Designlab

My mentor Jessica was really excellent, and went above and beyond to tailor the course to my own project interests. The emphasis on design critique and iteration was fantastic, as so few online short courses have this feature! Generally, the content itself was well curated, relevant and heavily focused on the practical application of skills through projects, so you have a valuable set of projects to add to a personal portfolio, should you so wish to do so.

The only caveat would be that you get out from this course what you put in - so to anyone thinking of doing a DesignLab short course, my recommendation would be to thoroughly review their Sketch/Figma/XD tutorials beforehand, and make sure you're well acquainted with the design tool of your choice before you begin!

A huge incentive to choosing Designlab was the mentorship. Though I chose the 4 week short course, it was great to know that I would have a mentor throughout the course available to help me with concepts in the lessons, providing me feedback on my projects, challenge me, and meeting with me in one-on-one 1 hour sessions. That and the fact that I would be working with someone in the field--a Designlab success story--gave me the accountability I needed to complete this course. My mentor was a Designlab alum and I think I especially benefitted from that because she had a reference to great mentorship to provide mentorship and confidence to me. I was concurrently taking an Interaction Design course through Coursera which is $40 per month and the difference between the engagement I had was huge.

The UX of the lessons made the concepts easily digestible and each lesson was supplemented with projects which really benefited my understanding of the material. I would say that the lesson on heuristics needed further Googling to supplement my understanding; my Coursera course was also a huge help for supplementing this section but otherwise all concepts were well explained through the lessons and projects. The time estimates I feel were not always accurate as I definitely spent more time on each project due to my own slow process or having addressing my mentor's feedback for revisions on my projects. I believe that you definitely put in the amount of time and effort that ultimately aligns with your goals and I definitely wanted to put in my best professional foot forward for every project. I enjoyed the challenges of the projects and it was particularly useful to have other classmate work and their mentors' feedback visible; it reminds me of the critiques that would take place in in-person design classes.

While the course claims to provide projects to add to your portfolio, I think it honestly provides you all the different pieces for a single but complete case study to add to your portfolio. I'm really happy I dived into this course, it was one of the most fulfilling 4-weeks I've had and definitely opens me up to the idea of taking the bootcamp with Designlab once I decide whether a job change is my goal. Shout out to Olga A. for being an amazing mentor! Get you a mentor genuinely wants you to succeed!

A great asset of this course is that you get a mentor to support you. You have 4 live sessions with the mentor and you also get written feedback on your tasks/projects through the platform. You'll be able to see how fellow students tackle the tasks via the platform. The mentor has been great for my motivation and to keep going and improving. The fact that you are doing hands-on projects makes you learn by doing, my favorite way of learning. You also learn whenever you want (morning, evening, daytime) whatever fits best and that's great as it offers great flexibility. 
Even though it says around 10 hours per week of work, you spend more time on the hands-on tasks if you want to do them good to be able to show a portfolio piece. The theory is easy to take in (well structure, in bite-size chunks of 20min mostly), but for the tasks/projects, you often spend more than the time they estimate. 

As with any bootcamp, you really get out what you put in. From my perspective, Designlab did a great job of setting me up well. When my mentor had a family emergency and had to step back, DL provided a flawless transition to a new mentor and gave me an extra mentor session. Although the course went by quickly, the material was holistic yet relevant and worked well towards the final project. From my mentor I felt challenged as well as encouraged, and have a much better sense of the UX industry and possible avenues to check out based on my own strengths and interests. 

Being a perfectionist meant I spent much more time than what they estimated on the work. If I didn't have extra time to devote to this course, it would have been difficult to prioritize my time and finish everything well. Highly recommend! 

When starting this program, I was a nervous because I wasn't sure what I was getting my self into. I majored with a business degree, but I wanted a change in my career in design. I was recommended by my cousin about Design101 and did some more research on it. I decided to go for it and took Design101 and see where it will take me. Once I was in the program, I was given a mentor to help me throughout my course of 4 weeks. This was really helpful because I never had a mentor before, and working with a mentor was the greatest thing that happen. I was given tips and advices from working professional, and they were able to give me critique on my projects. I really enjoyed the challenges that Design101 presented, and learned a lot from it.

