Designlab

The curriculum was full of great information and links for further reading, but it is also encouraged that you get through this information as quick as possible. Most of the units consist of lots of reading (called lessons) and then a Figma exercise to apply the learning at the end, followed by a quiz. I think this approach can be improved with more checks for understanding throughout the unit, and more opportunities to practice learning in-between lessons. 

The mentorship and community aspect are great. Throughout the course, you can see what others are submitting and even see the feedback that they get and how they address it. I found it really helpful for my learning and it made the experience as a student feel more traditional. Read less

The Designlab course was a fantastic way to get my first look at UI/UX. The curriculum is broken down into bite-sized units that are easy to follow, and the videos are incredibly helpful for visualizing the concepts and following along with the concepts.What I appreciated most is that the program went beyond just the core UI/UX principles. It provided a wealth of additional resources and helped me sharpen my overall design skills, including how to give and receive effective critique.The best part was the one-on-one mentor. My mentor was not only inspiring and supportive but also incredibly helpful. The feedback she gave was invaluable, and she provided me with additional resources that made everything click.I'd highly recommend this course to anyone who is curious about UI/UX! Read less

My experience with Designlab has been excellent. The mentorship from highly experienced designers gave me invaluable guidance and motivation. I especially valued the timely feedback, the active Discord community with workshops, and the inclusion of AI-related content alongside structured learning materials. The foundations course was intense but rewarding, it pushed me to improve quickly and prepared me well for UX Academy. I’d highly recommend it to anyone serious about growing as a designer. Read less

I took this class to discern whether or not to pursue a career change into Product Design. This class definitely helped me make a decision! It is a very intense course for an intro or foundations class; I didn't expect it to be so detailed!  The class goes deep enough to help you decide whether or not you want to continue on to the longer, more rigorous Academy or not without making too much of a financial investment. I thought the class was well worth the money, and the staff were very supportive and encouraging.
One thing to be aware of is that there is a lot of online reading; I expected there to be more videos and fewer articles (although there are videos, too).  Also, this class is  — perhaps like most things in life — entirely what you make of it. There are opportunities to get extra help with Office Hours, and to get your work reviewed by peers, but they are all optional. It's up to you to decide if you will take advantage of these opportunities or not. 
Even though I ultimately decided not to continue on to Academy, I'm still really glad I took this class. I have much more empathy for the designers on my team at work now, and I learned A TON! I hope to still incorporate what I learned into my daily work life in a less formal way. I'd recommend this class to anyone interested in the topic. Read less

This course is perfect for beginners in the UX/UI field. The classes were well structured, and easy enough to follow even if you are completely new. The support team was great, and answered all of my questions in a timely manner. I also had a great experience with my mentor, the perfect match for what I was looking for! Read less

 Look, I’ve got bones to pick with every bootcamp peddling pixel dreams and $8,000 delusions. Most are smoke some are mirrors. But Designlab? This one’s the whole circus. The ringleader of the scam parade. They dressed up busywork as curriculum, slapped “job-ready” on it like a clearance sticker, and let mentors half-baked and half-interested phone it in from the beach. (My one mentor ditched me and only gives linked in recommendations to hot chicks, the second one had a screaming toddlercrawling on her was always late couldn't speak English, my third one made false lies about how he had the power to hire people at his company and that I had a shot at working there.) It’s all shiny decks and Discord smoke until you realize you just paid a luxury price tag to learn what YouTube teaches for free, except with more gaslighting. 

I would highly recommend anyone stay away from any UX design school. While many online design schools operate in a murky space between education and marketing, Designlab stands out as the most egregious example of false promises and predatory practices. I’ve long suspected that many of these programs are more focused on profit than education. Still, this one takes the cake, offering hollow mentorship, copy-paste curriculum, and a refund policy designed to fail you. It hides behind slick branding and vague job guarantees while delivering little of real value. If other programs are merely disappointing, Designlab is outright deceptive—an insult to students who invest their time, money, and hope into building a better future.

Enrolling in Designlab was one of the most disappointing and costly decisions I’ve ever made. What was promised as a launchpad into a UX career turned out to be an overpriced, underwhelming scam masked as a professional design education. My experience can only be described as a year and a half of wasted time, money, and trust.Key Issues:

• Incompetent Mentorship: Despite claiming to be industry professionals, mentors offered little more than recycled clichés. Their advice was generic, unhelpful, and at times, outright wrong. It was clear they were there for a paycheck, not to teach.
• Lack of Real Learning: After two years of self-study in UX, I expected to gain advanced, job-ready skills. Instead, I walked away having learned almost nothing new, as confirmed by a Fiverr designer who bluntly told me my portfolio was “pathetic.”
• False Job Placement Promises: My mentor fabricated stories about internal hiring opportunities and job placements among past students. These were blatant lies. he contradicted himself only weeks later when he forgot he told me and offered it again like he was some saint.
• Empty Career Support: The career services were laughable. Their so-called $8,000 value came down to using a free site (Huntr) and joining Discord channels anyone can access for free. Job tracking and community support can be found online at no cost, and with far better guidance.
• Refund Policy is a Trap: Their tuition reimbursement guarantee is deceptive. Once you apply, they invent additional criteria not listed in their policy to deny you. It's a trap meant to sell you false hope.
• Utterly Useless Outcomes: I’ve applied to thousands of jobs with my “job-ready” resume and portfolio. After two years, I haven’t received a single legitimate offer. Not one.

YouTube taught me more. Google’s Coursera UX course taught me more. Designlab  Designlab was a mirage in the desert of ambition promising water, delivering dust. A monument to wasted time built by those who know better but choose profit over purpose.

