawing Course
Udemy
One commenter says they "really really enjoyed" it and calls it a "pretty great drawing course" on Udemy.
Melodeon building course
Emmanuel Pariselle · mixed · paid
Commenters highly recommend it as a practical way to learn melodeon construction, with one describing it as very useful for understanding the processes and jigs.
The Secrets to Drawing
Udemy · beginner · paid
A commenter calls it amazing and says it helped their drawing more than any book or class they had tried, and that their kids love it too.
UI Design Class (Erik Kennedy)
Erik Kennedy · beginner · paid
Commenters call it an extremely high-quality resource for developers learning UI design, though one notes they have not finished most of it because it is self-paced.
MangoJelly Full Course
Udemy · paid
One commenter points to MangoJelly's tutorials and Udemy course as very good resources for learning FreeCAD.
Blender Donut Tutorial (Grant Abbitt)
Udemy · beginner · paid
A commenter calls Grant Abbitt's Udemy Blender courses excellent and says the course's discounted price bought 14 hours of material from basics through UVs, texture painting, rigging and animation.
Google UX Design Professional Certificate
Coursera · beginner · paid
One commenter says they've heard good things about it as a way to go into more detail on UX after an introduction to user-centred product design.
Famous Artists School Drawing Course
Famous Artists School · beginner
One commenter points to the original self-paced course books as a way to teach yourself to draw, noting that discipline in doing the exercises still gets results even without mail-in critique.
UI Design Class
Dribbble · beginner · paid
Commenters value its cohort structure, which they say improves finishing rates, and the instructor review of Figma designs.
Guitar Courses (Paul Davids)
Paul Davids
Commenters call Paul Davids' guitar courses excellent for guitarists.
UX Design
edX · freemium
The commenter says "UI is great" and recommends giving the edX UX classes a look, noting that individual classes can be taken free.
Information Visualization
edX
One commenter calls it a great MOOC and points to it as a useful source for building visual literacy for software diagrams.
Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion
The Great Courses · beginner · paid
The one commenter recommends it on the strength of their experience with the provider's other course on listening to classical music, though they had not watched this one.
Digital Photography (CS E-7)
Harvard Extension School · beginner · paid
Commenters note that Dan Armendariz has taught the course since 2008 and that its materials are freely available at digitalphotography.exposed, with enrollment being the way to support it and get feedback.
Blender Essential Training
Lynda.com · beginner · paid
Commenters describe it as an excellent introduction to Blender for people new to 3D software.
Design Thinking Bootcamp
Stanford University · beginner
One commenter recommends it as a hands-on introduction to design thinking, especially useful for startups, and praises the quality of student work from the fuller Stanford courses.
Design 101
Udacity · beginner · free
Commenters point to it as a free starting point from Don Norman for learning to make better UIs and layouts.
Game Design Lectures (Chris Crawford)
YouTube · intermediate · free
Commenters point to Crawford as one of the first developers to combine practical game work with academic study of game design, and suggest his lectures as a companion to Jonathan Blow's talks.
The Design of Everyday Things
Udacity · beginner · free
Commenters are drawn to it because of Udacity's course quality and Don Norman's direct involvement in the updated version.
Digital Media
Coursera
A commenter suggests it as a starting point alongside a second Coursera course, describing both as "very informative" despite being very different.
Warren Spector's Master Class on Video Games and Digital Media
MasterClass · beginner · paid
Commenters point to it as a thought-provoking course for anyone interested in game design, citing its opening lecture on whether point-and-click adventure games are really games.