1. UX Academy Foundations

I thought DesignLab’s Foundations course was very beneficial for me because I’m coming from a completely different educational background. I had 0 design experience and after finishing the course, have learned so much and already have begun to build my portfolio. Although you can teach yourself how to use Figma or Sketch, the guidance of a mentor with real industry experience plus the projects provided, really helped me thrive and learn. I would definitely recommend!

 I loved the level of engagement this course had. They keep you motivated and take it at a nice pace. Having the discord community and a mentor is extremely helpful and encouraging! 

This program is a great introduction to the concepts of UI design in websites and mobile apps.  It heavily focuses on training a user how to use Figma or Adobe Sketch (common tools for UX/UI design) and leveraging different techniques and shortcuts to accomplish common tasks.  While using this tool (you get to choose) you then have weekly sessions with a mentor to discuss the various assignments from the self-paced curriculum.  Assignments ranged from copywork of existing websites to designing your own website or app based on a certain set of guidelines.Keep in mind that this is meant to be an introductory course that feeds into their UX Academy, which dives more into what an actual UX designer might do in their career.  In short, I would call UXAF a crash course on learning Figma and some basic principles of design to lay the groundwork to further study how to become an actual UX designer.  The tuition at the time of this writing was only $500 and you get to apply this to the cost of the academy should you choose to proceed.  In my opinion, the mentor sessions alone were worth it because the things that you don't necessarily learn in this course you can ask your mentor.  For instance, we went over a whole manner of different things a UX designer would do in their career, what he did, where you could possibly go after Designlab, etc.I didn't give the Job Support category a ranking, might show up as zero, because it's not applicable.  There's no expectation that you should be able to get a UX job after this course as it's more of an introduction to some UI principles and how to use the tool.Designlab's curriculum format was great, easy to read and access, and generally what you'd expect from a company that is teaching you how to format web pages to be aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.  As mentioned, it's self paced, but you also are warned that time management is a key element and considered when applying to the academy.  My only feedback regarding the curriculum (and hopefully they're already working on this) is that it would be great if there was an app that could be directly accessed by my phone or tablet.  You'll see that the content and menus are designed pretty much how an app would be, so I'd imagine it would be fairly easy to create it.Overall, if you're interested in UX and don't have any design experience, this is a great course to dip your toes. It might not give you a full introduction to what a UX designer does, but you can supplement that by discussing with your assigned mentor what questions you might have and things you're more interested in.

Designlab foundations is an information packed 8 week course. I do think it teaches a wide variety of topics concerning ui design. Looking at the first week and my last week of the course I've grown and learned a lot. At times it was challenging but in the end quite rewarding. I think this course is a great start for anyone looking into a career in ui/ux design.

This course was a lot of fun and very informative. I came from zero experience and learned so much! When I struggled with some of the content, other students and my mentor were extremely helpful! I love that I could do the program around my own schedule and will continue to have access to all the information throughout the rest of my experience.

I loved this course so much, it was super informative and keeps your attention all the way through. I loved how interactive it was the whole way through, they made sure you knew what you were learning. 

I took Foundations as a precursor to the full UX Academy bootcamp. Overall I give the experience 4 out of 5 stars. After it ended, I actually backtracked on my decision to move forward with Design Lab and started looking at the more expensive bootcamps. However, cost is a major factor for me so I am going ahead with their UX Academy program.Pros- Modules: The online modules are extremely motivating because you can see yourself complete each section in real time, as it you are checking something off a list. This style makes you want to keep going and it feels like you are accomplishing something even when you only have an hour to work on the class. The modules also have a time estimate of how long it might take you to complete each section which is helpful. - Mentor: My mentor was very nice and helpful. I don't believe she held back any feedback and she gave me some great tips as I moved through the course. I felt fortunate to have been matched up with someone with so much experience to offer. - Flexibility: The #1 benefit of this course, besides the price, is flexibility. Other bootcamps have you chained up to a zoom all day, M-F, whereas this course is at your own pace. This means you can walk your dogs, go to a doctor's appointment, etc., and not have to worry about missing class. This is the #1 reason I ended up sticking with Designlab for the upcoming full bootcamp.- Cost: The $500 cost of Foundations can be rolled into the full UX bootcamp afterwards so it won't be a waste of money if you decide to keep going. I also feel that you should definitely take this course if you are on the fence about UX/UI in general because it gives you a great introduction, so that you have a taste for it and it will help you decide if this is something you want to do. The full bootcamp is also about half as much as some of the other bootcamps out there (BrainStation, General Assembly, Flatiron, Columbia) however it's about the same as a few others (Thinkful, Career Foundry).Cons- Discord: They communicate with the group via Discord and to be honest it's not easy to use. Discord is messy, with so many channels that you can't hide and replies that come into the main room when sent to a comment. I would 100% much rather they had used Slack. You have to add friends and be accepted before you can start group chats with them and it creates a headache. If you have "unread messages" clicking on the alert doesn't take you to the actual channel, you have to go hunt and find it. It was also a huge hassle getting it set up, as Discord said I already had an account but could not claim the account and we went in circles for days until I ended up just making a totally new gmail to use for it which was a pain.  For this reason I didn't spend much time communicating with my peers or trying to keep track of what was going on in there. I am not sure why they switched from Slack to Discord but it is a big downgrade.- Downtime: There are a few points in the program where you have to wait on your mentor to progress. I had some issues with this and I don't think it was my mentor's fault, I think there was just a disconnect between the mentor's expectations about turnaround time and the expectation of someone who was going through the course very quickly (one month instead of two). But it did cause me to get stuck at a few points and that wasted some time for me during the downtime.- Reading: I experience reading fatigue at quite a few points during the course. There weren't a lot of videos and it was a lot of written content to read through over the computer.- Uploads: There were lots of issues with trying to upload projects. I believe the cap was 5 MB. A lot of my projects couldn't be uploaded and it was a big headache, having to split things out and take screenshots and upload multiple things as V2, V3, V4, even though they weren't different versions but just pieces of one project I was splitting into a smaller size. This needs to be increased. I spoke to another bootcamp and their upload cap was substantially larger.- Silo: There is a bit of a silo effect in Foundations because you would look at what others have uploaded for a project and be like, wow, mine looks nothing like that. Am I on track? Are they off track? What is going on? Why are they so different? Did I missi something? Are they ahead of me? You get the idea. But this is inevitable when you are working alone in self paced course without a live cohort that you are working with.

