1. UX Academy Foundations

As someone who never did any digital design and 0 experience with design programs, the course was very daunting at first. But DL's program babies you into the world of design and UI elements. It's a great idea for someone who's interested in UX but not sure they want to pay for a full-on course just yet. The "reimbursement" to pay for the UX Academy is great too. The learning portal is clean and simple, easy to use and straightforward. Mentors all seem quite experienced, and you can even look through their work on the DL website and get linked to their resumes. The school's ambassadors are very active and there are multiple optional webinars throughout the course. FYI mentor sessions are 1 hour in UX Foundations and Academy, and you're free to take them whatever direction you'd like, but since most people are doing this after their daytime job, you may have to schedule times before/after normal working hours (they take into consideration your time zone and whatever else you request on a survey before assigning you a mentor). The only cons are that the learning material itself is a bit lackluster, somewhat dated (you can just tell from the screenshots of old iPhones), and you probably can find most of the material online somewhere else. But the projects and mentorship sessions are the main gems that you'll get. One piece of advice to anyone coming from a non-design, non-UX background: try the Coursera UX courses for $40/month to feel it out first, and then if you're wanting to continue, give UX Foundations a try ($40/month vs. $500!) 

As someone with no previous UX/UI design experience, this was a great first step. The coursework was thorough with lots of hands on practice. The reading lessons were very manageable and easy to understand. My favorite part was having access to a mentor that has been in the industry and shared great feedback with me. This really helped my learning. Highly recommend this course, and had no complaints at all. 

Innovative, great place to start your UX journey if you're new! Everyone is incredibly helpful and will be more than happy to help if you need it. 1-1 mentorship is incredible and helps you improve on your work tremendously. 

Pros: work at your own pace, mentor assigned to help with learning and feedback, slack community to communicate with peers.Cons: mentor wasn't great - didn't get along with my learning style - wish there was a more in-depth process of assigning mentors

I had a really positive experience with Designlab's UX Foundations course. Going in, I was worried about a couple of things: it would be too difficult to learn new tools/ software remotely and I would have a tough time staying on track with my full-time work schedule. The way the course is laid out, the support offered by both the Designlab admissions team and my assigned mentor, and the slew of resources they provide throughout the course were so incredibly helpful. The actual course content and projects were engaging and challenging but never left me feeling clueless or unable to move forward. I learned a lot in the 8-weeks I took to complete the course. I finished the course with a design project I am proud of that I can use to apply for UX Academy, a solid base of foundational knowledge I'm excited to build on, and the confidence that I made the right decision to switch to a career in UX/UI.

I had previous graphic/packaging design experience but mostly in the print production industry only. I was looking to expand my skillsets into tech and came across the UX/UI course at Designlab. This foundations course is definitely more focused on the UI fundamentals which is necessary to help support the UX skills that will be developed if you plan to go into UX Academy. Although the UI skills I implemented are very similar to what I was doing previously in graphic/packaging design, there are many other guidelines and design systems that need to be followed and implemented when it comes to designing for web/mobile. Each unit in the course is structured very well so you have a combination of both readings and exercises/projects. It's all self-paced so a great deal of time management is needed. Getting assigned a mentor definitely helped too - I was able to ask any questions about the industry that I knew very little about. My mentor also helped me figure out how to network with more people which is something I struggle with often. I would definitely recommend if you're looking to develop UI skills even if you have previous background in design.

I had a great experience in the DesignLab Foundations course. The coursework was easy to follow, even for someone with zero experience in the industry. I enjoyed meeting with my mentor, the feedback from someone in the industry was incredibly helpful and appreciated. 

I really enjoyed my experience in the DesignLab Foundations course. They were very thorough with their content and provide many opportunities to practice skills. It is very helpful to be able to have tutorials throughout to learn about how to design on Figma (or Sketch) and to get feedback from an experienced mentor. I enjoyed the projects, they really enabled me to practice designing digital products and made me much more confident, skilled, and knowledgable in design. I would recommend this course for sure, DesignLab allows you to learn with lots of support and encouragement. 

I've been taking online classes through Designlab for about two months now. The curriculum is easy to follow, well designed, and motivating. You have constant support through Designlab's team, as well as a personalized mentor for you. The mentor commits at least an hour a week to meeting with you and talking about any questions you have about the course, UX design, or job opportunities - anything you want really! There's even a slack community where you can link up with other students (there are a ton!) and critique one another, so you get practice with aspects of collaborative design as well. I highly recommend the course for all of their support and ease of learning.

I really enjoyed Designlab, having a mentor and a supportive community to learn with was great! It really prepped me to develop a solid resume/portfolio.

I was very unsatisfied with my current job, so I decided to try this class out and see how I would like it. It was definitely a huge learning curve for me. It took me some time to change my mindset on certain things like trying to complete everything instead of submitting incomplete work during the suggested time limit. Overall, I had a good experience with this course. I would recommend this course to a friend.Pros:-Beginner friendly course for people with no design background-Lots of fun projects that include a lot of copy work and your own designs-Working with softwares like Sketch or Figma-Awesome student perks for software discounts-Provides lots of original reading material and short tutorial videos-Provides additional reading material from other resources outside of Designlab-Awesome mentorship program - 8 mentor meetings (1hr / session) are provided-Supportive Slack community from DL staff and DL students-Lots of informational webinars such as keeping students on track to enrolling in UX Academy bootcampCons:-No live instructor-Self-learn and self-paced course-Very short tutorial videos. Could use some more video content.-Suggested time limits could be increased for slow learners-There are some minor typos in the reading materials and some of the text provided for some projects

