Designlab

I highly recommend taking UX Foundations if you're unsure if you want to take the leap into bootcamp. It is an affordable intro course that will give you a feel for the full course.

Pros:
-Foundations is a short (4 or 8 week course) and affordable way to introduce you to UI/UX design and get a feel for the full UX Academy course. I looked into General Assembly which has a much higher price point and you aren't able to 'test' out the course in a short 4 or 8 week way to ensure it's something you really want to do before making the big investment
-I work full-time and had other commitments but the course is self-paced so I could spend more time some weeks when I knew I had the time and still stay on track
-The Designlab platform is so easy to use! It tells you which week of the program you're in, it tracks your mentorship sessions (and makes scheduling with your mentor easy).
-The 1:1 mentorship was so helpful for me to get feedback and learn from someone who is working in a UI/UX designer role.
-The support team and admissions is super responsive. I always received a response in 24-48 hours which is helpful since the course is short.

Cons:
-This isn't a con per say but my own struggle/ something you may want to consider based on your needs. The program is self-paced instead of having a dedicated time from 9-5 with an instructor leading the course, I had to manage my own time very well and hold myself accountable to do the lessons! 

Pros: 
-The volume of reading materials and hands-on projects was sufficient. 
-hands-on projects consists of up-to-date content and are well associated with UX.
- The webinars provided by the design lab are informative.

cons
- sometimes there is a time slot limit for scheduling with a mentor.

I really enjoyed my experience in the Designlab Foundations course. The course provided me with the UI tools necessary for UX design. I learned how to create sketches and how to make webpage and mobile designs in Figma. 

Enjoyed this course! The course was fully online. Felt the curriculum was what I was looking for in that it taught basic design principles and how they relate to UX design in a general sense. Projects where hands on, robust and aligned well with the curriculum that was being taught. Mentor feedback was helpful, I liked the flexibly of being able to schedule time blocks that worked well with my schedule. It was rewarding getting see how my skills had improved in just a short month after taking this course. 

Pros:
- Great mentorship experience. You get to talk to some of the greatest minds in UX and network with them while picking at their brain for knowledge and expertise.
- Super fun course material that efficiently teaches UX concepts.
- Design briefs and projects were relevant to real world design problems. Great practice for anyone planning to design for corporate or start up.

Cons:
- Difficult to stay motivated. There would be periodic emails sent to keep you motivated but at the end of the day, it took me way longer to complete the course than I was originally planning. 

Foundations is a fantastic way to get started in design. I researched a tonnnn of bootcamps for UX/IU and I'm so glad I landed on this one. The projects are really fun to complete and I felt like they aligned really well with the course objectives. I learned so much in the 4 weeks and I'm really excited to continue with the UX Academy. Having a personal mentor was a huge bonus and really added to the value of the course overall. If you're going to do design I encourage you to choose this program! 

I had a very enjoyable experience at designlab. My assigned mentor was very understanding and encouraging. I loved that I was able to go at my own pace while still receiving timely feedback from my mentor. I learned skills I believe I can use outside of this field.

Design Lab Foundations was the ideal experience while also juggling a full-time job. I could easily schedule meetings with my mentor, and moved through the material at my own pace. All of the Units were set-up in a logical order, so that your redesigns were built on the most current unit's teachings.  

I went for UX Foundations because I wasn't sure which Boot Camp in UX/UI design to choose from and I don't regret it at all! It was a great first step to see if I'm good at designing and most of all if I like it and enjoy it myself. I did a lot and I just enrolled in the UX Academy itself too! Foundations showed me that DL is very professional, well organized, and provides you with a lot of useful exercises, creative briefs, and ongoing support. I had to switch my mentor because of availability issues and they paired me the second time with an amazing one, whom I want to keep meeting during my UX Academy too! Be aware that the suggested time is very much real because I thought as a quite quick learner I can save some time at some points but not really. The exercises are time-demanding but they teach you how to work with Figma and Sketch very efficiently! 

The course was a lightweight approach to getting you familiar with the tools of the trade and how you'll get through them. 
Admittedly, the mentorship program, while it was the most lauded thing, was probably my biggest stress point before starting, but I knew I was the type of person to struggle with reaching out to outside help for assistance. Their mentorship program really helped me and guided me through the course and I am so glad they removed that friction for me. 
Overall I'm glad I took the plunge and I will be pursuing it further.

