User Experience Design (Short Course)

My course instructors Mervy, Donovan, Clarice (TA) and Samantha (career coach) were perfect for me because they were so kind to share deep industry experience and insights on UX industry & also how I should position myself as a career switcher. I believe that learning from them spurted personal growth not just in UX design but in general my design career. 

I completed the part-time UX Design course and thoroughly enjoyed the content. We successively added on to our projects as we learned new aspects of UX. I was able to build on my project throughout the course and was thrilled with the final product - something I can show off as a portfolio piece and present to current and future employers! 

After completing and passing the course, I had to wait over 3 months for the company to provide me my certificate of completion. I had to pester and constantly follow up, and never was provided any more information than, 'we're working on it.' Only until i resorted to social media did something actually get done about it. For a company that works with industry leaders I was blindsided by such a poor experience. I will not be taking a course from GA again.

I'm based in Singapore and I enrolled into this part time course after seeing this institution being recommended by IMDA Singapore (Sg's Media Development Authority). Prior to this, I just graduated with a Bachelor in Communication Design. However, I'd like to expand my skillset and learn more about UI/UX design so that I'll be able to land a job in this field.  This part time course was held twice a week via Zoom over the period of 3 months. I personally felt that the pace was just right and the duration of each lesson was perfect (2hrs). Our instructors were professionals who have been working in the UI/UX industry for quite some time and thus, were more than qualified to lead the course. Apart from Zoom, we utilised Slack as a communication platform to reach out to fellow classmates and instructors.  As for my classmates, we all came from diverse backgrounds. Some equipped with design knowledge while some aren't. However, everyone was very supportive and shared whatever knowledge or things they found. Initially, the idea of being in a class full of working professionals whereas I was just a degree holder, felt daunting but after the first class, I found myself looking forward to my lessons because my classmates & instructors made everyone feel belonged.  In terms of the lessons, each lesson was covered in-depth and my instructors were very meticulous in explaining the concepts to ensure the lessons were well executed and understood. While the main instructor lead the lesson, the other instructor kept a lookout for any questions that appeared in the chat and would promptly address them.  During each lesson, we will have a partner exercise where we'll be paired up randomly with a classmate to discuss about the task or activity given. I really enjoyed this part of the course as it's so much easier to work in pairs and at the same time, I got to meet new people each week and learnt about their working life and experiences. It was interesting to be given a hands on opportunity to apply the knowledge taught during the lesson and from there, we'd know if we had truly understood the lesson. At the end of the course, we will present our prototype project which we have been working on, to the rest of the class. It was really fun seeing how each and everyone came up with their ideas and designed their prototypes. We were then tasked to provide feedbacks to our classmates - 1 glow & 1 grow  Overall, this course is a good start for anyone looking to have a career start or a career switch to the UI/UX field. There will be tons of resources shared by the instructors in the Slack platform. Additionally, whenever you needed extra guidance outside of lesson period, you can always schedule an appointment with any of the instructors and they will be more than happy to assist you. Would definitely recommend this to anyone interested to build a career in UI/UX. 

Certification course for UX Design for General Assembly.

I took this course from June to August of last year. I received my certificate of what I assumed to be a somewhat challenging but realistic journey to employment. Professor Kiri and Victor were great! They've been available for critiques and references. I have no issues with them at all; however, I do not take the online course with the expectations of getting hired after. I came from a completely different industry (which they encourage), but I was not expecting it to be like this. In the Immersive program, the professors have time to go over what to expect on your application journey. Online...we covered what to expect after class was over for about 30 minutes. They do not tell you what to look add to your portfolio, nor do they help you find jobs. I was also told that I would be notified of different groups in my area for UX. I was not. I know I sound like a bitter person, in which I would agree, but please be aware of this when you agree to do the online program. I have responsibilities as an adult, so I cannot just quit my job to move to a completely different city. If I had family there, then maybe, but this experience after completing the course has been brutal and very discouraging, to say the least. Very dissatisfied bt this whole experience. If I could get a refund...I would! DO NOT GO FOR THE SHORTER COURSES! Take your time, do the 6+ months. 

My experience with General Assembly started off very rocky. I'm not your traditional student just looking for another class they can take for the experience. I wanted to learn a new skill for a career change. I think that goal was met; however, I am still looking for employment in the field. I've joined a few Meetup groups and went to one conference, so I'm going to keep trying. 

I also got a moment to speak with other designers and learning the process isn't enough. You need to learn code. I know that as a UX Designer/Researcher, you shouldn't have to learn code, but I've noticed that employers don't really understand what we do so if you don't fit the minimum application requirements you are out of luck. I really was hoping that there would be help getting your portfolio together, but there was nothing. To be quite frank, if you are looking for more case studies to put on your portfolio (btw, if you take the online cohort they will not help you with this) you will have to go with a longer class (i.e. DesignLab, Springboard, etc.). They give you more ways to present your work. We only had the option to work on a responsive site or a mobile application (10 weeks vs 9 months).

