Designlab

Looking back on the curriculum / lessons / briefs / and mentor experiences, I can definitely say that I have grown as a designer. I feel more confident in Figma, and much more confident in my overall ability to understand what needs to be done, how long... Read More it might take me, and the steps to which I need to take to finish the task at hand. It was a bit of a shaky start though. I believe improvements in the orientation of the Foundations course needs improving. Although I read through all of the information, I stepped into the first few Units of work with an unclear idea as to how the overarching curriculum functions. Thankfully, my second mentor was able to answer all of those questions for me in a clear concise way and since then, I was able to see the bigger picture of the program.

Fantastic introduction course for Ux designers! Productive weekly meetings with a mentor and several, albeit tenuous, but effective assignments. Beyond the projects the lessons are structured nicely and very helpful with getting a newbie started with... Read More a design program.

I highly recommend Designlab's UX Academy to anyone looking to enter the world of UX design. The curriculum is thorough and the community and mentors are incredibly supportive. Choosing to study and learn with them was the best decision I made, and I... Read More would definitely do it again in a heartbeat! Throughout the program, it was great to have a network of people who shared my interest and journey into UX as an outsider. I was fortunate to have an excellent mentor who was invaluable in helping me improve my skills. With UX Academy as my starting point, I was able to land my dream job at an agency I love! The tools and knowledge I gained were instrumental in helping me succeed in the interview process, and I now feel confident in my ability to excel in my new role. If you're like me and need structure and accountability to make a career shift, UX Academy is the way to go. The support teams are also wonderful, and I can't thank them enough for helping me get through the program. Overall, I highly recommend Designlab's UX Academy to anyone looking to pursue a career in UX design!

The UX Academy Foundations is a great way to introduce yourself to the world of UX design. You get to learn the basics of design and apply that to different assigned projects. It’s not too difficult but the course helps you understand what it means to... Read More go into UX design and whether you want to pursue it and apply for their Academy.

Pros - This is a UX Design Course - and in that context, Designlab has designed their curriculum, site, and online school to be as fluid and user-friendly as possible. The language is direct, friendly, and at times also fun (the use of emoji's in lesson... Read More text was cute and amusing). The course is self-paced, and there are many links within the coursework that I saved for future reference and perspective on the subjects being taught (history of design, sketching and wire-framing, iconography, color, UX software, etc). The lessons are also flexible, they don't require you to finish every project proposed, but more focus on time and structured productivity (except for the final project, where it's required to submit a finished design). I was able to easily monitor my progress through different visuals on the course site (both through unit thermometer and percentage visuals), and whenever I had a question, both my mentor and academic advisors were quick to respond with help and links. I had also never used Discord until becoming a DL student, and that was really helpful in a. learning how to use and b. connecting with students so you have a sense of community and support through solo learning. I never felt like I was alone even in the moments where understanding a mechanic or lesson was tough, I always had enough resources to figure it out. I also really appreciated that they give you the choice of UX Software to use, because I couldn't use Sketch (I'm too poor for a Mac update and my Mac is too old to support the software) so having the ability to learn on Figma was a huge relief. I am surprised this is just foundations, as a freelance artist I had really learned so so much just from this course that helped me in my own work as I was taking it. My visual design vocabulary and speed with software (ie, pen tool) has exponentially been increased from all the coursework. Cons- Since this is self-taught and self paced, as someone with ADHD I found the duty of reading lessons initially challenging. The lessons are not audio (though you can use plug-ins in accessibility for read-aloud on your computer, a new thing I learned). I wanted to retain all the information, and screenshots wasn't really helping me absorb it or pay attention. I really had to find what worked for me - and what I found was taking hand-written notes as I read the lessons line-by line. They do have a lot of software tutorials in small videos, which is good. My only issue with these, though you can slow them down and pause them, the editing is still not direct/slow enough, and without a large desktop screen, all the tools were super tiny in the videos. I found myself getting really filled with anxiety when I felt the teacher was moving too fast. I would wind up expanding a lot of the Figma lessons into Youtube Tutorials, which would then take more time to learn than the lessons were supposed to be. Sometimes when we were given copy-work projects with more involved, visually challenging and varied homepages (ie, real estate, travel) it was way too many resources at once to load into Figma. I think DL needs to realize students are not as quick and experienced setting up their resources panel, and this was pretty willy-nilly and time consuming. Sometimes, when a project was supposed to be 2h, I would have taken 40 minutes just gathering things and putting them into my Figma File and getting the frames set up. Besides those personal learning curve adjustments, I feel that having UXF was a very comprehensive, important course as prep for UXA. It really helped me get used to learning online, using the software, re-learning my graphic design process, and functioning as a solo worker with time management. It's jam packed with great info, advice, and resources as an intro to UX.

As an active duty Soldier, flexibility is vital for me to attend a course. DesignLab made an appropriately paced curriculum that challenged me, but did not make me feel overwhelmed. The course material was easy to understand and the projects were interesting... Read More and fun.

Content that makes sense but was still challenging - as a complete newbie to UX/UI Design, the foundations course was a great introduction into the field. My mentor experience was particularly helpful - she was very helpful and knowledgeable and challenged... Read More me on each unit to push my design and explain my process fully. Loved her!

My favorite part of the course was having a mentor to guide me and help keep me accountable. Something many online programs don't offer. Not only that but the community access and support made it easy to find answers to any questions I had in a good time... Read More frame.

I just completed DesignLab's UX Foundations program in 4 weeks. Phew! The course is thorough and will challenge you, especially if you are switching careers and have no formal training in design (like me). The course is divided into 8 modules and each... Read More one contains a mixture of reading, videos and hands on design projects. They say you can complete the Foundations course anywhere from 4-8 weeks and because I am currently unemployed, I opted to push hard and complete the program within 4 weeks. However, I feel like choosing to use all 8 weeks would have felt like a much more enjoyable pace. (If you also have a job while enrolled, I would recommend 8 weeks so you don't get burn out.) Like any bootcamp, you get out of it what you put in. I watched dozens of YouTube videos and Figma tutorials along the way to supplement the coursework. During the course you are paired with a mentor and I feel that can greatly affect a student's experience. I was paired with a talented mentor who was quick to answer my questions and spent a few sessions showing me additional tips and functions of Figma while providing helpful advice on my projects. DesignLab also has a very active community of students on Discord which I found extremely helpful and motivational! There are dozens of small projects throughout the coursework that are all designed to build upon the skills learned in previous lessons, then culminating in a 10 hour design project. The submitted 10 hour project is required to meet certain standards to grant you admission in to the full UX academy. (which I hope to be approved for and begin soon!) Overall, I am very happy with the course curriculum, the mentor support and the Discord community channels that DesignLab offered. I am amazed looking back at my projects, how much I've learned and how far I came in 4 weeks. It was definitely worth the cost and I would recommend to anyone interested in learning more about the basics of UX design.

Your bootcamp experience is really what you make of it. You can either do the bare-minimum to do the assignments and mentor sessions, OR you can do further reading on the additional articles/resources that DesignLab provides and ask additional questions... Read More with your mentor. Doing the ladder, the experience has been so useful in ensuring that I am making the right decisions with my career change and receiving guidance to help with my "What's Next?" step in life. Foundations is a great starting point for getting introduced to UX/UI design, with a big emphasis if you understand the foundations of visual design. I've had a hard time learning Figma by myself, so doing this course has helped tremendously with the learning curve.