Designlab

 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

I  am marketing undergraduate and I wanted to have a design experience. This is a fairly new field so there are not that many information available on youtube that I found useful.I signed up for designlab foundations and I was amazed by how much I learned in just 4 weeks. The courses are very straightforward and designed very well for a person who has no clue about ux. My mentor was amazing. he helped me a lot for understanding figma, ui, design principals,ux careers and the future of design/technology. I applied for ux academy and I am very excited to be in ux academy to learn more. Read less

Designlab's UX Foundations is my first on many levels.  This is my first bootcamp course.  This is my first online course.  This is my first exposure to the UX industry.  Of course (pun intended) everybody's first experience is memorable, but not everybody's first experience is favorable.  The overall Designlab experience is very favorable from beginning to now.  I came away with a skillset in UX/UI that I feel confident in as I move forward.  The knowledge I gained from the course and my mentor experience was well worth my time and resources.  I'm very confident in recommending this course to anybody looking into a career in UX/UI.  Read less

I took this part-time Foundations course to prep me for Designlab's full-time UX Academy course, since I had very little design experience or education. I LOVED it. The emphasis was definitely on visual design basics and fundamentals, which I found very helpful for my situation. I don't have experience in any other bootcamp so it's hard to know what to compare it to, but I was constantly bragging to my partner about how well organized the course is, how much I loved the structure, how interesting the content was, how much fun I had with the projects and how much they made sense, flow-wise. I really was impressed throughout the process and I can't wait to get started in the full-time course! I did a TON of research on various bootcamps leading up to this decision (y'all should see my spreadsheet...) and once I started with Designlab, I didn't look back. Read less

I've been looking into a career switch and have always been interested in web design/graphics/etc. After checking a bunch of articles and videos I learned more about UX design and saw a few recommendations for Designlab's UX Academy. Since I didn't have a portfolio to submit with my application I took this foundation's course. I managed to completed the full time track (~20hr week) while working a full time job. The pace was great and my weekly meetings with my mentor were a huge help filling in the blanks. The only con at first was I wish they went into more details outside the design process. But they explain the reasoning at the end why they structured the course this way - and it makes sense. My experience in this course was awesome and as soon as I got the final projected approved I immediately applied for the full UX Academy. Read less

When I applied to DesignLab, I was completely unaware of how much of a great fit it was for me. It is a very supportive environment, with an emphasis on providing hands on experience and providing a solid foundation to the design world.  The faculty is very caring and understanding and has a genuine interest in students' success. There is a lot of potential to get involved in research, and a lot of students make use of those opportunities. You simply will not get an on-hand experience like you will at DesignLab anywhere else.  Read less

I started Foundations knowing just a little bit of design, and had a pretty good handle on graphics programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. These helped in learning the core software for Foundations, and the UI/UX industry Figma. I would say that just learning Figma has helped my skill set for finding a career. Along with learning the software, I picked up a lot of good information on basic web and app design, color theory and typography. My mentor was very talented and had a critical eye.
So that's the good - here's the not as good. I don't think I could have survived without at least some design background. One student posted that they had no design background as was really struggling to learn all of Figma in the time allotted. And I agree. Learning how to work with vector drawing, font management, color management, basic layout, grids and columns, photo clean-up -  it's a lot, especially if you're on the fast track 4 weeks course. If you don't have the background, expect to need twice as much time.

I think the course content is good, but there's some Figma lessons that should have taught first, like plug-ins for type and icons.

Overall, I'm coming out of this as a better designer, certainly not at a professional level. But, enough to move on the UX course, which was my goal.

As for the price - Foundations is $500, which is counted towards the cost of the UX course. If you only take Foundations, I'd say it's worth it for the mentor feedback, peer reviews, and extensive content. Note that job support is not included in this part of the course. That comes with the UX program. Read less

Because I didn't have any background in UX/UI design, I took the Foundations course before applying to UX Academy. I really enjoyed the Foundations course and I also had an great mentor who taught me a lot. UX Academy itself is intense but I've learned so much and have landed a UX Design job quickly after graduating. The hard work pays off! I did thorough research before choosing Designlab by comparing programs online but also by asking people in the field which programs they recommend. The main benefits of Designlab are: the 1-on-1 mentorship, the weekly design critique sessions, a lot of room to choose/create your own capstone projects to build a portfolio that stands out and 6 months of Career Services after graduating. The reason I'm not giving an overall 5-star rating is because the mentor pairing can be hit or miss (it's very personal!) and the process to change mentors wasn't always that smooth for me.  Read less

I started Designlab's UX Academy Foundations course in October. I attended part-time (10-15 hours a week) for 8 weeks. I did heavy research on programs; a Designlab mentor on the UX design subreddit ultimately tipped me over in favor of Designlab. I just completed the foundations course this week and wow, it was a very rewarding experience. I learned a lot in a short period of time and I walked away with many tangible skills, including using Figma and understanding UI design principles. My weekly meetings with my mentor was the true highlight - I got constructive feedback each week and an opportunity to ask questions to an expert. The Designlab projects are actually fun to work on and I looked forward to coming home from work each day and getting started on my classwork. My only regret was not having more time each week to dive in to the content more (e.g. read the recommended supplemental articles) - there's so much interesting stuff to learn. I am applying now for the Designlab full-time academy in hopes of changing my career to UX/UI design. I will be leaving a 12-year professional career in education, so making this transition is a big risk - yet I haven't doubted this decision once since starting with Designlab. Read less