Designlab

DesignLab was a great program for what I was looking for--I wanted to learn new skills to change my career from Sales into a more creative, design field. I felt that it prepared me well for a career in UX. One of the reasons I chose DL over other courses was because you end up with 4 total case studies on your portfolio which was a huge plus. I feel that the curriculum covered about everything needed to be a successful UX Designer.

Keep in mind that it's very much a self-led curriculum with regular check-ins with your mentor. I had great mentors, but I'd say that's one of the downsides to the program--no professors, lectures, etc. Also, keep in mind that UX is a super competitive field. I spent nearly 3 months looking for a job after graduation and applied to over 200 jobs. Eventually, I ended up taking a job at a start-up that isn't a full-time UX Designer position, but it's a stepping stone into the right direction to hopefully land a full-time position in the future. I knew it wasn't going to be easy going into the program, which ended up being very true. I had doubts along the way, but ultimately I feel I made the right choice and I'm closer to a career I am passionate about than ever before.

Designlab’s UX Academy was an overall positive experience.  Since finishing the program, I’ve recommended the course to several people who found themselves in the position I was in prior to beginning the course- stuck in a job they hate, barely keeping above water financially, and looking for a new direction.  The course prepares you for a career- as long as you are willing to put in the work.  It is more rigorous than I anticipated, but Designlab is very supportive and willing to help as needed

I had a great experience with Designlab. I already had some experience in UX going into this course but came into it wanting to hone my visual design skills and dedicate time to putting together a portfolio. Designlab's biggest strength is its network of mentors; I loved all 3 mentors (Phase 1, Phase 2, Career Services) I worked with throughout the course, and they really opened my eyes to the various shapes a UX career can take. Group critiques also help you to network with new people, hear from a variety of perspectives, and learn about the most relevant industry standards/resources in real time.

The one drawback of a remote, asynchronous course is the fact that it can sometimes feel isolating. I would highly recommend this program to self-starters who feel comfortable structuring their own time and motivating themselves. I can tell that DL is working on creating more avenues for connection with your peers, and I really appreciate how much they iterate on feedback to improve the student experience.

I find it hard to believe there is a better value UX program out there. Quitting my job and jumping in full-time was definitely a financial risk, but in just a few months, I've already been able to pay back the money I spent on the program and raised my baseline pay significantly. Designlab is one of the wisest investments I've made in myself. If you put in the work, you will see results!

Designlab was a fantastic experience as I pivoted into UX and product design. The content itself was good-not-great (most of it you can learn on your own) BUT I had absolutely amazing mentors, that both inspired and pushed me to grow to where I am now. 

In my experience, Designlab was absolutely worth it, but I do want to list some of my personal caveats and tips:

• Make sure you really want to pursue UX/UI/Product Design beforehand. 
  •  Do some research and networking and talk to some current designers. First of all, they'll probably LOVE talking to you and second, they'll be super valuable later for networking purposes.
  • Dive into some of the introductory stuff: (Whether its books like The Design of Everyday Things or Just Enough Research, podcasts, or articles)

• A Bootcamp is NOT like a college degree.
  • My experience with traditional degrees was that getting into the college or program was an accomplishment. Then, the content you learn is absolutely helpful, but graduating is a key factor. Your degree has worth and value.
  • For this Bootcamp, in my opinion, the certification (finishing) isn't really worth much. It's not a school as much as it is a tool. Therefore, it's not about just putting in the time to slink by and graduate, it's really about making sure you are learning, growing, and connecting every step of the way so that you can apply that knowledge during and afterward.
  • For me, that meant making sure I understood each assignment, spending a lot of time on the assignment to do it well (usually above the recommended amount), and several iterations based on my mentor's comments.