I recently finished the foundation course and it was a refreshing experience. I came in with a some design background so it wasn’t difficult to pick up on the sessions. It was great learning Figma and Sketch before moving on to the academy. My mentor match up was alright but it took a couple sessions to warm up to them. I did end up switching mentors and the DesignLab admissions team was very quick to help me get another. The only con I can think of is the application deadline. It’s very tight for part timers to finish on time and most have to wait for the fallowing cohort to start the academy. Overall, foundations is worth it and it offers an extra flushed out project for your portfolio. 

I took this course to see whether I wanted to continue on with Designlab's UX Academy/pursue UX further - and I do! There were things I wasn't a huge fan of about the lesson material and format of the class, but overall I found it to be a good experience. Before deciding on Designlab, I did a lot of reading and comparing different bootcamps/short courses in UI/UX. Ultimately, I chose DL because of their set timeframes (to keep me motivated), strong emphasis on mentorship, and cost.I will also note that I have a degree in design, so I was very familiar with the principles and workflow going in. There were several students struggling to learn the deign software, which seemed to slow them down at the beginning of the course. Nothing I learned was super new to me, but I nonetheless learned a lot about the deign software and felt myself improving as a designer with each project!Another thing to note about my particular experience is that my first mentor was not responsive in week 1 - at all. I contacted the DL support team, and they matched me with a new mentor very quickly. My second mentor was a great fit for me, but because I hadn't received any feedback/assignment approvals in week 1, I was catching up in week 2. Most of the value also comes from mentor-student communication, so I feel that I didn't get everything I could have from the course because of that experience.What I Enjoyed About Foundations:•I was apprehensive about "work at your own pace" class structures, but it actually worked really well for me! I scheduled 2 calls a week (4 week pace) with my mentor to keep myself accountable and on track. The material is broken up into short modules and projects, so it's easy to take breaks without disrupting your flow - and, in fact, Designlab encourages this!•Most of your time spent will be working in actual design files - on copywork and in projects - which means you get a ton of hands-on practice from very early on. I agree with other reviews that a lot of the content is similar to other (free) content available out there, but I felt like having specific project outlines and working through small tasks really locked in the lesson material for me. It's not something I would have felt motivated to do on my own.•You lead calls with your mentor, so you can talk to them about anything you're interested in knowing (UI/UX/product design related, of course!). My second mentor catered her feedback to what I told her I wanted to improve upon and also answered all my questions about her job & experiences as a product designer.•The Discord server is active and social. It's a great place to connect with other students/mentors and chat, share resources, ask for help, etc. There's pretty much a channel for anything you'd want to talk about.•The support and admissions staff are great! Very responsive, friendly, and easy to get a hold of.•You have access to the course content for life.•I feel well prepared for UX Academy after taking this course.What Could Use Improvement:•Some material is outdated. For example, there is one tutorial video that tripped up a LOT of students because it featured an  outdated workflow in Figma - from like 2 years ago. You can definitely supplement information like this with Youtube videos/articles, but it detracts from the value and experience of the class, in my opinion.•Written lessons are pretty basic info (at least for me), and I felt like I was missing out on some more in-depth learning. I'm supplementing this with my own reading after finishing the course.•Your ability to progress/quality of feedback on your work is all dependent on how good or how responsive your mentor is. Two students might have vastly different experiences and learning outcomes because of this.

