Designlab

Pros: 
- The content and assignments were clearly layed out
- A ton of resources for outside learning 
- A 1v1 mentor that wants to help you succeed 

Cons
- Minimal video content 
- Only one mentor (only one perspective)
- Mostly focused on UI  Read less

I took the UX Academy Foundations course in order to apply for the actual bootcamp, as I didn't have any previous design or UI experience at all. Foundations was well-paced, easy to understand, but also challenging enough to keep me occupied and engaged over the course of the 8 weeks. I enjoyed the projects I completed and always got great, timely feedback from my mentor. I now feel like I have enough foundational knowledge to launch into the bootcamp and continue my education into UX. Read less

I'm happy that my investment into the Designlab Foundations course exceeded my expectations. The one-on-one mentoring is extremely valuable to elevating your designs to a place that would not be possible otherwise. The course really nicely balances providing learning materials, projects, and mentoring sessions. You also gain access to an incredible community of other students/mentors in Discord to collaborate with. I have a ton of confidence going into UX Academy and ultimately making this career change in general!   Read less

I truly enjoyed my experience with DesignLab's UX Online Foundations Course. I had a background in Industrial Design so some topics came easy to me but I feel like I learned more in 8 weeks than I did in a semester at school. I also love that I'll continue to have access to the resources they supplied me with long after completing it. I'm excited to continue on to the academy! Read less

Designlab’s UX Academy Foundations course was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with school. I’ve always been a big advocate for trade school and hands on learning. I feel like it not only gives you a better idea of the field that you’re getting into but also allows you to learn so much faster. Foundations perfectly balanced the instruction given and the hands on project work you complete to give you a great experience. I did a lot of research on other UX design bootcamps before deciding on Designlab. What stood out to me the most was the fact that the Foundations course existed. It was the perfect opportunity to get your feet wet, build your design skills, and most of all, see if UX/UI design is even something you’d want to pursue further! I’m already planning to apply for UX Academy because I loved everything I learned in Foundations so much and want to pursue a career full time in UX design! I wish I had known about this course sooner because I wouldn’t have wasted the money and time I did spend in college before deciding it wasn’t what I wanted.  Read less

I loved this course! Great curriculum that will definitely get you up to speed with UI design. I learned a lot of design principles. The mentorship aspect of this class was also amazing. It’s great to have an industry expert you can bounce ideas off of and is willing to give feedback.  Read less

The best reason for attending UX Foundations course with Designlab is how they are genuinely committed to the fostering of the next generation of designers. The individual mentors are assigned based on student specifications and interests. The format for interaction helps students (even the shyest of learners) to gain valuable insight from practicing designers and experience the more realistic workplace feedback and conversations around design since they work closely alongside you as you work on different design briefs. My mentor spent a great deal of time with me to review opportunities to reiterate my work and furthermore become more comfortable talking and analyzing design efficacy in my own work and that of others. Nishant Rai was especially helpful as a mentor since he made ample time to discuss design concerns and demonstrate best practices and more sophisticated techniques. Read less

Having no professional design experience, DesignLab actually provides all the tools needed for a career in UX. The course is constructed very professionally with tons of resources and materials available to their students. I feel very well prepared going into the UX academy and feel confident DesignLab will give me everything I need and more for a career in UX design. So grateful to have discovered DesignLab, cannot recommend it more!  Read less

I was more than ready for a career change after 17 years in the classroom. I did my research and chose DesignLab for the mentors and group crits. I thoroughly enjoyed the structure and delivery of the curriculum. My mentors were crucial in giving me the encouragement and support I needed to make a life changing career switch. I never actually made it to Career Services because I landed a job before I was done with Phase 2.  Read less

I attended DesignLab's UX Academy Foundations course with the intention of doing the full-time, 4-week course. Unfortunately, my mentor was sick one week which pushed me back to a 5-week course. I was expecting to devote about 20 hours a week to the program, but realistically I probably spent 30 hours a week. The time estimates on the website seemed to be based on the expected time to read and complete the assignments, but didn't take into account the time for project reiterations, mentor meetings, crit reviews, and engagement in the Discord channels. I also spent extra time digging deeper into areas that were interesting through outside books or websites. (Not that I had to do that, but felt compelled to because I was so excited about everything that I was learning!) The coursework is really well designed, other than the occasional spelling error, and is a mixture of written lessons, video instructions, short assignments, and full-length projects. The assignments build upon each other and there are some units where you then use all the small projects you have designed to complete a large project. This sort of learning structure worked really well for me. I sincerely enjoyed the course, learned a ton of new things, and am really proud of the projects that I designed. 
 
