Designlab

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

Im glad i picked design lab for learning ux designing. They gave the best content. The people who work for design lab are it's assets. They go out of the way to help students to accommodate their needs. Super approachable and very understanding. The content itself is well organized, easy to follow with videos and lots of project work for practice.  Read less

I was debating between designlab and careerfoundry. I ended up choosing to enroll on designlab's foundations class because that would be a great way to see if their teaching style matched me before committing to a full payment. 

The focus of the class is to get you up to speed with current UI design tools and design principles; with the idea of preparing you for when deeper lessons in the UX field are introduced in their Academy program. 

I wasn't expecting to have such a dedicated staff, easy to digest content, and all the resources provided. Being paired with a mentor and having weekly check ups was a fantastic push to stay on track. 

What impacted me the most is the scope of the projects, how much hands-on material there is, and the amount of content you can get to cover in so little time - without feeling overwhelming. 

The results you'll get out of the class is definitely based on how much effort you put into it. After taking this class I feel very confident about diving into the next subjects such as UX, research, and the job search in the near future!

I would definitely recommend if you're considering a career switch but don't want to fully commit to a full boot camp!

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I think this is a good course for anyone considering stepping into the UX/UI field.  For an online course, it will definitely be what you make of it but Designlab provides a good amount of resources to start off with.  For anyone who hasn't worked with design software before, it's a great intro to Figma & Sketch and helps familiarize you with the basic functions. While the course offers recommended time spent on each project, you can really choose to move at your own pace which I found really helpful for someone balancing a full time job while enrolled. The best part though was that even though it's just a foundations course, you are paired up with a mentor!  Read less

As someone who never did any digital design and 0 experience with design programs, the course was very daunting at first. But DL's program babies you into the world of design and UI elements. It's a great idea for someone who's interested in UX but not sure they want to pay for a full-on course just yet. The "reimbursement" to pay for the UX Academy is great too. The learning portal is clean and simple, easy to use and straightforward. Mentors all seem quite experienced, and you can even look through their work on the DL website and get linked to their resumes. The school's ambassadors are very active and there are multiple optional webinars throughout the course. 
FYI mentor sessions are 1 hour in UX Foundations and Academy, and you're free to take them whatever direction you'd like, but since most people are doing this after their daytime job, you may have to schedule times before/after normal working hours (they take into consideration your time zone and whatever else you request on a survey before assigning you a mentor). 
The only cons are that the learning material itself is a bit lackluster, somewhat dated (you can just tell from the screenshots of old iPhones), and you probably can find most of the material online somewhere else. But the projects and mentorship sessions are the main gems that you'll get. 
One piece of advice to anyone coming from a non-design, non-UX background: try the Coursera UX courses for $40/month to feel it out first, and then if you're wanting to continue, give UX Foundations a try ($40/month vs. $500!)  Read less

I had a really positive experience with Designlab's UX Foundations course. Going in, I was worried about a couple of things: it would be too difficult to learn new tools/ software remotely and I would have a tough time staying on track with my full-time work schedule. The way the course is laid out, the support offered by both the Designlab admissions team and my assigned mentor, and the slew of resources they provide throughout the course were so incredibly helpful. The actual course content and projects were engaging and challenging but never left me feeling clueless or unable to move forward. I learned a lot in the 8-weeks I took to complete the course. I finished the course with a design project I am proud of that I can use to apply for UX Academy, a solid base of foundational knowledge I'm excited to build on, and the confidence that I made the right decision to switch to a career in UX/UI. Read less

I had a great experience in the DesignLab Foundations course. The coursework was easy to follow, even for someone with zero experience in the industry. I enjoyed meeting with my mentor, the feedback from someone in the industry was incredibly helpful and appreciated.  Read less

I've been taking online classes through Designlab for about two months now. The curriculum is easy to follow, well designed, and motivating. You have constant support through Designlab's team, as well as a personalized mentor for you. The mentor commits at least an hour a week to meeting with you and talking about any questions you have about the course, UX design, or job opportunities - anything you want really! There's even a slack community where you can link up with other students (there are a ton!) and critique one another, so you get practice with aspects of collaborative design as well. I highly recommend the course for all of their support and ease of learning. Read less

