Designlab

I had a great experience in Designlab's UX Academy Foundations. I learned a look of basics about both UX/UI design, which has helped me quite a bit in my current UX Academy bootcamp. I love that the course is entirely self-paced, so it worked around my schedule. My weekly mentor calls helped me stay on track and provided personalized guidance on my projects. I also found the admissions and support staff to be extremely helpful.  Read less

I attended Designlab’s beta UX Academy Foundations course over the summer of 2020. I had just gotten laid off due to covid and thought why not take the opportunity to finally change careers. I had a successful fashion design background that I’d been thinking about moving away from over the years, envious of other colleagues finding greener pastures. Never one to throw in the towel, it was finally my turn. 

In my new career I wanted to utilize my visual design skills and my problem solving development skills. When reading about UX/UI design it sounded like something I could handle and hopefully excel at. I signed up for Designlab’s Design101 course first, and prepared by learning figma in Designlab’s little 7 day email course. By the end of the week I had a little mobile app prototype, and a small taste of the agile environment I was about to step into. I was hooked. 

When Designlab asked if I’d be interested to try their new beta UX academy foundations course instead of design101, I took their word for it and jumped in. 

The course runs 2-8 weeks, with mentor sessions once a week. I thought with my design background it would be easy. It was a lot of hard work and took dedicated time. I ended up finishing it in 5 weeks. 

Foundations consists of original and outsourced reading materials, copywork of popular sites, with creative design projects every chapter. It really helped build a strong UI foundation to build upon outside of UX academy.

I think it was exactly what I needed to push me to learn and cover a wide range quickly. Did I need to supplement with outside materials? Yes, it only skims the surface to whet your appetite and give you confidence to go in deeper on your own. Did I enjoy it and think it was worth it? Yes!

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At the beginning of this year I decided that I wanted to make a career change into the field of UX from teaching. Without having a design background I was intimidated to say the least. Designlab's 4 week Ux Foundations course gave me the background and confidence to apply for their UX Academy program that I am two projects away from finishing. The course was extremely helpful and my mentor was awesome. Thank you Designlab!   Read less

Coming from someone that was hesitant to learn online, I would highly recommend DesignLab! UX Academy Foundations gave me an invaluable experience in a short amount of time. The curriculum is a great introductory course to learn the fundamentals of UI and the assignments are super fun. The community support and the 1:1 mentorship exceeded my expectations and I believe it is the reason why Designlab continues to have great reviews. If you are looking for an affordable program to start your UX/UI Design journey, choose Designlab!  Read less

This course was great as a prerequisite to Designlab's UX Academy bootcamp. The mentorship program was awesome and reassured first-time design students like me whenever I had questions regarding the projects or design concepts. The community was so friendly and encouraging, and staff members were always available via Slack or email and responded to questions in a timely manner. The curriculum was good, albeit a bit reading heavy. Overall a great course and I would totally recommend it.  Read less

Designlab Foundations was an awesome way to enter the world of UX/UI. Not only did I learn an absolute ton, but the projects were also super enjoyable and fun as well! I found myself excited about whatever was coming my way each week. I got assigned a mentor that was there for me every step of the way and gave me valuable tips on every aspect of product design. I definitely recommend it! Read less

The UX Foundations Course is an excellent, intensive class to learn design basics for someone looking to switch careers without any design background at all. The learning materials gave me what I needed gradually and intuitively and I'm excited to move to the UX Academy.  Read less

While I was in UX Foundations, I thought I would be only learning about brief UI designs. However, as I moved through the curriculums, I was so surprised that all the curriculums were so helpful for building foundations for both UI and UX. 
What I really liked about UX Foundation is that I could experience hands-on projects whenever I learn something. As I worked on projects, I could get the feel of how UI/UX designers would work, and learn deeply about how to apply the contents that I've learned to a real design.
Also, you are not alone during the UX Foundations. There's a helpful mentor who gives you detailed advice and encouragements throughout the course. Moreover, you get to meet so many peers who you can talk to and build up connections with them!
I highly encourage people to this course!! Read less

It was a fantastic course for anyone who wants to learn design but does not have a design background.  It builds the foundation of design (skills, principles, and thought process)  and prepare the course taker to advance to the next step in their design career.

