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)

This course exceeded my expectations. While I finished the course in the time frame given, I could have dug down even deeper into the materials! And the plentiful resources are there for me to take advantage of for years to come. The mentor support is also key to discussing the projects and materials. The project-based course really helped to make the materials come alive.

Great course! The Design 101 course was an enjoyable experience where I could learn the basic of the Design making a good starting portfolio. 
The modules are well developed with useful knowledge to build the final project peace by peace. It is also offered a mentor to guide you during this process and give tips about how to improve later on and how is the daily life as a Designer.

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 took the UI design course and have no complaints! I have taken two courses at Designlab and will probably take one more. Why? Because it is affordable, and you get an awesome mentor guiding you through the course. Holding your hand if you want. If you are serious about learning design there is no better way than to invest in yourself with Designlab.

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!

Design 101 is a great course for anyone new to design. In this course I've learned all the necessary design basics and know a lot more about the design job field. Each student has a mentor that meets weekly, and it's a good opportunity to ask any questions, and the mentor's reviews of projects are very helpful. This course encourages me to seriously consider a career in UX/UI design, and encourages me to take more courses to improve. 

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.

I loved this course because of the balance of freedom and structure. I had the freedom to do the coursework when I had time during the week but still made sure to finish the projects before my next session with my mentor. It made me take my interest in learning design more seriously. Talking to someone who actually works in the industry was also a great help. She gave me so many great resources I might have taken a lot longer to find otherwise.

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.

This course is such an eye-opener for those who have never pursued a formal education in design. The materials and exercises are engaging and interesting, and the mentorship is high-quality and very valuable. The combination of those two factors leads to a really enriching experience and I complete the course with a much better idea of what design is, and a grounding in the practical skills needed to be a designer.

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.