Really enjoyed my UX Foundations course from Designlab. It took me a bit of time to get used to the course delivery cause I didn't realize that even if the schedule is flexible and I can learn on my own time, there are still a lot of projects/deliverables to submit, so I ended up setting my own "class hours" so I'm not all over the place. The course itself is easy to understand and it has a lot of projects that will really give you a good grasp of what to expect in the UI industry. It's a Foundations course and I believe it lives up to that expectation-- it gives you the Foundations you need to build on. The mentorship aspect is okay, especially since you're doing all the coursework by yourself, so it's nice to be able to talk to someone once in a while. It's different though compared to having a teacher cause if you have questions while studying, you have to list it down and wait until your mentor session. Or sometimes, a concept is important but you end up just skimming it while you read, whereas having a teacher would have really emphasized/expounded on that area. For the content, I really like that Designlab make their own videos/tutorials so I don't have to go look for tutorials especially with using the software (Figma/Sketch). Overall, it's a good foundations program and the tuition commitment is also not too daunting. Like, if you find out that UI/UX is not for you, then you're not throwing away tens of thousands. It gives you allowance to not have to commit yet to the more extensive; more expensive UX Academy (which you take after this Foundations course). Read less

Very thorough, informative and challenging course. I've learned a lot and have come a long way and I really had a great experience. The staff and mentor's are great as well. Super supportive. Would definitely recommend this course. You definitely want to plan your time around this coarse though, working and doing it can be done, but depending on your ours it can be rough. I would still recommend you take it either way! Read less

I took Designlab's UX Academy Foundations course as a prep program for their full fledged UX Academy course. I was only expecting to learn some foundational basics to UX/UI design what I did not expect to receive from the program made the experience that much greater. Each student received weekly 1-on-1 mentor support, free access to the paid version of design tools as perks, online interviews with designers already in the industry with Q&A sessions, and plentiful of access to links outside of the program as external FYI (podcasts, books, blogs, videos, and others). What a joy it has been to be part of the Designlab curriculum. I would recommend this course for anyone interested in learning more about design without having to commit to the full fledged bootcamp. Read less

UX Academy Foundations was an incredibly informative and helpful course. I'm a full-time Mom, I completed the course part-time and this course taught me so much. I have a bachelor's degree in Healthcare Administration and currently, I'm working to get into UX Design. This course was the perfect learning experience for me. The overall structure of the course consisted of a few reading assignments,  tutorials for either Sketch of Figma (I choose Figma), replication assignments (This was duplicating a current design that had good principles), and then a design project of your own. Each week had a specific focus, so whether it was grids and layout, hierarchy, typography, color theory, etc. each lesson built upon the last one. By the end of the course, I had produced my own designs that I was so proud of! There were also a ton of resources provided throughout the course to assist with finding stock photography, icons, and UI Pattern Libraries, and so much more. I loved also that I had a 1:1 weekly meeting with a mentor who was incredibly skilled and currently a working professional. She was awesome and taught me a lot! I'd highly recommend this course for anyone wanting to improve their Visual Design understanding and implementation, and anyone looking to move into UX Design. Read less

Designlab is an excellent starting off point to launch a career in UX design! Starting with no experience in UX, I was amazed at how much knowledge I gained, including three detailed portfolio pieces. Throughout my time, the designlab staff has been very understanding, supportive, and accomodating. In addition, you get access to the slack channel even after graduation. It's a great location to find resources and connect with other designers.
On the downside, it's a self-taught course. It's necessary to have the motivation and dedication to get through the entirety of the course.  However, the weekly group crit is a great way to meet other students and connect with excellent facilitators! The course does not go in-depth in some areas of UX. For this, I recommend supplementary courses like google UX. When it comes to mentors, they are a hit or miss. They are generally all great UX designers but not necessarily great mentors. I recommend reaching outside of designlab and connecting with other UX designers or UX mentors on platforms like adplist. Career service is what you make of it and will not guarantee you a job. So again, it's essential to connect with people outside of designlab for advice and networking. 
Overall, designlab was a great starting off point. It will prepare you for your first UX design role, and  I recommend the academy to anyone interested in starting a career in UX design.  Read less

I was a complete novice before starting this program, and have learned so much over the course of the 2-ish months that I took to complete it. It is a very comprehensive course for the amount that you pay, and it is a really nice feature that the amount is discounted should you continue on to Designlab’s UX academy course. 
My mentor was very helpful and gave me a lot of great constructive feedback throughout the course. You have the opportunity to connect with and share your designs with other students in the course on Slack and in open critiques. It is an online course, so it provides the flexibility to complete assignments whenever you’d like, but the downside is that it’s not incredibly immersive if that is what you are looking for.
My favorite thing about the DesignLab course is that it allowed me to express myself in a way that I felt like I could not for the longest time! It was so refreshing to learn about a new tool/skill (the iterative design process and using Figma) and then getting a chance to tackle projects that simulate what you might find as a real world designer.
I highly recommend Designlab!! Read less

I had such an amazing experience in UX foundations at Designlab. Not only was I paired with an awesome mentor who helped develop my design skills from scratch, but also the projects and curriculum were well crafted. Overall, I learned a lot and I am excited to start UX academy at the end of this month.  Read less