I think that UXA Foundations is a great intro to UI design. I took the course to prep for UX Academy, which I will be starting soon. I completed the UXA Foundations within 6 weeks. It was my first intro to Figma and I enjoyed learning new things every time I did copywork or created my own landing pages and app screens. 

Designlab UX Academy Foundations is a mandatory prerequisite course for those coming from a non-design/visual background and looking to pursue a career in UI/UX. Foundations mostly teaches UI or visual design. The coursework is split into 8 Units with the final unit being a 10-hour design challenge. My cohort had to design a webpage and three mobile screens for a travel website. This is used to determine if you can apply to DesignLab's UX Academy.

I appreciated how thorough the course was setup. Each unit was devoted to a topic with supplemental articles or videos to present information and then design exercises to be done on the software of your choice. We were also tasked to write reflection statements after these hands on exercises. I liked the rhythmn of this as you got a decent overview of a concept and actually putting this knowledge into practice helped solidify some learning points. The reflection exercises were a good way to journal some questions or feelings that your mentor could respond to. 

While this may be obvious, the work you put into this self-paced course is dependent on you. In my situation I had weeks where I could devote adequate time to studying and doing the exercises and I felt very productive in learning. The opposite was also true where I fell behind (they recommend one unit completed per week) and some concepts didn't really "stick" with me. Overall I think the material is a good overview of UI principles. I went into Foundations having a decent sense of what is good/bad design, and now I am more confident in being specific on the details.

Your mentor is randomly assigned to you and you can change if you desire. The biggest challenge for me was getting used to a new software. While some questions can be easily looked up online, having a mentor also made it easy to answer specific questions that I didn't know how to phrase or search online. My mentor gave me the option to resubmit my work through the online portal or talk about the areas that could be improved in our sessions. There was a time difference between us as we were located in different countries and in one instance my mentor did not inform me that he could not make it to our session. You can use your one hour session to talk about anything, so I tried to have an organized agenda of what I wanted to talk about. 

I did not have a design background but Designlab created UX Academy Foundations to ease you into transition in becoming a UX/UI Designer. I really like that in my 8 weeks I had 7 sessions with a mentor that Designlab provided. They have plenty of lessons and projects that helped me learn to design using Figma. 

I had a lot of fun and learned quite a bit in my 8 week Foundations course.  It was both challenging and rewarding.  I was able to pick up a lot of skills and learn how to implement my artistic inclinations in the world of UI design.  My mentor was very nice and helped me to reach my goals.

It is self-paced, so be prepared to be self-motivated.  But you do get one hour weekly sessions with someone in the industry, so it's well worth the price for that alone.

This bootcamp was meant to be a short introduction to UI design. For someone like me who had no prior experience with designing, I found it extremely helpful. There are short lessons, easy to follow tutorials, and projects that really test your skills. Within each lesson, there are tons of additional resources given.  The mentorship program was something that I picked this course for specifically. You get eight lessons to go over work, ask questions, get advice, and whatever else you need. It's a very well thought out and organized program. The only thing is the discord is still a little unorganized but that's because they just switched over from Slack. 

The curriculum was awesome, but a lot of the experience depends on your mentor. If they are engaged, you'll learn tons from them. If they are unresponsive or you don't click, you might be a bit underwhelmed.

The learning material was very thorough and had good emphasis on UI and visual design. The projects were also very good practice, and enjoyable to complete.

I joined DesignLab as a student referral. The student went through this course and was able to get a new career path in Product Design. I took a leap of faith and applied to the UX Academy Foundations to give it a try. I have no professional background in UX UI Design so this foundation coursed helped a lot. You are set up with a mentor for 1-no-1 meetings and get personal advice from people who are leaders and senior in their field. I was able to work based on my pace and got through it well. DesignLab had a lot of recourses that I couldn't keep up with using and there were so many students you can network with. I'm very excited to have completed my foundation's courses so I can move forward to their other courses.

My experience with Designlab overall was enjoyable.  I loved the fact that the course were online and being able to have these one-on-one sessions with a mentor was a great way for me to able to communicate my progress without having distractions.  My mentor was wonderful and patient, even when I was sick for a week, he was understanding about my situation.  I had previous experience with graphic designing, but studying in UXA Foundations helped renewed my old skills as well as learn new skills with new programs such as Figma.  I can't wait to take on UX Academy in the near future. 

Taking the UX Foundations course was beneficial for my UX journey.

Had a great experience in the program. Material was easy to digest, projects were fun an challenging, and had a great mentorship program as well!