Designlab

I took this course in preparation for Designlab’s UX Academy. I had no formal visual or graphic design background or training. This course was an amazing and eye-opening introduction to design and teaches you all the fundamentals. It was both challenging and rewarding. The pace of the course is fast and you learn a tremendous amount of information in a short amount of time through readings and hands-on projects. The mentoring is also great so you don’t feel alone when you get stuck or you get to bounce ideas off a design professional. They keep you accountable for your work. I feel very prepared to begin Designlab’s UX Academy next month. I highly recommend this course!

I have been interested in getting into UI design so I opted to take the Design 101 course to get my feet wet. Let’s just say that was the best decision I made! DesignLabs course format is the ideal blend for online learning. The resources and articles combined with projects and mentorship really allows you to constantly learn and retain what you have learned. I’ve done video courses through Lynda and it doesn’t compare to the experience I had here. The mentorship helps you fast track your learning. My mentor understood I was new to design and helped me with anything I needed. Our weekly meetings were super insightful and she helped me with anything I need while also challenging me to think about certain things a designer would think about. One thing I appreciated was her approach, although I was new she still kept a high standard to my work which was good. Because I would hate to have a mentor tell me bad design was good just to make me feel like I’m learning. All feedback was critical to my learning. If you are looking to improve your skills or understand anything new I highly recommend DesignLab for any courses. Due to my experience with them I will be enrolling in the UX Academy as I had such a positive experience and I feel as if transitioning into UI design will be the right career choice for me.

Design 101 was great especially if you're a beginner! Here are my pros and cons on this class: Pros: - They had great articles and games to keep the class interesting - Well organized and easy to navigate - The help I received when I had questions on the class was absolutely perfect! - Lots of projects to work on throughout the month Cons: - There were bugs here and there throughout the course. Images were broken, links didn't work, etc. I feel like they should have someone go through the course to make sure these links work! - My mentor was good but I felt like she didn't lead the discussion and give me good critique. It was like pulling teeth to get some good feedback. Also, I didn't feel like I got to know my mentor because we just jumped into talking about my work even from day one. - The articles they had through the course were all pulled from online. It would be nice to see some original written articles.

February 2018 I participated in the UX Research course and It was an amazing experience. At my company we are working with Scrum for years, but I was always missing something. This course gave me the context in which human friendly products and product-features are "born". The course materials and the interaction with my mentor helped me structure the product design process and become more efficient at my job. Now I understand the importance of involving the users in the product development and what is even more important: now I know how and when to involve the users in this process. 
For me it is clear that having a good user experience is not something that can eventually be added in the product, if there are enough resources for that. A good user experience starts with a research and it is essential for the products, which want to have a future.

Pros: 

- Friendly mentors

- Global and remote

- Slack community where students can network with each other

- Work at your own time, 20 hrs/week or 40 hrs/week

- Group crits with other students where you get to do show and tell once every week through Google Hangout

- Assignment submissions online where mentor can give feedback (although it's also public to other students)

- 3 portfolio pieces to complete under the guidance of a mentor

- Can change mentor if doesn't work out

- Design perks which include discounts for selected design tools like Sketch, Flinto, etc.

- 6 months guaranteed a job or a refund (only applicable under certain conditions)

 

Cons: 

- No real clients to work with on portfolio pieces

- Slides, videos, and articles based on linked sources for most lessons (some lengthy reading)

- Lack of job assistance because they will still require students to look for jobs on their own after graduation

 

I have no working background in design or tech, nor have connections who can offer my a role in the Bay Area. I was in the process of transitioning into the tech field after quitting my last office job. As a rookie who doesn't have exposure working with a team, I think it's difficult to land a role in the Bay Area unless I have extensive experience in graphic design, research, marketing, etc. In the end I've went through about 7 months until I was contacted through Angel List for an internship. What elevated my chances was pushing myself to improve my portfolio over the months.

If anything, I think the bootcamp would be much better if they can pair students up with real clients to work on projects. That way, students who struggle with networking or does not have relevant work experience can at least list these real client projects on their resume.

 

TL;DR

In the end, I think this bootcamp is great for those who want a certificate or have some exposure in design. Although it's not something students should totally rely on to get a job. If you're unmotivated or needed guidance because you have no idea on how to start, then bootcamp might be good for you.

In all honesty, it really depends on how much much effort you're willing to put into this. As long as you're motivated to succeed, you can find all the sources you need FREE online. Build your portfolio, ask some friends or coworkers to look it over for you, and go to meetups to network. 

I took the UX Research and Strategy short course which was excellent. The price was good and my mentor was a great resource. Based on this, I enrolled in UX Academy and the experience couldn't have been more different. It was like two different schools.

