Designlab

As a newbie to visual design, I really enjoyed Design 101 with one highlight being my DesignLab mentor as I found his feedback very helpful. He was very flexible in terms of our meeting times, and happy to reschedule when I had other work commitments pop up. He provided thoughtful feedback in my designs, but did not necessarily tell me exactly what decisions to make (which I appreciated). He was helpful in showing examples when I was stuck on certain decisions in the visual design process.  I learned a lot in this course and felt challenged.  Overall my experience throughout Design 101 was great!

Like anything in life, you get out of this course what you put into it. It's self-paced and there are no deadlines (which I didn't love), but there is a lot of good content and the most important thing for me was my mentor, who was awesome. She really helped guide me through the concepts, how to apply them, pitfalls to watch out for, etc. 

I had always known about various UX concepts, but this course helped me focus on which ones were industry standards and gave me confidence to use terms and apply concepts in actual conversations with clients. Probably the best thing for me was that I was able to use concepts as soon as the second week on a client project and help drive their UX strategy. 

In the end it was well worth the cost. 

Pros: - great mentor
- good content

Cons: - no deadlines
- "prototype" project is kind of lame
- I struggled to get through all the materials on time (mostly out of laziness)

Course UI Design at Design Lab was great experience. I would recommend  it to everyone (beginners and professionals). 
Course is divided in sections that consists reading material and small projects. 
All those small projects are steps to create mobile or web app. Reading material is very good and you can find a lot of interesting additional links that can help you in your designs. 
The best thing about the course is mentoring. You get 4 hours of video call mentoring and if your mentor is as good as mine was it will be a big bonus for your knowledge.

Great hands on, one on one mentoring, but terrible portfolio review process. I am a mid level professional who wanted a career change but didn't want to commit to another time consuming, expensive degree program. I needed to update my skill set and Designlab's UX Academy seemed like a perfect fit. Their one on one mentoring sold me along with the hands on projects and portfolio I'd have once I was done. Another selling point since I've been at the same comaony for 19 years was their career services. I need help and some guidance in that area. The problem is I can't get my portfolio through their review board. It's a terrible process that needs to be changed. You can't review a someone's work over email. That is how they give feedback: in an email. What they need to do is set up a video conference and review the portfolio in real time so the mentors can give constructive feedback. Most of the feedback I've gotten is not constructive at all, but more subjective. I can't act on subjective feedback because what one person likes another won't. So how do you ever get approved? Everything was great up until this point. Now, the one thing I placed all my hope in changing my career has let me down. I feel defeated, disappointed and no one at the school will help me. All I can do is warn you not to sign up for this program until they have changed the portfolio review process.

I could not recommend DesignLab more. For me, self-directed learning is essential but also challenging because I am a kinesthetic learner. A colleague recommended this course and a few others on the DesignLab platform as the starting points for me to use to make a career transition. I feel so lucky, I was given this recommendation. My mentor has been the most incredible resource. To learn from a working professional and have one on one tailored support is invaluable. I did not finish the course in the exact timeline prescribed because of my pre-existing workload and my mentor made arrangements to keep up with me through the finish line. I can not guarantee others would have this experience, but to have a mentor who intrinsically values teaching and watching another learn has been such a joy. I was afraid of online learning and I know I am coming back for another course, or two!

 

After moving into a more design focused role I was looking introductory course to get my head into the world of design.

Design 101 by Designlab was a perfect choice - it gave me a comprehensive introduction into the professional space and allowed me to develop some strong foundations that I can build on going forward!

The course was well structured and well paced - helped by the great variety of content (lessons/quizzes/projects/etc) and interesting topics.

The mentoring system was extremely valuable too! Being able to get quality feedback and iterate on projects and designs was such a valuable and educational experience. It's also a perfect opportunity to make a great connection in the industry!

It is just a month in your life but it is a month that you will always remember, 
if you have had zero experience in UX design like me. 
It is a bootcamp with a mentor that has your back and keep putting your back on track. 
You do so much research. You have so many design projects and have to do the stuff that you had never imagined you could ever do before. 
From zero, you go up a steep hill and 1 month later when you post your projects online and share with your friends and ex-colleagues...They just wow. 
This is how I describe the course. 
I have enrolled in my 3rd course at DesignLab (Design 101, Interaction Design and Branding) and I intended to do 2 more courses plus UX Academy. So far, I have two mentors who are a Head of Product and an exceptionally intelligent and brilliant Design Educator. I cannot wait to know who will be my mentor in the next course. They all seem really cool and with sharp eye for design and give me good critique and pointers to the projects in my portfolio. Aside from that they also guide me towards making a career change to UX so I know what exactly I need to know in order to get internship opportunities and get hired.

On my resume posted online, I added links to my UX work around a week ago. 
Today, someone with the title of HR or recruiter contact me for a role that need some knowledge of UX. 
They like my shopping cart taxonomy and they look happy when seeing my wireframes and user flow. 
I may not get a job as a UX Designer instantly --- it takes time to build your portfolio --- but I have a proof that I understand UX and I can do and have done it. They want to hire me for that. 
This is a huge leap in my career. 
 

People at DesignLab are extremely supportive. I missed the enrollment by a bit and they put me in the class. They listen to feedback and keep on improving. They do really care about having fast feedback and closing the loop.I enrolled in two places and I chose Designlab over the other.

I have taken 3 of the 5 short courses offered by Design Lab, and I have really enjoyed all of them. I have learned a great deal during the past 3 weeks! I think one of the most important things to keep in mind is that the choices offered by Design Lab are there to fit your lifestyle. I have taken the short classes, because I don't have the time nor the funds to take the more intensive UX Academy. That being said, I also went to school for fine art and took a bunch of design classes while in college. For someone who hasn't had this experience, UX Academy might be better for you. Because I work full time, the smaller courses work much better for my schedule. It takes the principles I've learned previously, gives good practice projects, and allows my mentor to give feedback.

I see some people feel like they don't get enough out of the short courses. But I don't think these classes are meant to produce stunning portfolio pieces. I think they give you a good foundation to expand upon so you can include your project in your portfolio. You just have to be willing to put in extra work. If you really want something, you'll do it. And if you want a portfolio piece, ask your mentor how they would turn the project into a portfolio piece. I was always completing work ahead of time, so my mentor gave me extra work for practice! You just need to ask; the resources are there.

Overall, I think these bite-sized classes are great. Yes, I'm busy all of the time, but to me it's worth it. I can't wait to start looking for jobs out there. Thanks, Design Lab!