Designlab - UX Academy Foundations Review

Solid foundational course!

I recently completed the foundations course from Designlab. It was one of the best things I’ve done for myself in a long time. I got to challenge myself and immerse myself into something new and something that links my creativity and passions together. I’m very excited to move forward with their academy and UX/UI design as a whole. Thanks to this course, I have no doubts now whether or not UX is right for me.

I have always wanted to pursue UX Design but was either too scared of starting over or always thought it was too late. Eventually, I finally built the courage to go for it and after doing lots of research on the different bootcamps, Designlab stood out based on the 1:1 mentoring and it surely did not disappoint. My mentor was the best I could have ever asked for.  He was extremely passionate about the field as he was always happy to share his knowledge and additional resources. He also took the time to answer all the questions I had and when he had feedback on my projects, he would ask me my thought process and ask me additional questions instead of giving me the straight answer to come up with a solution on my own.  What I appreciated the most was how much my mentor cared about my growth and I couldn't be more thankful!Overall, the course was a great preview of UX Design. They broke it down into chewable units and within those units, they give you lessons to read along with optional resource links, hands-on practice to get better at the design tools of your choice and provide unit projects to apply what you learned. I completed the course within 4 weeks as I left my previous job to focus on becoming a UX Designer. I chose this route because I wanted to invest in myself :) 

UX Academy Foundations was very beneficial and overall a fun course to take, to help me understand better what the UX design field is like. It really helped having a mentor that was able to answer any questions I had about his work, what was going on, and also just overall honest with the feedback. 

The best part about Designlab is the mentorship. While the massive slack community is there as a constant support, my mentorship meetings gave me the personal 1-on-1 advice I needed to help me confident in my career transition to UX. I couldn't be happier with my experience!

While thinking I needed a career change and the research that goes with it, I ran across Designlab.  After reading I wanted to move forward with the UX Academy.   I saw where they wanted you to do the Foundations course first before the UX Academy.  I thought it was a great idea (the $500 spent on the Foundations course goes towards the tuition of the UX Academy) to get my feet wet first to make sure Designlab was a good fit with me and to make sure it was worth it.  All I can say is, is it was!  The support staff was awesome and quick to answer any questions I had.  What I really love about Designlab is the mentorship aspect of the bootcamp.  I met with my mentor every week for 8 weeks (I did the part time track) and learned something ever time we met.  I would definitely recommend the Foundations course for anyone interested in moving into the UX/UI career path.  You learn a great base line of skills to build upon.   I look at it as the first step in a better direction and I am so happy I took it.

As someone who has had self-taught graphic design experience in the past, this was a great course to see what skills transfer, as well as a primer for what the full UX Academy includes. My mentor was great. My only complaint was that some of the projects had unrealistic timeframes for skills that you are just learning. Other than that, I would recommend.

I took the UX Foundations course in March 2022 and had a life changing experience! There are 2 aspects of taking this course - first is your mentor and second is the material provided by DL and how its structured. The structure of the course is done really where you learn a small skill and get to practice it immediately in a mini project in each unit so the application helps you remember that skill better . Throughout the course, you will learn many small skills via mini projects in each unit until the final unit which is a combination of all the skills you have learnt in each unit. Overall, i love the way they have structured the material provided. Couple of things that can be improved is (1)additional video tutorials but this is a personal style of how each person learns better and (2) estimated time for each unit or task is underestimated than the actual time is takes to complete. Coming to the most important aspect of the course and thats your mentor! I was very fortunate to find an amazing mentor who was extremely quick in his feedback so i felt very motivated to get things done. He was the best role model of how a UX Designer should be in real life -  empathetic in his teaching style, provided his feedback in a very encouraging way which really pushed me hard to think and improve and get better. If not for my mentor, i wouldn't have learnt as much as i did! The one thing i will mention about Designlab 's Foundation course is that it's a great first step to explore if you want to get into UX Design. I personally am making a career change from finance to UX design and i was scared of committing to a 6 month course without having any knowledge or idea if i will like it and this course helped me to decide that! Most other schools do not have this option so i really liked this part about Designlab!! If you are scared/unsure, just do the course! I wish i took this step sooner. 

Attending this program had pros:. Follow at my own pace while maintaining a timeline. Review videos and revisit my concepts and tutorials. Smooth transition in to concepts. Time management was well stated and guidelines providedCons:. A one on one time and attention was little short, zoom video . Some concepts I didn't get, I had to rely on YouTube which I expected a mentor to help out step by step since I am paying to learn and not from YouTube.. There should have been more guidelines in the brief as to what country are we designing for, being culturally aware and inclusive.  

UX Academy is an affordable and effective way of getting started in UX Design.