If you are committed to working on this class at least 20 hours a week...you'll pass. My TA took a while to get back to us with grades, but he makes himself available for you if you ask. The instructor will also. In my opinion, the instructors made the experience for me great. They will answer any questions you may have about being in the field. The class is very interactive and you are allowed to critique your peers.

Advice for GA would be to make the job assistance available for all students and add coding to your course. For those that come from a completely different industry, this would help tremendously.

I found the GA UX Research & Design PT Course very enjoyable. I learned a lot and I feel that the curriculum gave me a solid understanding of the UX Research & Design process from end to end. Marcella was a great teacher and made all of the concepts understandable and applicable to where we all were in our professional careers. She was always available for extra help and advice which I really appreciated. It was a lot of work and in my opinion required more of a time commitment than the course syllabus suggested. Because it is a PT class it moved very quickly which caused me to get behind a few times throughout the course. I also found the curriculum to be a bit disjointed and unorganized.  This is primarily because the online pre and home work did not seem to match up with the 2 day a week in class schedule. There were a few times I had to go back and review because sections were out of order. Overall, it is a good course that would definitely be 5 stars with some fine tuning. 

staff was great especially teaching assistant. However, duration was too short.

I have been in graphic/visual design for 8+ years of my career. I know the ins and outs of it and I know I'm pretty good at it. However, I knew I wanted to pivot my career. I was tired of being a pixel pusher, and I wanted a bit of a change. UX really is the future, and so after a lot of conversations and preparation, I decided to register for the parttime UX Design course. It took place every Tuesday and Thursday evening, from 6:30 - 8:30 PM, for 3 months. 

Luckily, I live in Midtown so the commute wasn't the worst, but traffic absolutely sucks when you're in a rush to go right after work. I work until 6 PM, so I definitely had to move it. Luckily, I was late maybe once the entire time. It was an easy commute otherwise.

The course itself was laid out very well. I will sincerely say, I enjoyed my experience with the General Assembly. I learned SO MANY new things over the three months, but it also allowed me to pinpoint areas in my career where I've already used UX principles without realizing it. You basically start from the very beginning of the process, all the way to the very end: problem statements, user interviews and personas, competitive analysis, user flows and sitemaps, wireframes, and prototypes. I would say 2/3 of the time, you're learning more about the UX research principles, and 1 month is dedicated more to the actual design process, such as wireframing and prototypes. One of the biggest benefits for me was learning how to take the data from interviews and user testing and actually apply it to my product. You learn that with UX design, the design strategies you start to implement, are data-driven and done for a reason, and not just because someone tells you to do it a certain way. 

Our instructor was very well prepared and did a great job making sure we understood what she was teaching each evening. But she was more than just an instructor. She was our friend and our mentor. I lacked confidence and second-guessed my abilities, but she helped push and challenge me the entire time. In the end, she also pushed me to be more confident in my skills. She was definitely a driving factor to my excitement to take the course. 

Be warned, the three months isn't easy. What I mean by that is it's a commitment. Some days you absolutely won't want to go to class, but you're paying to learn a wide range of skills that will benefit you in the long run. There were days that I had to drag myself to go. But I'm glad I did. I learned something new in every class. I also made some connections that I wouldn't have made otherwise.

The biggest and only real negative is that as a part-time student, you do not get help with job placement or networking. Sure, General Assembly looks great on your LinkedIn, but that's sort of the extent of what you get besides a completion certificate. If you're absolutely brand new to UX or design, and you're looking to make it your career after completion, I would actually recommend maybe considering the full-time immersive program. They give you far more portfolio pieces in the end (3 to 5 versus just 1 in the part-time), and they do their best to help with job placement. I was really lucky that as a graphic designer, I was able to tweak some of my work to speak to the UX of a given project. Others may not have been as lucky.

Costwise, it wasn't cheap either. The part-time program costs just under $4,000. They do offer some payment plans, which helped a lot. I don't think anyone can just drop that kind of money in one swoop. So it's not cheap, but I genuinely think you do get the value out of it. 

Do I recommend the part-time program? Absolutely. If you have a job that you're not ready to give up yet, definitely consider the part-time course. I would not have learned as much as I did, or taken it as seriously if I had taken the online course. I, unfortunately, do not know anyone who has taken the online course, but I do know some who have taken the full-time course, and they got out of it exactly what they were wanting. I got out of the part-time course, exactly what I wanted too. 

I already work as a designer and just needed to learn a bit more about UX. Just wanted to let others know that I enrolled in their part time 10 week course and found it quite useful. Of course this is not a comprehensive career switching course and only provides a good starting point (you will need to do much more in the future on your own or through other programs), but it provides good basic knowledge about the field and skills needed.

I do not regret enrolling and think that the course helped me get a boost in my design career. Not life-changing, but the course is pretty good.

I went into the course with 2 eyes open and yet, the course manages to surprise me with the flexibility of the UX Design Process. Love the applicability of the design process and hopefully, I can make use of the process in what I do now (I am a curriculum designer). Doing it part-time with a full-time job was a killer though :)