Designlab should be reviewed and investigated by both consumer protection agencies and educational oversight organizations due to its misleading advertising, unqualified mentorship, and deceptive refund practices. Agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New York State Attorney General's Office are responsible for holding companies accountable for making false claims and engaging in fraudulent business practices. Additionally, platforms like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot allow affected students to share their experiences publicly and warn others. I wonder why Design Labs isn't listed on the Better Business Bureau (BBB)? Because Designlab operates as an online educational service without recognized accreditation, it falls into a regulatory gray area where consumer rights groups and legal watchdogs must step in to evaluate whether it is engaging in predatory conduct under the guise of career advancement. 

While many online design schools operate in a murky space between education and marketing, Designlab stands out as the most egregious example of false promises and predatory practices. I’ve long suspected that many of these programs are more focused on profit than education. Still, this one takes the cake, offering hollow mentorship, copy-paste curriculum, and a refund policy designed to fail you. It hides behind slick branding and vague job guarantees while delivering little of real value. If other programs are merely disappointing, Designlab is outright deceptive—an insult to students who invest their time, money, and hope into building a better future. Read less

I have successfully finished UX Foundations program from Designlab and I’m so glad I made this choice. 
The program is well-structured. The knowledge you'll need to complete all the projects is provided throughout the lessons, and the one-on-one mentor sessions are the most valuable part of the learning process. Not only will a professional mentor guide you through the entire course, but they will also support your individual strengths and weaknesses—encouraging or challenging you to successfully complete the program and your final project. I believe that even if you already have some knowledge in the design field, you will still benefit greatly from this program.

Highly recommended! Read less

Great introduction into Figma. Lessons were broken up into very manageable subjects; not too light, not too overreaching. Mentor was flexible with one-on-one topics and very knowledgeable. The design information was a review for me given my background, but fell in line with design instruction which was reassuring. Read less

Great experience for a a newbie learning design skills on FIGMA, good supportive mentor. Moderators from Discord community access helped timely completion of course. 2 month long course was well timed and structured to finish on time. The videos and write up lessons and quizzes were all good overall experience. I know FIGMA and design a little better than when i had started my course and laid a foundation for me main bootcamp.  Read less

I took this course as a supplement to my digital marketing job, and I learned so much in a short amount of time! The coursework was rigorous, but the layout of the course and the progression where elements built off previous units was very practical. Unlike most, I took this course without the intent of moving on to the full bootcamp, but I still got a lot out of my 1:1 mentor sessions and was pleasantly surprised at the frequent face-to-face time I was able to have with them. The lessons were interesting and easy to digest, the technical tutorials were paced well and put together thoughtfully, and I really enjoyed the practical design projects.  Read less

I'm in the process of transitioning from video production into UX design. It's a daunting process but Designlab has been great so far! I just completed UX Academy Foundations and am enrolling in the full UX Academy in a few weeks. The course work was informative and easy to digest, about 2/3 of the time is spent in the design tool Figma working on your final project which I really enjoyed. Would recommend!  Read less

Having the option to book up to 8 1-hr mentor sessions with an experienced designer is what sets this foundational course apart. It was really valuable to get feedback from a real designer rather than peers who are also learning the material at the same time as you. My mentor was really flexible and able to book sessions around busy times like election week. You don't work on a unique brief but you gain fundamental skills in UI and learn about what hot AI tools are out there to help your processes become more efficient.  Read less

This course was informative and educational. I learned a lot from the content and my mentor. Since it is introductory, there is not much on career guidance other than what your mentor might tell you. I would say that all of the information provided could be acquired by thorough research, but I found this course to be very helpful in the resources it gave.  Read less

I had a really good experience with the Foundations program. Having no experience with design, this was the perfect way to get an overall basic understanding of design and continue into the  more specialized UX Academy course. The content was very well planned and beginner friendly. My mentor was involved and helpful throughout the course. The additional optional resources and articles after each lesson provides an added layer of explanation for complete beginners like myself. Read less

I had a great Designlab experience, and would recommend for anyone who is looking to transition into UX Design as a career, or just wanting to learn more about UX in general. 

My mentors were fantastic and really shaped my experience and made me a better designer. The mentorship is my favorite part of the program by far. I love that it is self-paced, and that the information is presented in a way that makes sense and allows you to practice your skills throughout the curriculum. I came out with projects and a portfolio that helped me land my first design job. You have group critique sessions, which really help you learn how to receive design feedback. I also love that they offer scholarships (Diversify Design); without these, I could not afford the program.  Read less

It was a challenging experience where i learn the basics about the ui/ux design.the best thing about this course is that you will have the guidelines about a mentor which will give you a feedback about your design and also come in hand with solution with the problems that may be appeas in your design but he will not give it to you diretly but he will put you in a sitution to find the solve by yourself.Also you have the feedback and from other students which you can share your the design with them in the discord platform of Design Lab.
overall i will suggest this course and to other persons that the want to get in hand the basics of the ui/ux design. Read less

The Data-Driven Design course is a great way to get started in getting more of a data based mindset when designing. The course introduced some great frameworks for working with data that i can definitely use at my work.

I did miss getting into some data tools to use and some deeper feedback on the course work. But overall i felt it was a great introduction to the field and i am sure it will help me having a more data focused mindset. Read less

I knew that the course would entail a lot of math, I anticipated struggling with it since it was all new to me. However, it turned out to be less challenging than I expected. 

I foremost needed a basis and a framework to work from. And this course did just that. 

After completing the course, I feel more versatile as a designer. Just like I have another card up my sleeve. It was a confidence booster for sure! Read less

I enjoyed my time in the Foundations course and felt it was a great intro into UI design.  The course is well organized and I enjoyed working in the Designlab platform which allows you to easily track and organize your progress in the course.  The content builds on itself nicely and I felt the progression through the units to be challenging but worthwhile.   Read less