The only cons was that, although it's self-paced (to complete within four weeks), you cannot see the next unit until you complete the current unit.  It'd be much better for the students to see the entire curriculum so they can understand what they can expect and plan for success.  Especially given that the time is limited to complete the course, it'd be great to know how much time to spend on which particular lesson/project.  Read less

The curriculum and my mentor have been excellent. I love how Designlab starts off with readings and then a self-quiz followed by short assignments and projects that allow you to practice what you've read. My mentor and I worked well together in discussing each assignment/project to understand the design process. In addition, we discussed what is relevant in the field these days and how to improve my design skills. This process has really helped me gain experience with design. The staff promptly responds to any questions I have every single time. The price of the course is affordable and having it 100% online worked for me. DesignLab has taken me from having 0 experience and knowledge in UX design to having a good foundation and confidence to continue and accelerate in this field. Read less

I'm a design beginner, and I took this course to learn the basics of visual design and support a career shift. The course has been perfect for me. I've learned a lot, both through the vigorous assignments and my amazing mentor. This course is hard work, but well worth it. Read less

UX Academy is a 3 month UX boot camp that personally helped me with my career change to becoming a UX Designer. I had a great mentor who helped encourage and build my skills. By the end of the program, I was able to complete over 480 hours of UX design coursework and projects. I ended up completing over 100 hands-on exercises, and built a portfolio with 4 projects. After the academy ended, I was connected with my career coach who helped me prepare for my career search and interviews, and ultimately, I was able to land a full time job within just 2 months. I'm still super thankful I was able to get this kind of networking and knowledge for the amount of cost and time I spent at UX Academy.

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This was my first Designlab experience, and it was a great! I work in product development and was looking to learn more about the design process, which I definitely did. Pros: The lessons were easy to digest, topics were interesting and well-presented. I was very motivated to learn the subject matters, work on the assignments, and excited to get feedback. Cons: For me, someone relatively new to design world, the course definitely consumed more than 10 hours a week. In addition, I really think each student's experience will vary depending on the mentor they're assigned to - how quickly they provide feedback, their level of engagement, and area of expertise in design. Overall, I really loved the units, content, & assignments - I thought they were perfect for a 101 course. I would have, however, preferred a mentor better matched with my learning style.

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Design 101 is an excellent course to learn the fundamentals of design. It is also a great way for those who are already working in design to brush up their skills. The course material was very thorough and insightful. There were additional resources in each section which I found super helpful and I really appreciated. The best part of the course was having a mentor who works as a professional in the design field. It was excellent to receive feedback about my work but also just to chat about working in the design world. I definitely recommend this course.

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The Design 101 course is a really excellent way to get a good foundation in design. You get to learn some design history, typography, color, spacing, logos, etc. It would be nice to have a little more time to explore some of those topics and iterate a little more - 4 weeks goes very quickly - but overall a very good experience. The project you are working towards puts everything you learn together. 

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I just completed my first course with Design Lab, UX Research & Strategy. This was my first UX Design class and I really enjoyed it. I liked how I could move at my own pace throughout the week and I continue to have access to the course materials. My mentor was super helpful as well. I enjoyed the class so much I signed up for the next one! The materials were clear and easy to understand. I like they provide the option to view other students work and make revisions to each exercise. 

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I was dropped me from the course 2 weeks into it. The next morning the payment was straighten out, but since they never encountered that before their DevOps didn't know how to add me back to the class, which took them 2 weeks to figure out! Then, on the app version, you can't toggel between multiple classes. The mentors are good & the new mentor i was assigned was 9 hours ahead, and wasn't able to schedule our sessions through the website. Which means I didn't get mentorship for 3 weeks, in the new, following cohort i was placed in. I have 1 week left and was offered a refund & to be dropped from the class since i encountered so many problems. But i want to just finish since this Has taken over 2 months already & so close to finishing. Read less

I registered for this school and had a very bad experience. The mentor allocated to me was not interested in teaching and was talking about cultural fit and communication skills in getting the design job rather than focusing on encouraging me and help me with my design skills. I requested a change of mentor and I guess because of some bureaucracy inside the school the new mentor did not gave me any written feedback. I hope this helps. If you are ready to kiss the butt of your mentors, then go ahead and join this school. Honesty, straightforwardness and skills have no place in this school. This school is going down the road and I feel they are only interested in minting money.

Do not get fooled by the job guarantee program. Read the clauses carefully...you could never keep up to them... run away as fast as you can ... find some good state school to do UX course.

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I really enjoyed the freedom they give you in the course, allowing you to explore your own ideas if you wanted to whilst keeping you within restricted guidelines so you kept learning.  The only thing that was potentially lacking was the content itself, although this isn't a complaint, as this helped to ensure that I didn't get overloaded with information and helped me to keep motivated and continue learning.

Overall a great experience where I learnt practical and transferrable skills. 

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