1. UX Academy Foundations

I've been really impressed with Designlab and the whole experience overall. From the very start you're able to "stick your toes in the water" through a series of live video sessions (or "open houses") that they encourage anyone that is interested in learning more about their program / courses and what sets them apart from the other opportunities out there. For me, I was able to help grow my knowledge while experiencing hands-on environments, incredible software (some free and others at discounted rates), group crits, and a weekly one-on-one meeting with an expert in the field known as a mentor (she was a rockstar encourager and challenged my creative process and thinking so well) - this is a big area that sets Designlab apart from others. That and the killer site they've developed for those enrolled. Seriously, if you want to have a good UX/UI experience, look for the places that actually have a good UX/UI experience.  Designlab stands out lightyears above the other places I researched before committing. I really enjoyed being able to grow my portfolio while walking through the learning process and to see the differences from the start to where I am now. There's still a lot to learn and move forward in, but I'm excited to continue moving towards whatever might be next in my creative journey with Designlab helping me get there!

I highly recommend the foundations course at DesignLab. I felt that the course material and projects were really engaging and helpful for me to solidify design principles prior to enrolling to the UX academy. In my opinion, the mentorship aspect is key to DesignLab's success. I always felt that I had a resource and friend throughout the process. No regrets!

I enjoyed the UX Academy Foundations. I learned so much. I struggled along the way but my mentor was always there to help me out. I am so happy I took the course.

I come from a small design background, which definitely helped me in this program. My mentor, Sarah, has been absolutely amazing in her critique and just being a genuine person. Throughout my experience at DesignLab, all of my questions were answered quickly and accurately. I rarely had any floating questions they didn't know the answer to. I'm currently going through a career change, and I have never felt more confident than choosing DesignLab.

I really enjoyed this well-structured course. It is a foundations of UI/UX design course recommended for anyone starting out in the field and wanting to move on to UX Academy bootcamp program.

This bootcamp was definitely an enjoyable and fun way of learning Ux/ui design and will continue to the next step.

I loved the DesignLab Foundations course. It taught me all the basic of UX/UI Design and how to build and create nice, clean webpages and app screens. The pros to the Foundations course includes: 1) Assigned mentor: You have a mentor there that you can used for 8 sessions to schedule appointments with for feedback and additional help. 2) Saved Coursework: You are able to review your peers coursework in the Designlab website for inspiration. This helped me a lot when I got stuck with trying to design things. Also, if you need to look back on your work and edit it, it will stay on the course website. 3) User-Friendly: The Designlab courses are user friendly and extremely easy to navigate. Although there are a lot of pros, there is one con that I can think of for the DesignLab course. For example, the content is strictly online only and you have to teach yourself. There are no distance learning or in-person courses.

Foundations is a great little glimpse into UX if you’re just starting out. The fact that you’re paired with a mentor is wonderful, they give you constructive feedback on your designs (and great life advice too). Overall, it was a fun experience :) 

An amazing program with great mentors! 

I'd highly recommend the UX Foundations course (don't let the name fool you.) It does teach the basics, but they have great exercises that help you practice what you're learning and unleash a little bit of your own creativity. When I started UX Foundations, I was balancing a full-time job and the course. Although I fell a little behind due to my job's demanding schedule, everyone in the Designlab community was very supportive. The units in UX Foundations course was a good mix of lessons and practice. I spent a bunch of time really practicing what I learned instead of just reading them and that really improved my overall designs a lot. This was such a fun and really well done course and a great way to transition into UX Academy!

I really liked Designlab’s foundation course because of how fun and relaxed it is. The staff is awesome. There are many features to their program such as being able to explore your peers’ work, an open comment system for feedback, your own mentor, and group crits. It was a pleasure logging on because of how clean, fun, and easy their interface is! There aren’t any complaints on my end other than a few “could be better” moments with my mentor. Sometimes my mentor didn’t understand what I was asking, didn’t go into much detail about critiquing my work at times, and didn’t initiate the convo in most of our meetings. There were some moments where the projects given totally reformed, revamped, and improved my designs and I also learned how to design on Figma!I would recommend this course for people who have never taken design and depending on your previous design experiences, this program could be a breeze for you yet still be of great value :)

I am a captain in the united states merchant marines currently working for a tugboat company in san francisco bay. However, I am considering a transition into a ux/ui role and this course was incredibly helpful for someone who knew nothing about what goes into becoming a ux/ui designer. The course was great and I learned a lot but where the real money is, I believe, is the one on one mentorship. I got along great with my mentor and feel like I have a strong foundation to build further on. I told him to be tough on me and he was fair about everything I turned in. Not only was this helpful for completing the course but we also got to talk about his experience in the industry, how he started out, mistakes he made and anything else I could think of. I would definitely recommend this to a friend.

I really enjoyed taking this course. The presentation of the coursework was well organized. They offer 1-on-1 mentorship which I found to be the best aspect of this course. After completing this course, I felt I learned a lot. I'd highly recommend this course to anyone looking to get into UX. 