I chose design 101 specifically for its connection to mentors in the UX Design field, and was not disappointed. My mentor (Robbin Arcega) went above and beyond to offer me advice on any and all topics we discussed (as they correlated to UX Design) during our weekly 1-on-1s. Beyond that she taught me to practice efficiency and how to prioritize my goals, even providing a rundown of Design jobs and the hiring cycle of design companies. 
That having been said, I would not have found this experience nearly as beneficial without my mentor. Understanding that this is a 101 class that focused mainly on the basics of UX Design, I think there was so much crammed into such a short amount of time, that I was mostly just overwhelmed with information without much of an opportunity to practically apply it. Regardless, I would recommend the course to those considering the UX Design field, with the caveat that they MUST be proactive and engaged with their mentor.

I chose to jump into UX Academy hoping to change careers into UX/Product Design. I had weighed between Bloc and Designlab at the time and chose Designlab in order to wholly focus on UX Design. So I paid the upfront $5200 to start my journey. I was excited to start and was expecting a well thought out format in teaching and learning about the design process. However, after going through the complete course I can say that there was not much value beyond what could be found through viewing other graduates online portfolios and following the process much like they do (supplemented by free sources online).

The best part of my experience with Designlab was the mentorship. My mentor was amazing and was able to help me understanding what part of the process is relevant and important to focus on. There were a lot of things he would explain that the course itself would not share. 

The other good thing about the course is getting you to have a discipline to stay on course and focus on product design for a certain amount of time. It pushed me to learn and practice everything, which otherwise I probably wouldn't.

Beyond those two things, there was not much value that Designlab put forth is being able to help you swtich careers. There would be group critique sessions that would not be entirely helpful as critiques were coming from other students who are just learning as well. There are one facilitator that would provide great feedback, however, the focus would be for other students to participate so the feedback would be limited. 

The 3 capstone projects during Phase 2 of the course are great projects to get you to practice everything. However, the prompts are simple and you could do these without having to actually go through the course. 

For a UX bootcamp, there are also a lot of UX issues with their online platform. It can get frustrating to navigate and actually keep track of things.

Finally, if you're hoping to stay eligible for tuition reimbursement after 6-months of job searching, make sure you follow their eligibility requirements perfectly. If you miss one thing in any way, they will not sympathize with you. They will find any excuse to not get you your refund. They are incredibly dismissive and have personally made me feel like I was an afterthought.

After graduating, career services isn't so much service but more bookkeeping for their sake. The support here purely comes from your mentor.

After this experience, I somewhat regret spending an entire year with them and spending the $5200. I would suggest that perhaps it would be more worth your while to find alternative cheaper ways to learn the design process and work on your own projects. Alternatively, I believe an on-site course (despite the higher price) would be much better, as you would have instructors with you there at all times and fellow students to learn alongside.

I hope this helps whoever is hoping to change careers!

 

As I decided to change my carreer and to go into product design earlier this year, I was looking for some course to do such a thing. I went for designlab after trying their 7 days courses for Sketch and Figma. I tried other online course and looked through reviews but this school was the one I wanted to apply to.

In fact, I did the Design 101 course to get started in this new domain. It's my first online course and I was affraid of being alone with my computer, lessons and assesments to do. But no. Designlab is a nice course in which you're always surrounded by others students, mentors and staff. You can easily discuss about your assesments with someone else to avoid any issue. I do loved the fact a mentor helped me out during the whole course, I was able to share some and find new ressources thanks to the other students and the staff was allways here. To be honest, I had some issue with some documents and they helped me out in a few hours even if there's two oceans between us.

The best quality of this course is the fact you'll go in a binomial with your mentor. They'll be there to give you some advices, ways to work and feedbacks for all your assesment and you'll be able to discuss with them about their daily routine at work, share new ressources. The more you go into the course, the more they know you, your painpoints, your way to work and they can help you in the way you do need.

As I just finished this course, I'm already thinking of joining another one to keep improving my profile but, IMO, I got to stay with Designlab as they helped me out all the way down the coursework I had.

I recently completed UX Research & Strategy with DesignLabs and couldn't be more happy with the course!  I am newer into the User Research field and was looking for a course that would give me a solid foundation of what UX is all about and this course nailed it!  

It's a four-week course; each week includes reading material, sometimes videos and small assignments that help you practice what you just learned that week.  The information is very digestible -- and I love that they offer some additional resources at the end of each topic, that if you're interested in digging deeper, you can!  I also love that the assignments help you practice what you're learning.  

You're assigned a mentor - so each time you complete an assignment, your mentor reviews your work, comments on the submission and notes any additional work you might need to do in order to fully understand the concept.  I've found the communication via the DesignLabs platform and with my mentor to be extremely easy.  

Also, with your mentor, you'll have weekly 1-on-1 sessions!  My mentor, Erika, was amazing! We were able to talk about what we just learned in the online course, the assignment as well as anything else that I needed to understand more of.  She is really fantastic and was MORE than what I could have hoped for. 