You are paired with a mentor that you meet with 1-2 times a week, depending on how many weeks you are devoting to the course. My mentor provided great feedback on my designs and taught me new techniques to employ in Figma. She also gave me insight into the industry, the path she took to get where she is, and how to approach the job hunt and interview process. The downside with the mentors is that there doesn't seem to be very much regulation with how they mentor. Some mentors provide written reviews of your work through the platform, giving feedback every 1-2 days, but mine only interacted with me during our meetings. That meant that sometimes I just had to plow ahead in the course without knowing if I'd completed the previous section successfully. It worked out fine in the end, but it did make me wish that DesignLab employed more questions on their mentor matching form in regards to learning style and work ethic. 
 
You also are asked to critique one student project and attend one crit review with other students during the course. Though I thought these were great ideas in theory, the execution was a little wonky. There wasn't enough time in the crit review for everyone to present their work and I felt like it was difficult for students to take advice seriously from some random student that they didn't know. This aspect of the program could potentially be improved by placing students (or promoting them to place themselves) into small groups of 20 that could get to know each other and their design work. This way the critiques would hold more weight for the students. 
 
That said, overall, I highly recommend the course, am impressed with how much content is included at the price point, and think it is useful whether taken alone or used as a prerequisite for the full UX Academy. Read less

I attended DesignLab's UX Academy Foundations course as a prerequisite for their full-length UX design bootcamp, UX Academy. I studied on a 4-week track, devoting approximately 20-30 hours per week on my coursework. Although the course is intensive, it is extremely well designed with a mixture of lessons, short assignments, and full length projects. Each part of the course builds upon your skills and sets you up for success in the next assignment or project. I never felt unprepared for what was being asked of me. Additionally, you are assigned a mentor that you meet with at least once per week throughout your course and is responsible for providing feedback on each of your assignments and projects. My mentor gave very detailed and thoughtful feedback, and was encouraging, yet challenging. I think this was a crucial aspect to my growth in the course.  Read less

Design Lab is rigorous and it serious about preparing you for the UX Academy. I did not expect to learn as much as I did in such a  short amount of time, and the format for online learning is the perfect mix of support, content availability, and hands on projects. I am looking forward to the Academy and feel prepared going in. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a career switch.  Read less

The Designlab UX Academy Foundations course is great!  It helped me prepare for applying to the UX Academy bootcamp.  The coursework was well structured and timed appropriately.  I have a background in tech product dev but not in design and I think this course is really helpful for those without an artdegree to get a good basis on design principals.  The one on one mentoring sessions are great - definately helped me understand concepts more quickly and improve my design process. Read less

I really enjoyed Designlab's Foundations bootcamp! I'm not completely new to design, but I found that I learned a lot! I really enjoyed the projects and found them to be stretching in a good way. I also enjoyed my interactions with my mentor, who was fun and easy to relate to. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to get into design, improve their skills, and get practice doing actual projects!  Read less

Overall, I had a great experience as a Designlab student. I come from a completely different background, but I was interested in design for most of my life, so my previous knowledge definitely helped me finish the course in 4 weeks. I chose to do it in 4 weeks because I wanted a more intensive (and intense) experience to help me prepare for UX Academy, and in the end this time limit ended up being perfect for me. There was always work to do without it seeming impossible or discouraging. I do recommend everyone who wants to be a full-time student at UX Academy to try and finish Foundations in 4 weeks, because it will only get more intense from there.
My mentor was great at helping me along the way, there were never any delays with feedback and they were especially good at providing me with insights about what working in the industry is like.
The material was well-structured, I liked the order in which the topics were presented, like leaving typography and color for the end so that students could focus on other, more challenging things while working mostly in greyscale. A lot of additional resources were provided like articles, online tools, literature etc. My only criticism is that there was a lot of reading to do which would sometimes slow down the process for me and other students I talked to. I think it would’ve been less tedious if the same information was presented in a video format, especially with stuff like the history of typography or Figma/Sketch tutorials. 
In the end, I feel like the course was 100% worth its value. Of course if you’re driven enough you could find the same information for free, but I knew I needed structure, deadlines and lots of practice to motivate me. That’s exactly what I got from Foundations, so I would definitely recommend it to people who want to transition to UX. 
 
 


Read less

I came into this not knowing a single thing about design and by the end of my course I felt like I had a genuine understanding to what design was, in essence, and I saw my progress get better and better each week! The one on one mentorship was crucial to my understanding and building a healthy mindset when it comes to constructive criticism and iteration. The lessons were engaging and fun, not slow and boring or hard to grasp. The assignments were instrumental and helped me progress more and more with each week and I’m amazed at just how much I was able to learn in a few short weeks.
The only thing I would count as a negative is the time constraints, it is encouraged to just do what you can in the time frame given, but I feel in order to get the most from your one on one with your mentors, it’s good to have a finished product to present to them in order to give appropriate feedback. Read less