Designlab

I had been toying with the idea of transitioning to tech from my creative media background for a while since the second half of 2020 but I didn't know exactly which way to turn on that until I remembered my deep appreciation for all things design. Being based in the Bay Area, I was knowledgable of the high demand for UI/UX design jobs, and after much research, I was dead set on learning more about this discipline. Then came the almost grueling task of selecting the right intro course...and that lead me to Designlab's UX Academy Foundations. 

What I first liked about this course was its very structure. You're not tied with a seemingly never ending, intensive course. In the 8 weeks, and through all the projects assigned, the criteria starts to form whether this is right for you or not. If it is, it gives you enough drive to embark on the fully-fleshed UX Academy bootcamp. If it isn't, at least you learned extremely valuable tools and perspective on making things pretty...with a purpose. You're also paired with talented UX designers who are, for the most part, eager to share their insights with the students. For the entirety of the course, I was mentored by a Google UX designer, and every single week, I'd be excited to show my progress with him, and discuss certain questions I had on that week's lessons. 

By the end of my 10-hour design challenge, I felt beyond accomplished and motivated to tackle the biggest challenge yet: applying for UX Academy. But quite honestly, if you had any curiosity about the world of UI/UX design, and you want to push yourself through the competitive landscape of tech, this intro course is worth every penny! Read less

I am just about to finish the UX Foundations course and plan to move on to their UX Academy.
The website is easy to navigate and use to turn in assignments/projects. There is consistency in the progression of units and the assignments to help students naturally develop the useful technical and creative skills. Many of the lesson materials were developed in-house in a way that was clear and digestible as opposed to some other programs that might only just directly refer you to videos and readings from other organizations which can be unfiltered and lengthy. I had an experienced mentor who pushed me to work hard while also being respectful and understanding. Read less

The foundations course has been very rewarding so far. I've been learning a lot and the content has been very interesting. One of my favorite parts is the weekly mentorship experience. It is a lot of content even doing part time and I hope that in UXA I get to learn more of the theory behind it. My curiosity and passion for design is growing and I feel confident that DL is helping set my feet on the right path. Overall DL is very well designed and well thought out. Every person I've talked to that works for DL has been so friendly and communicative. I'm thankful for this journey! Read less

Pros: 8 one hour long 1:1 video call sessions with a design mentor, many fun hands on projects, slack community
Cons: lessons are very reading heavy. I wish there were more video demonstrations/lectures/audio recordings/interactive elements in the lessons to engage the student more and also ensure retention of the material.

Overall, I definitely recommend UX Academy Foundations to anyone who is thinking about studying product/ux/ui design. Read less

Like many others I did a ton of research on various boot camps that would allow me to break into and begin studying UX. I looked into Springboard (had a friend in it), Google’s UX Professional certificate on Coursera, Udacity, Dribbble’s product development course, and more. I actually took the first course in Google’s certificate program before I transitioned to DesignLab. What stood out to me about DesignLab the most was their process for helping you develop your UX skills. It should be noted I’m a teacher and as a teacher I’m always looking at other teachers process, their why, for teaching something a certain way. This helps me get into their mindset and best apply what myself in my own learning. So how do they start? You can find their blog about how they start by teaching UI fundamentals—the principles of design, typography, and color and how to read a design brief and put together what amounts to a high-fidelity mock-up. This is the entire foundations course. DesignLab starts with this because they feel that as a designer, whether you end up building UI’s for a living or not, what the user ultimately touches is a UI. Having a base skill set is important therefore for any UX job. It also helps put the rest of UX in a more understandable context, making it easier for you to understand how your research, wire-framing, and user testing will eventually tie into your product. I felt like because of this explanation this was a great place to start. After getting into the foundations course I felt the program was well paced overall. The mentorship was really great, although the particular mentor I received was really busy with a masters degree and working for two companies and I felt couldn’t give me as much attention as I wanted. However, whatever feedback I did receive was helpful, clear, and to the point. She understood my questions clearly and was able to direct me on my learning journey, offering many helpful tools and pointers. What eventually really sold me on DesignLab was the group crit. This was an incredible experience. Having tried to teach high school students how to give meaningful feedback, I was really wondering how this would go. But the curriculum does an awesome job of helping you learning how to properly give and receive a critique on design work. My project for that unit improved a lot because of the critique and I also discovered I was able to give meaningful feedback myself. Overall this was a great experience. The only thing that would hold me back from going into the full Academy from Foundations is the minimum time requirement of 25 hours a week. I felt like Foundations part-time at 10 hours a week was really hard so I’m not sure I could do the full Academy and work full-time at the same time. I highly recommend this course for anyone looking to explore design as a possible career path! Read less

I just completed the Foundations course through DesignLab after leaving a job as a graphic designer. The course was very informative but the part I felt was most beneficial was working one-on-one with a mentor for each module. 
I chose to do the course full time so I met with my mentor twice a week and he provided invaluable feedback, tips and additional learning resources. It is a wonderful introductory course and great for those who like to work self-paced. Read less

This was a great course. It was a great introduction to get a feel for how the academy will be so that I can make a decision whether or not to move forward without investing all the money. The curriculum was really good I really enjoyed working with a mentor and I learned a lot through the slack channel as well. Overall lots of good support would definitely do again Read less

 I first heard of UX Academy Foundations from a friend of mine who took the course. Although my friend had industry experience, they did not need to take the Foundations course (this course). I am a person looking to transition into a UX/UI design career from a completely different and irrelevant field with little to no experience in design. Foundations helped me feel a little less intimidated, and much more enthusiastic. Foundations is a great place for anyone from any industry or job field to start their exploration with UX/UI. The curriculum was not too overbearing or overwhelming, and it did not feel like I was enrolled in a college level course with copious amounts of busy work. The course aims to make you feel comfortable with UX/UI design software at the same time, helping you explore your creativity. You are also paired with a mentor who will give you feedback and answer any questions you might have about the course or design in general. My mentor was very informative and direct. They helped me understand the mind of a UX/UI designer at a superficial level. 

