Designlab

Designlab has a great curriculum that sets you for a success. The weekly 1:1 meetings with mentors was a great way for me to receive feedback and guidance on my work and launching career. Even though the course tackles most aspects of the UX design process,... Read More it's more focused on design and not as much on research. Even still, it gave me a nice introduction into UX Research and I would recommend it to anyone pursing this career.

I recommend Designlab to anyone looking for a course that seamlessly brings acquired knowledge and practical knowledge together. With UXA, you'll first learn fundamentals and principles of research and user-centred design, while applying what you've learned... Read More to assignments. The mentorship and access to group critiques through the community are fantastic because students can learn from their mistakes early on while adapting to an environment of openness and collaboration - which are so important in the product design field! That being said, Designlab isn't for everyone. It requires lots of discipline, agility, and an outgoing attitude. In other words, what you get out of it is what you put into it.

Designlab was definitely the best choice for me. As someone who switched from Graphic Design to UX - Designlab really prepared me with everything I needed to know to get into the field. Be prepared to be fully committed to the program in order to get... Read More the most out of it. Remember, you get out what you put in. I felt like I got the most out of the Capstone projects, 1:1 mentorship, and the group critic sessions. Also, to have access to your network after graduating is a huge plus too!

I came to design lab looking to find a new passion. I also felt lost and unsure if I had what it took to be a great designer. DesignLab quickly reassured me that with effort, dedication, and support from a community there’s nothing to worry about. It’s... Read More remarkable how much resources and love DesignLab’s team has for their students. They truly care about our success, thank you!

I am impressed with UX Academy Foundation's ability to teach so much in such a short amount of time. The projects were well thought out and made me feel confident in what I was learning. The 1:1 mentorship was a huge reason I chose this course as it made... Read More me feel more prepared for a career as I could ask an industry professional questions/for advice. There isn't exactly 'job support' in this course, but your mentorship can serve as that if you want. I believe the next course in the series (UX Academy) focuses more on that.

I started with DesignLab Foundations and moved through the Academy. I liked the coursework, the way it was organized, and working with my mentor. I feel prepared but I also did ALL of the reading the suggested and didn't skimp. I started freelancing before... Read More I finished phase 1 of the program as I was building my portfolio and did a ton of work on my own. This led to two more opportunities and I was able to finish my portfolio and graduate a month early with 3 contracts in hand. I will look to build off of these but I enjoy the freelance aspect and am gaining valuable experience along the way. Couldn't have gotten here without the support of DesignLab

I really enjoyed Designlab's UX Academy Foundations course. While I had somewhat of a background in design, this course greatly strengthened my knowledge of design and my abilities to create content that is appealing and user friendly. I also learned... Read More so much from my mentor. Our mentor sessions were very productive and she always provided helpful feedback on my assignments. She asked open-ended questions which prompted me to research and think deeper about design decisions I was making. Overall, this was a great introductory course that got me even more excited about making the career switch to UX design!

Brief summary: I took the short course to see if I wanted to continue on with DesignLab's UX Academy and, after finishing, did enroll in their next cohort. I did a lot of reading/comparing between different UX Bootcamps before ultimately making this decision,... Read More and I don't regret it! (This decision was based largely on features I was looking for, so it may not be the answer for everyone) I was already familiar with design principles and practices, so nothing in the curriculum was particularly life-changing for me, but having the opportunity to familiarize myself with Figma before UXA was great! I switched mentors one week in (on the 4 week track) because my first mentor was not responsive. The support team quickly resolved the issue and matched me with a new mentor. My second mentor was super responsive, flexible re: what areas I was most interested in seeing improvement, and gave great feedback + industry insight. Pros: -work at your own pace (on your own hours, however much you want per day) - I thought I would struggle with motivation because of the lack of structure, but I stayed on track by scheduling mentor calls 2x/week to keep myself accountable -project-centric learning means you're jumping into design software basically from unit 1 - lots of opportunities to learn, practice, and improve -mentors! your sessions will be led by you, so you can ask your mentor about anything you want; from project feedback, to clarifying course materials, to what their life as a designer is like. This was a big factor for me choosing DesignLab -active discord server allows you to meet and stay social with other students, ask students/mentors for help, share resources, chat, etc - the community is great! -the workflow intentionally mirrors project iteration in the real world -the price of Foundations is applied toward your UX Academy tuition if your decide to continue on! -you get access to all the course material for life, so you can always return back any time you need to -the support team and admissions staff are friendly, responsive, and understanding Cons: -written lesson material is fairly basic. You won't dive deeply into any topic covered, everything is a high level overview for beginners -some material hasn't been updated in a few years (ex: some video tutorials which have outdated features) - not vital info and easy to find on Youtube, just an annoying value detractor for me. I think they are also working on updating these videos! -I found it difficult to work with some of the project briefs because there was no client feedback or specific company goals stated, so it was just designing in a vacuum in most cases + mentor feedback -ability to progress forward is largely dependent on how responsive and picky your mentor is - this was an issue I had with my first mentor, which meant I was behind for the second week of the course while I was catching up

I come from a non-design background and Designlab's UX Academy foundations course is designed pretty well to set foot and test the waters whether UX/UI is for you and also to learn the basics in detail. Each topic is defined and described well along with... Read More links to articles for more to read and on. Video tutorials for using the tools like Figma and sketch are extremely helpful for beginners. Projects have clear deliverables and include a lot of help for students to accomplish the goal. Mentors are of great help and overall foundations is a great start for getting basics right.

The pros are that you can go through the coursework at your own time (as quickly or as slowly as you need to). The Discord community for your cohort is also helpful if you have any questions. Some cons that I came across while taking the course include... Read More my mentor may not always be as responsive and helpful as you would hope for, especially if you are trying to get through the course quickly - this is understandable because mentors usually have full time jobs and other students to attend to. However, it could have been much more beneficial to me if I was able to schedule a meeting to discuss every single unit with my mentor. Further, my mentor was not very proactive with giving feedback and pointers - most of our meetup sessions would be very short and just him answering any questions which I may have. I would have appreciated if he gave me some pointers or tips that he thought of when he was going through my work - especially since as an experienced designer, he would know of things that I don't know or have not thought about.