• The Mentor Relationship is EVERYTHING.
  • Basically, the program is a bunch of articles, exercises, and deadlines that you can easily find, replicate, and do on your own (that's not a slight on the material, you can get the syllabi for almost any college course). The value comes from your weekly one-on-one mentor meetings. Prep for these.
  • It's your mentor's role to both 1. Encourage you and 2. Push you to grow 
  • Therefore: If you don't think your mentor is doing a good job at both of these, switch! ASAP! It might be awkward, but that self-advocacy is huge! My mentors were FANTASTIC at both #1 and #2  and it made my experience so incredibly helpful. Please make sure you do what you can do have a similar experience.
  • One last quick bit: Find a group crit facilitator that you really like, and lean on their wisdom as well. 

• Understand the Curriculum and How To Approach It 
  • The First Phase is going through the design thinking process with a single project: slowly learning aspects of the process, applying them, iterating, etc. This is the big educational portion.
  • The Second Phase is three capstone projects. Each has some loose guidelines but treat this as the beginning of your freelance career. The more you can do real work (work with real clients, real developers, real products) the easier it will be to share in future job interviews and the more appealing you will look to potential employers. 

• Finding a Job is a Process
  • During Phase 2, take time to understand aspects of the job search process with your mentor. 
  • You'll have to understand and craft a narrative around: Why did you switch to UX Design? What aspects of your background will make you a unique asset to your future company?
  • Networking is so, so important.
  • Learn about the Portfolio Review Interview process, and how you can be tailoring your capstone projects into a slide deck. 

Overall Designlab is a great program that will get you hired. There is definitely some room for improvement on the education material- some things are a bit outdated,  however their mentorship program is what is truly brilliant about the program.  I worked with Minnie Kim and I cannot recommend a better mentor. I actually was hired as a UX designer after phase one of the academy because of her guidance and ability to prep me for the real world. She really prepared me for the interview process and how the industry is different from the educational world of UX. I actually got hired on my first UX job interview....I started interviewing early to gain experience and was offered a job! The coolest thing is that Minnie is also a grad of Designlab so she was the perfect person to help me navigate through the program. 

I chose this course for the mentorship and networking opportunities and I wasn't disappointed. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor for UX Academy - he had a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, was encouraging and supportive but also pushed me to produce the best work possible. The opportunities for networking are really valuable and Designlab has a large and very active community. Making the most of this by really engaging with your fellow course mates and Designlab Alumni will ensure a far richer leaning experience and also provide much needed support.

I was under no impression that just completing this course would guarantee me a job at the end - it's an intense way of learning and this format won't work for everyone. You need to be self motivated, take ownership of your learning experience and also understand from the start that transitioning your career is not going to be easy. What the course teaches is a solid starting point; it's important to develop your own interests within UX/UI, engage with the wider design community and compliment it with your own learning.

In my opinion the career services content needs improving (this may already be happening as the content for the whole program is regularly being updated and added to); however I found a lot of value in the support provided by my career services mentor who answered all my questions, boosted my confidence and helped me prepare for interviews. As I was lucky enough to find a job within the industry pretty quickly (I come from a background in Industrial design) my career services mentor has been able to continue to provide support as I navigate my first few weeks as a Junior Product Designer.

I enrolled into DesignLab's Foundations course as someone who had no prior knowledge about the industry at all. I wanted something foundational and something that'll start me off on the right foot and I completed the course feeling just that. The coursework was fairly simple and (in my opinion) definitely not too overwhelming at all for newbies. The coursework was laid out in an easy-to-follow format which encouraged me to keep going, whenever I had a slightly more complex question, my mentor whom I was paired up with would answer them for me allowing me to continue my work with more confidence. The readings provided also supplemented my overall knowledge and I was able to apply them for each final project we had for every unit. 

Overall, I did realise that this course focused mainly on UI design work and basic design principles and not much user research or testing, which is understandable and I knew that before enrolling. If you were someone with prior design knowledge already and have experience with design tools such as sketch/figma etc. then I would recommend looking into their Academy course instead(which is what I'm doing right now!). 