Definitely would recommend the course to newcomers and seasoned designers.  Read less

I had been self learning UX/Ui for the last year, I had learned a lot, but was lacking in confidence when trying to apply it. This course filled the gaps for me, I have walked away feeling confident in the design decisions I make and feel ready to explain those to a team and my employer. The mentor sessions did a lot to help that process along. this is a really well-built course that at no point was stale! it kept me challenged and engaged.  Read less

I started my UX journey trying to watch tutorials and learn independently but quickly realized that wasn't effective for me. I spent a lot of time researching UX Bootcamp's and finally settled on Designlab due to positive reviews and tuition costs. I enrolled in foundations, figuring if I didn't love it, I wouldn't enroll in the academy. I've now graduated from the UX Academy and gained full-time employment (which is really the ultimate goal) and can confidently say Designlab is overall an incredible UX Bootcamp and worth considering. Read less

I came to Designlab after self-teaching design through coursera over the past year.  It had been put on my radar a few years prior, but hadn't been a place to follow through with it.  I wanted something a bit more structured, and to have a bit more feedback and guidance.  I was also interested in UI/UX, as the industry seems to be budding, and checks all the boxes for me.  
I'm super pleased to have taken the Designlab foundations course.  In the short span I took part, I learned a lot.  I found the curriculum well organized and well paced.  Everything added up well, and I never felt too overwhelmed from the information (I also took the part-time track.  I thought I was going to finish sooner, but there is a decent amount of work to do and I rather take a bit more time to absorb the info).  The mentorship helped a lot, which I really got a lot out of. Having someone in your corner while you work through the material was the icing on the cake for me.  Not only that, the other students are really great. From onboarding to the end, you can tell there's a lot of care thats gone in.  I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in learning more about UI/UX, and wether its something they want to further pursue.  From my experience I've decided to continue on, and go for their Academy program.  I look forward to learning more! 

(One thing to keep in mind though, is that the foundations focuses on giving you more of an understanding of UI design vs UX.  That's held off until the academy.) Read less

As a career switcher with a little knowledge about design as a whole, the foundations course was great! My mentor and I hit it off fairly quickly and even had the same sense of humor, he always made sure to explain things to me in multiple ways to make sure the information really drove home. There were a few assignments that I felt were just challenging enough for someone like me who has a past in art, I was able to actually learn new information through each unit. The staff is super friendly and always answer any questions within work hours fairly quickly. Read less

This course was well organized.  Each students gets a mentor they meet with each week.   Mine was incredibly valuable my success in the course and in understanding the content.  Responses were quick and they offer so many resources through the course itself and through slack and other students.   I feel more knowledgeable and prepared to move on to the part-time 28 week course.    Read less

I enjoyed the projects and really valued the time spent with my mentor as she helped me establish the basic skills I was hoping to develop. I appreciated that there was a part time pace for the course which was flexible with my full time work schedule. This course was much more than I thought it would be. Read less

For anyone looking to consider the UX/UI career fields but not quite sure what it entails, this course is a perfect match. It will introduce you to basic design principles, including typography, space, composition and color. From there, it’ll immerse you in the UX tool of your choice (I chose Figma), and challenge you with many different types of lessons, from layout recreations to teach the basics, ending with a 10-hour design challenge to bring together everything you’ve learned.  Read less

From someone who had no prior knowledge of Figma or UX/UI Design, I highly recommend this course! Before taking this course, I debated about going for a masters because of the lack of experience in this field. Now that I have successfully completed UX Academy Foundations, I feel more prepared and ready for UX Academy bootcamp! This course consists of eight units that are laid out for you so that you can succeed if you put the time in. There is a lot of information only for your benefit in becoming a successful UX Designer. They give you lessons and how to guide tutorials so that if you are a visual learner, you can follow the video for guidance going step by step. After completing the lessons and tutorials, you are given some copy work so that you can apply what you learned so far on either Figma or Sketch. Doing the copy work really allowed me to play around in Figma and become more confident in using the tools within it. It was such great practice and really prepared me for the final design project at the end of each unit. Doing the final design projects was one of my favorite parts since this is where you could be creative and feel as though you are on your own as a UX/UI Designer. Another wonderful thing about this course is the mentorship, especially for a newbie like myself. Having an excellent mentor throughout this course will make a huge impact on yourself. Your mentor is there to help guide you to success. They are the experts and know the tips and tricks to make this an exciting career. I feel very lucky to have had the mentor I did. She was extremely reliable, patient, and professional throughout the whole course. She was always responsive and on top of my work everyday which was extremely helpful since I wanted to make sure I was doing well the whole time. I only have good things to say about this course! If you put in the time and commitment to want to learn more and have excellent online learning skills then you will be happy with the outcome of this course! Read less