I just completed the UX academy foundations course. I absolutely Loved it. I finished it within 2 months. The overall course was well planned out, every week i was definitely learning something new.  I started with no knowledge of design and now i look at websites and think " I could recreate that". ( The simple websites) but more than i could when i started. I met up with my mentor once a week and went over my course work. The reading material and the projects are great exercises.  As the course went on i looked at the upcoming projects i had to do and i was so intimidated by them, but once I got to it i knew exactly what i was doing. The support from my mentor and the slack group was great, and there's always something going on weather it be webinars, fun projects, and just if you need help with something somebody is always there to respond. As I said coming into the course I didn't know what I was doing if I was going to proceed into the academy, but i really enjoyed the course and I've applied to get into the academy and see what more I can learn. I would highly recommend this course for somebody trying to break out and try something new the foundations course will give you a taste of what more you can learn. 

UX Academy Foundations was a great start to learning UX/UI. They teach you design fundamentals and enforce it by pairing you with a working designer.

UX foundations course lays out the basics of UI before diving into the bootcamp.Overall, the units are nicely laid out and each build upon principles from the previous lesson. The foundations course is self-paced and you the support of their online slack community which is very helpful. The best value for me was the 1:1 mentoring that the course provides; I was fortune to be paired with a great mentor giving me proper guidance as I navigated the course and tips/anecdotes from his experience within the UX field.

Pros: This course was a great way to get a feel for the UX/UI industry. It mostly focuses on UI design and you learn the fundamentals of using the tool of your choice, as well as general design concepts. Cons: there was quite a bit of reading, and it'd be helpful if there was more interactive content such as videos, quizzes etc. The UI for project submissions and annotations was a bit messy in my opinion, as you couldn't reply to the individual comment. If you had to make a lot of revisions, it became a long muddy list.

DesignLab has a good starter system for people who wants to change their career into UX/UI. I am a student who decided to change my career after I have graduated with a BA in Consumer Science. I wanted to share my experience with anyone who might in the same situation. During my search for a UX bootcamp, I found DesignLab to be the most beneficial in terms of projects and hands-on work. I thought it would be a good idea since I wanted solid projects on my portfolio in the end. I have only taken the Foundation course and it has been a great experience. I am in the process of applying for their UX Academy program. I have had a few issues regarding the system and my mentor, but DesignLab's team has always been super helpful and accommodating. The Foundation course is absolutely beginner-friendly, I would recommend this to anyone who is new to design and wanted to get more practice with tools like Figma or Sketch. The curriculum is easy to digest and understand while having the best results in projects. Meeting with mentors might be awkward, but I think they are super helpful in getting the student where they want to be. I guess the only cons that I could think of is the number of sessions you get with your mentor. Students are only provided 8 sessions and the first one is an introduction meeting to know more about your mentor. I do understand that the mentors have their own schedule, but limiting the sessions to 8 might be too little. I was able to fit everything I wanted into the 8 sessions, but I wished I had more. Overall, I do believe the pros definitely outweigh the cons. To rephrase, DesignLab Foundation course is a great program for people who are new to design with no experience. The course is very informative and I think it's a great start for anyone who wants to get into the UX/UI industry. 

Absolutely loved it! It was a perfect foundation course for people who don't have any design background, like myself. Basic design principles, visual elements and concepts were taught in the course, which helps "activate" my design eyes and look at things (even in daily life) differently. The course can be done at your own pace - typically 1 unit a week, which requires about 10 hours to finish. There are lectures, learning materials, quizzes, notes, and projects due at the end of each unit. Projects are very well instructed, fun and challenging at the same time. Also, each week you get to have an hour meeting with your mentor whom they assigned to you, you will be able to present your work to your mentor, receive any feedbacks for iteration or simply ask any questions you have! It was a good way to make connections. Towards the end of the course, you will have to finish a 10 hour challenge on your own and submit it for committee's review, and if approved, you will be able to enroll into their UX Academy course. Overall great experience, the platform itself is very easy to use, most of the lecture and materials are designed in-house, my mentor was so supportive and encouraging, which made my experience in the course much more enjoyable. Now, I can't wait to start the UX Academy in June! Oh one more thing - good thing is that everything is remote, so you can take the course anywhere in the world, in your preferred timezone :)

Though I had some work experience in the design industry, I never attended any design college before everything I learned was in bits and pieces. I was looking for a well-structured course that covers the basics of the visual design and design process that will help me build strong design foundations. I did a lot of online research and found DesignLab to be the best learning platform and decided to enroll in the UX Academy Foundation course. Now that I have completed the course, I can say that the syllabus is very well-structured, and the content is easy to digest and understand. The main highlight is the 1-1 mentor sessions, and my mentor was really supportive and guided me throughout the course by giving constructive feedback and clearing my doubts. I completed the course successfully on time, and I would also be taking the next step by applying for their UX Academy Course.This course is really great for beginners, and I recommend this course to anyone interested in switching their careers and who wishes to work in the design industry.