This course gives a solid foundation of research methodologies as well as practical practice assignments that help you grasp the concepts more easily!

I took the UX Research & Strategy course through Designlab. Being in Front End Development, I'm exposed to a lot of UX talk but not quite the formal experience. I researched through various bootcamps out there. Some were just too expensive and time consuming for my budget. Some courses went over topics I already knew from work experience such as responsive design. The things I enjoy the most about DL are the mentorship and the projects. I'm currently enrolled in another program that's only reading, watching videos, and participating discussion forms. I feel like I don't quite get the feedback I'm expecting from doing that course work. With DL, I feel like it's more hands-on projects with a lot of great feedback from my mentor. My mentor was a perfect match for me with her energy and the experience she can provide to me. She not only gave me advice on how to approach the course but how I can approach the same situation in real life. I had such a great experience with her that I would definitely continue to keep in touch with her even after the course ends. I originally was debating about taking UX Academy but I think with my current work experience, taking Interaction Design would suffice in my UX training. 

It is a bit tough to complete the course in 4 weeks when life happens (hurricanes, family illnesses, etc.) but the course still allows you to finish even after the course ends. If you're looking for something super in-depth with some intense reading, this isn't the course for you. If you're doing the short courses, you can marry this with other reading intensive courses from other places, UX reading material from publishers like Rosenfeld Media, or other free online resources. To me, the value is from your interaction with the mentor as well as feedback from your peers on project work. 

I've already recommended DL to quite a few colleagues and friends.

UX Academy was a wonderful decision and I am so happy that I decided to take the leap. During my time at UXA, I was a student and became a student advocate to help guide and support new students. While a student and a student advocate, I worked with people from all different backgrounds and since finishing the program, we have all entered the UX design field. It does not matter what your experience is before UXA, if you follow the curriculum and give it your all, you will come out of the course as a UX Designer.  I went into the program wanting to learning UX Design and now I am a UX Designer.

I would absolutely recommend UX Academy. In addition to the thorough coursework, the UX Academy has incredibly talented, supportive, and knowledgable mentors that guide students through learning UX principles. At the UX Academy, you will learn to be a UX Designer and will learn so many additional skills that will apply to your future careers.

Before UX Academy, I was a freelance graphic designer/stay at home mom. I wanted to rejoin the workforce full time and pursue a career in UX design. I liked Designlab's UX academy because they had a full curriculum laid out for me, a mentor, and I would graduate with a professional-level portfolio. The experience was very positive and I had a great outcome. The coursework was engaging and my mentor was always helpful in his feedback. The career mentor encouraged me in my job search after graduation, which definitely helped me from getting "job search burnout." About three months after graduating from UX Academy, I landed a full time job as a UX designer at a great company. My transition into my new career would not have been as smooth without Designlab.

My decision to pursue a career change with the help of DesignLab's UX academy was one of the best decision I have made in my life!

I felt that the course properly prepared me to take on an entry-level position in UX. The project-based coursework is solid, the readings insightful, and the mentors are world-class designers who are deeply interested in your growth as a UX designer.

I would not be where I am today if not for the UX Academy!

To be honest, the entry-level UX market is saturated, but if you work hard and take time to understand the fundamentals and can clearly explain the why behind your designs, you will be in a very good spot!

My advice to prospective students who are evaluating UX bootcamps, , write down a list of things you expect to get from the course and hunt down alumni on LinkedIn and ask them about their experience in relation to the things you are hoping to get from your education.

I joined UX Academy full time after years working around building digital products but with no formal experience in design. After three months I was able to create a portfolio, develop my own apps and now I have a job as a UX/UI Designer in a big company in The Netherlands where I now live (I'm from Mexico).

I'd recommend this program to anybody looking to make a carreer change or become a UX Designer, you'll learn all the basics to research, wireframe, prototype and test a digital product, even the worflow itself! 

As a tip, choose the time format you are able to comit to, since the program can be very demanding and in order to get the best out of it, you need to spend time actually working on your designs and sharing feedback with your fellow students.

I'm an educated and experienced professional making a career transition to UX Design. But my biggest obstacle was lacking any experience with Figma. UX Academy Foundations not only provided me the opportunity to learn to navigate comfortably in Figma, but it also did an excellent job refreshing me on design principles I'd studied in college decades ago, while also challenging me to do more than what was expected just to get through the course. Because ultimately, my goal is the knowledge itself, not just the certificate. And I feel confident now continuing on into UX Academy with what I've learned so far.