I've worked in Graphic Design for years, so wasn't sure if the bootcamp was for me. I scheduled a phone call with a Student Advisor. When we spoke he was running late from his last call that went long and had to rush off quickly to make his next call on time. So the difference was being up through my allotted time. Given that I was about to spend thousands of dollars and commit hundreds of hours to this course, barely getting 20 minutes with an advisor should have been a red flag.

I explained that I wasn't sure what I wanted my next career move to be. I work with my own clients and want to offer more services to them, but I also like the idea of working with a design team, and that I was curious about how the career coaching worked for people with design experience. I was told that no matter what stage you're at in your career, the career coaches work with you to find you a suitable role. I could get this much from their landing page, what I was asking for was specifics but I never got them.

Given my initial positive experience I trusted them (another red flag) and enrolled anyway. Almost immediately I regretted it. Buried in the Student Agreement it states that you must apply for a minimum of 5 jobs a week and this includes internships. This seems like important information the advisor could have mentioned. Or information that they could state somewhere on their site. Surely getting a surprise while reading the fine print is the type of user experience we all try to avoid no? I signed up anyway, ignoring yet another red flag, knowing I could get my money back if it wasn't right. I sent off an email for further clarification.

A few days went by and no reply. The course started and I sent off another email. Still no reply. I sent a third. No reply. I sent and a fourth and a fifth email, this time via their website contact form. Still no reply. At this point it was 7 days later, I'd finished the first 40+ hour week, and still hadn't received a reply. Now I was starting to think I'd been scammed.

I DM'd the student liaison on Slack, who told me she would reach out on my behalf (kudos to her for being responsive, while being down with the flu no less, because she was the only one who was). A couple more days passed – 9 days after my initial email – before I finally received a reply from DesignLab asking to arrange another Student Advisor call. They also told me how student focused they are (c'mon, seriously?!). 

If it weren't so unnerving handing over thousands of dollars only to have them go dark on me, it would be funny that a company that teaches user experience and empathy could have so little of it. To my huge relief, they processed my refund promptly, but I'd warn potential students to be cautious.

A few final thoughts.

The curriculum is fine. They rely heavily on what is already out there for free though.

If you're new to the industry, blasting your resume to a quote of job postings per week makes sense (we all did when starting out). If you're already in the industry, I can't see the benefit to this approach unless you don't care where you're going.

Make sure you get a good mentor. My first one was excellent. My second one though – I have to qualify this next point with the fact that I withdrew form the course before meeting with him 1-on-1 so am basing this on our written communication only – was very much about his style of teaching, his schedule, and what worked for him. I felt like I didn't factor in to it at all. Had things panned out differently and I'd continued with the program, I'd definitely have asked to change mentors.

So their short course was great. UX Academy was a disaster. And I still have no clue how their career coaching actually works.

I had a great experience with Design101 and Design Lab. So much so that I will be continuing with their UX Academy. I am pretty much brand new to the world of design and tech so it was important that I take this introductory course to learn the basics and now I feel well set up to begin UX Academy. The mentorship piece of Design Lab courses is key. I had an awesome mentor who helped to set me up for success and gave me a lot of feedback and insight to help me grow. I would definitely recommend the program to friends who are interested in UX/UI Design.

I joined UX Academy as a Graphic designer hoping to learn UX/UI design. And UX Academy delivered more than I expected!

The curriculum - Well rounded. They covered all stages of the UX design process from User Research and Strategy to Visual Design. The course was structured well, so as to not be overwhelming. Pockets of theory were paired with practical exercises that helped me understand and remember what I'd learnt.

Mentorship - One of the best parts of UX Academy was being paired with a mentor – a veteran UX designer who knew the ins and outs of the UX design industry. He was an indispensable source of guidance, advice and support (especially for a UX newcomer like me)

Job Search - Rounding out the course was the 'Portfolio and Job Search' phase. Designlab has created an excellent framework of short exercises and activities for this. They helped me get through the daunting phase of making a portfolio, practicing for interviews and learning to present my work. It definitely helped me get where I am today. :)

DesignLab UX Academy is a great start to changing your career! I had very little experience going into the program, and was doing a complete career change. The mentorship aspect, and weekly group crits really made the online program feel like a school you attend in person, with a community of design support. The capstone projects could be demanding at times, with such tight deadlines, so I would have liked more time to make these portfolio pieces better,  but I was able to clean these up after the program ended. The Academy goes through the full spectrum of UX/UI, but I would have liked a few more courses/focus on UI/visual design mainly because I  did not have any graphic design background, and the students that do seem to be a step ahead (I think they may have added more UI courses since I finished). Yet, I learned A LOT from DesignLab, probably just as much, if not more, as other more expensive in-person schools. I landed an internship after the program ended, then a freelance design gig, and shortly after that a full-time position in UX/UI. I'm thrilled to have a new career I love, and have DesignLab UX Academy to thank for that.