The Best YouTube Channels for UI Designers in 2025 (Worth Your Actual Time)
· 4 min read
Most "best YouTube channels for designers" lists are just lists. No selection criteria. No sense of who the channel is for or what it actually teaches. One line of description, then a subscribe button.
The criteria that matter for working UI designers are different from those for students. You're not looking for "what is a component?" You want channels that cover systems thinking, the relationship between design and code, accessibility as a craft question rather than a compliance box, and the decisions that don't have clean answers.
These are the channels that earn the watch time.
DesignCourse — for designers who want to understand the frontend
DesignCourse, run by Gary Simon, covers UI design and frontend code together, which is more valuable than either in isolation. The channel is useful specifically because it treats design decisions as implementable: you see how something is designed and then how it's built, which closes the gap that causes most handoff problems.
Most useful for understanding why certain design choices are harder to implement, or for building enough frontend literacy to have better conversations with engineers.
Flux Academy — for the business and process side of UI work
Ran Segall's Flux Academy is honest about the parts of design work that most channels ignore: positioning, client relationships, how to actually get paid what you're worth, and how freelance and studio work is structured in practice.
If you're purely interested in craft tutorials, this isn't the channel. But if business model and positioning decisions matter, whether that's running your own practice or leading design at a product company, the thinking here is useful and direct. Ran talks about his own work, not a hypothetical designer's work, which makes it credible.
Jesse Showalter — for designers bridging design and development
Jesse Showalter's channel sits between design and frontend development. The practical focus on web design workflow, tooling, and implementation makes it useful for designers who work closely with engineering and want to stay technically grounded.
The channel is particularly good on tooling decisions and workflow, the kind of content that saves you time in practice rather than just teaching you new software features. Not every video is at senior level, but the ones focused on process and tool choice are worth the time.
Will Paterson — for visual design and craft refinement
Will Paterson's channel focuses on visual design craft: logo design, typography, brand identity. If your UI work intersects with visual branding (which product design increasingly does, at senior level), this is a useful channel for developing sharper visual judgment.
It's not a systems or UX channel. But the craft thinking here transfers to UI work in ways abstract "design principles" content often doesn't: why something looks right or wrong, how to make decisions about form.
Ben Marriott — for motion and interaction design
Ben Marriott covers UI animation and motion design with a level of craft and clarity that's rare in the space. The channel is useful not just for learning specific animation techniques but for developing the underlying judgement about when motion adds meaning versus when it's noise.
Most UI designers underinvest in understanding motion. Transitions, micro-interactions, and loading states are often bolted on rather than designed. Ben's channel gives you a framework for thinking about motion as part of the experience rather than a finishing touch.
Satori Graphics — for design software depth and visual systems
Satori Graphics covers design software (primarily Adobe tools and Framer) with a focus on practical technique. The channel is useful when you need to solve a specific software problem or get faster at a workflow you use regularly.
The Framer content in particular is worth watching if you're working with interactive prototypes or no-code web design, covering the tool with more technical depth than most design channels.
What to actually watch
The mistake with design YouTube is treating it like a course: working through everything methodically. The more useful approach: follow two or three channels consistently, and go deep on others when you have a specific problem.
For working UI designers: DesignCourse for design-to-code literacy, Ben Marriott for motion thinking, and either Flux or Will Paterson depending on whether your current gap is business or visual craft.
The channels covering principles over tools will stay relevant longer than the ones covering specific software. Figma tutorials from 2022 are often already outdated. Thinking about how to structure a design system, or when motion adds value, is not.
If you're looking for research-focused and systems-level content, the best UX design YouTube channels list covers different ground.