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 learned more in this class than I did in a 16 week boot camp. It also cost a lot less. Jeff was my mentor and helped me understand things I was confused about and also helped me to reach my Goals for the class

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.

I had a great run with this prerequisite course.  I had no previous experience, and after only a month I already feel confident enough to create logos and a simple website design.  I learned both important design history and skills in this course, as well as lots of practice and encouragement.  I'd definitely recommend this course, and am looking to taking another DesignLab bootcamp!

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.