The course module, content, and curriculum are really good and provides well-structured learning and understanding of the User Interface Visual Design. It is an 8-week self-paced curriculum that one can take before their enrollment in the UX Academy full-time career accelerator program. The exercises included in each unit of the curriculum are well thought in terms of both design and software skills for UI Design. I got a lot of learning and understanding of Visual design and in general about the design field from my Foundation's mentor Ryan Byrne. The admin department is extremely helpful as well. The UX Foundations course definitely differentiates Designlab from all other UX Design Bootcamps in the market as it is the best possible way to check whether one's actual interest and skillset lie in the field or not before jumping on to the entire course and career path. I even received a Diversify scholarship from Designlab's end for my upcoming UX Academy full-time career accelerator program. One can easily apply for the scholarship and check their eligibility even before enrolling for the UX Foundations. It is an absolutely recommended course on my end. The cherry on top is that the fees involved in the UX Foundations are refundable in case one enrolls for the UX Academy full-time career accelerator program. It is an absolutely recommended course from my end in case you are completely new to UX/UI.

I did Designlab's UX Foundations course and UX Academy. I started out with minimal visual design experience, and I found that the Foundations course really helped me to get a good baseline understanding of visual design. I definitely saw an improvement in my design work by the end of that course and it made it pretty easy to get into UX Academy.

UX Academy focuses more on getting you a foundation in UX research & design with the expectation you have some visual design knowledge already. You end up designing 4 capstone projects in total that become the case studies for your portfolio. They give you suggested project briefs, but you can adjust them a bit and find client work that fits the brief instead.

The best part about the experience is the mentorship and the group critiques. My mentors have been so valuable in helping me understand what steps I should be taking in my career as well as giving me constructive feedback on my projects. It's really nice actually having someone who is working in UX to bounce ideas off of. The group critiques are great because you actually have to defend your design choices, which is great practice for interviews and the actual job. 

The main con of Designlab is that you aren't working on real client projects. Not sure if this has changed. They do encourage  students to find client work for capstones, but that can be hard to manage depending on the track you are on. I think if they had  a network of client opportunities for students to chose from who understand student schedules, that would make UX Academy even better! 

In terms of career services, I managed to get a UX Designer position about 3 months after graduating UX Academy. A lot of that success comes from the mentorship I received from my career services mentors. They prepped me for interviews, helped me to tailor my resume, and were just great about keeping me positive and on track. 

Overall, I'd highly recommend Designlab's UX Academy! 

The UXA Foundations program acts as a prep for the actual bootcamp itself (UX Academy), and was helpful in ensuring you're on the right track of mastering basic UI and visual design skills. While I feel the curriculum can be improved, the feedback on my assignments + mentorship calls were super helpful in validating my new found knowledge. It's important to realise that there are an abundance of online resources free for you which can make self-learning possible, but that can get overwhelming. Being in this course helped structure my learning, so that I know what 'chunks' to focus on and what else to bookmark for later. I also requested for a switch in mentor at the start of my program (mentors are great, just that I had some communication issues) and the team was very efficient in ensuring I get the support I needed. 

Designlab was an amazing experience! I really enjoyed the self-paced readings/projects. My mentor, chris, was really incredible and informative and guided me so well through the course! The projects were great experience!

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.

I was a student in DesignLab for a total of 3 months before I decided to withdraw. There were technical issues with Airtable (program they used to schedule group crits), unreliable mentors (mine would show up late or not at all and rescheduled multiple times), and TONS of materials I could get for free elsewhere (lots of the reading linked to external blogs). NOT worth the $7k they charge.

An amazing program with great mentors! 

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.

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. 

I loved the syllabus of DesignLab Foundations course. Everything was laid out very clearly and it's awesome that I can work at my own pace. It's a great introduction to UX design where I learned how to use Figma (or Sketch) and there are step-by-step video tutorials to guide you along as well. The units are broken down into 4-5 lessons, 2-3 mini assignments where you'll reproduce some websites/mobile app screens/logos, and finally, 1-2 projects to unleash your creativity. At the end of the course, I was tasked to finish a project which can now be used for my portfolio. My mentor was extremely helpful and gave constructive feedback while teaching me about UX design. I managed to finish the course in just under 5 weeks and now I feel ready for UX Academy!
If you're looking for a well priced, online, hands-on introduction course to UX design, with a mentor to keep you accountable and answer any of your questions, DesignLb is the perfect choice :)