Really enjoyed my UX Foundations course from Designlab. It took me a bit of time to get used to the course delivery cause I didn't realize that even if the schedule is flexible and I can learn on my own time, there are still a lot of projects/deliverables to submit, so I ended up setting my own "class hours" so I'm not all over the place. The course itself is easy to understand and it has a lot of projects that will really give you a good grasp of what to expect in the UI industry. It's a Foundations course and I believe it lives up to that expectation-- it gives you the Foundations you need to build on. The mentorship aspect is okay, especially since you're doing all the coursework by yourself, so it's nice to be able to talk to someone once in a while. It's different though compared to having a teacher cause if you have questions while studying, you have to list it down and wait until your mentor session. Or sometimes, a concept is important but you end up just skimming it while you read, whereas having a teacher would have really emphasized/expounded on that area. For the content, I really like that Designlab make their own videos/tutorials so I don't have to go look for tutorials especially with using the software (Figma/Sketch). Overall, it's a good foundations program and the tuition commitment is also not too daunting. Like, if you find out that UI/UX is not for you, then you're not throwing away tens of thousands. It gives you allowance to not have to commit yet to the more extensive; more expensive UX Academy (which you take after this Foundations course).

Very thorough, informative and challenging course. I've learned a lot and have come a long way and I really had a great experience. The staff and mentor's are great as well. Super supportive. Would definitely recommend this course. You definitely want to plan your time around this coarse though, working and doing it can be done, but depending on your ours it can be rough. I would still recommend you take it either way!

I took Designlab's UX Academy Foundations course as a prep program for their full fledged UX Academy course. I was only expecting to learn some foundational basics to UX/UI design what I did not expect to receive from the program made the experience that much greater. Each student received weekly 1-on-1 mentor support, free access to the paid version of design tools as perks, online interviews with designers already in the industry with Q&A sessions, and plentiful of access to links outside of the program as external FYI (podcasts, books, blogs, videos, and others). What a joy it has been to be part of the Designlab curriculum. I would recommend this course for anyone interested in learning more about design without having to commit to the full fledged bootcamp.

UX Academy Foundations was an incredibly informative and helpful course. I'm a full-time Mom, I completed the course part-time and this course taught me so much. I have a bachelor's degree in Healthcare Administration and currently, I'm working to get into UX Design. This course was the perfect learning experience for me. The overall structure of the course consisted of a few reading assignments,  tutorials for either Sketch of Figma (I choose Figma), replication assignments (This was duplicating a current design that had good principles), and then a design project of your own. Each week had a specific focus, so whether it was grids and layout, hierarchy, typography, color theory, etc. each lesson built upon the last one. By the end of the course, I had produced my own designs that I was so proud of! There were also a ton of resources provided throughout the course to assist with finding stock photography, icons, and UI Pattern Libraries, and so much more. I loved also that I had a 1:1 weekly meeting with a mentor who was incredibly skilled and currently a working professional. She was awesome and taught me a lot! I'd highly recommend this course for anyone wanting to improve their Visual Design understanding and implementation, and anyone looking to move into UX Design.

I was a complete novice before starting this program, and have learned so much over the course of the 2-ish months that I took to complete it. It is a very comprehensive course for the amount that you pay, and it is a really nice feature that the amount is discounted should you continue on to Designlab’s UX academy course. My mentor was very helpful and gave me a lot of great constructive feedback throughout the course. You have the opportunity to connect with and share your designs with other students in the course on Slack and in open critiques. It is an online course, so it provides the flexibility to complete assignments whenever you’d like, but the downside is that it’s not incredibly immersive if that is what you are looking for.My favorite thing about the DesignLab course is that it allowed me to express myself in a way that I felt like I could not for the longest time! It was so refreshing to learn about a new tool/skill (the iterative design process and using Figma) and then getting a chance to tackle projects that simulate what you might find as a real world designer.I highly recommend Designlab!!

I enjoyed this bootcamp class as someone with zero experience in UX/UI design. The curriculum was self paced, however in order to advance to UX Academy it does have to be completed in 8 weeks. The mentorship experience is a great resource as well as the slack channel. The only con is that in order to move on through certain assignments you need mentor approval of iterations which can delay progress on the course timeline. Overall, great price for a bootcamp with tons of resources.

I had such an amazing experience in UX foundations at Designlab. Not only was I paired with an awesome mentor who helped develop my design skills from scratch, but also the projects and curriculum were well crafted. Overall, I learned a lot and I am excited to start UX academy at the end of this month. 

I just finished the Designlab foundations program, and I really enjoyed it! I was able to complete the program at my own pace, and finished in only four weeks! I was very impressed with the amount of support that's offered throughout the program between the mentoring sessions, the group-crits and the slack channel. There were only a couple of times I got stuck working on a project, but with all the support I received I was able to sort it out pretty quickly. I also appreciate that this program was exactly what was advertised. There are a lot of programs that don't fulfill the promises they make in their marketing, but Designlab was easy, fun, and I'm really happy with what I was able to learn in only 4 weeks! 

I really enjoyed the UX Foundations course with Designlab. It was a great way to test drive the Designlab experience and get a good basis for UI design. I had zero experience in design so I felt this was a really beneficial course to get me on an even playing field with my future peers. My mentor was awesome. She really taught me to how to look at a design and pay attention to the fine details to create more quality work. You have 8 weeks to do the course, but what I really loved was that I could do it at my own pace. If I had more free time, I could advance onward. The tuition for this course can be used towards the UX Academy upon acceptance if you wish to continue.