Designlab

Overall my experience was positive and thorough.  I learned a ton and enjoyed myself along the way.  My mentor helped me with each session, coaching me through program issues with Figma, project effectiveness and career coaching.  I was given all the insight I needed, and had fun completing the projects along the way. Read less

I can’t speak highly enough about Designlab. From the curriculum, easy to use platform and most importantly mentorship, I highly recommend  Foundations to others. I originally took a different into to design course through a separate company, and was then accepted to the career track once I finished. I am so happy I decided to pivot and try Designlab. Best decision I could have made. I got so much more from this course.  Read less

Group crits and mentorship are the winning traits of UX Academy. The curriculum is well structured and they’re continuously updating information based on student feedback. You could find this information through online resources or books, but it’s nice to have assignments where you can apply that knowledge and have a professional (your mentor) guide you through any confusion or misunderstandings. 

The group crits are such a home run on DesignLab’s part. You get a chance to learn how to present your work, justify your design decisions and thinking, and give/accept critique. They’re very informal and quite welcoming- the moderator is there to promote conversation but I found that it happens organically most of the time. 

Loved my time at UXA and highly recommend it!  Read less

I just graduated from UX Academy Foundations and I learned a lot. There's a lot of information that will help you in your growth to becoming a designer. DesignLab gives you the structure and guidance needed to help you start of you UX design lab career. The mentor calls were also very helpful. Overall, I think it's a good program if you want to learn about UX Design. Read less

I have taken a few online courses in UI/ UX design, but nothing compares to Designlab's UX Academy Foundations. I learned a lot in just a matter of weeks! My mentor lived in the same state I do and was always willing to provide me with feedback/ advice. The course was challenging, but 100% worth it. I became more comfortable in my work and learned how to efficiently use Figma. I just wrapped up this course so I haven't applied to the UX Academy just yet, but I plan on it! Read less

The UX Academy foundations is an 8-week pre-requisite to apply for UX academy for students with no prior design knowledge. This course is packed with information, easy to use guidelines, and numerous projects to learn and apply UI design. I learned so much from the online course and through mentor sessions. I highly recommend for anyone who wants to change career or just learn about UI design  Read less

The best thing about DesignLab is that the course is well-organised - the units enabled me to take more and steps to building a good foundation for knowledge and stretched my skills further and further with every exercise. Each unit is calibrated perfectly so that it’s not too difficult that you’d give up, but challenging enough to keep stretching your skills. The mentorship is excellent - my mentor provided help by suggesting readings and resources, shared tips and real life design problems  from his own experience, guided me through some design related work processes I was working on for my job, and provided emotional support so that I could felt like someone was really rooting for me! The course interface is also great - very straightforward, brings the course materials, mentor sessions, AND a huge gallery of past and current students work for endless inspiration! I’d love to do more courses after a short break - next course I’ve ever done and I’ve done a lot! Read less

Overall I'm very happy with my experience taking UX Academy Foundations through DesignLab. I initially registered for their Design 101 course but as they were transitioning to Foundations they allowed me to transfer my registration to the new course instead. I found the DesignLab staff to be friendly, accommodating and willing to answer any questions I had quickly. The course is over 8 weeks and intended to be a preparatory course to apply to their UX Academy but it has a lot of merits on its own. It's broken into 8 different sections, each focused on different aspects of UI and visual design from visual design basics, to UI elements and principles, to color and type and so on. There are various readings and projects for each session and the projects vary from copy work, written reflections and hands on design projects with briefs. The final project is a 10 hour design challenge to design a website and three mobile screens for a fictional travel site. The curriculum covers web design, responsive design and mobile app design. An important note that this course mainly covers UI and visual design and there is not a ton of information on UX design except for an optional section at the completion of the course. This is understandable as the UX design portion is covered in their UX Academy course.  The majority of the work is self-paced and there are not set times for taking the coursework which is nice and allows for a flexible schedule. In addition, it seems as if you have lifetime access to the coursework, even after you submit your final project. They pair you with a mentor who is working in the field and you have weekly hour sessions with your mentor to ask any questions and review design projects. Your mentor can also comment on your design work through their online portal outside of your scheduled sessions. You're also given access to a Slack channel so you can talk with other students also in the program. I enjoyed working with my mentor, who was able to give me specific, actionable feedback on my projects as well as the reasoning behind her suggestions and was readily available via Skype and email outside of our sessions.  Ultimately, I feel as if I learned a lot about UI, visual and web design and feel like I've established a great baseline of knowledge to add to my resume and to offer to future employers. However, it is is a significant investment of time. They estimate 10 - 15 hours per week, which I would say is mostly accurate, though some weeks I'd say I was doing closer to 20 - 25 hours a week on iterations and revisions of the design projects. As someone who does not have children or a particularly demanding job this was doable for me, but if you work a lot of hours or have children, it may be harder for you to complete everything required within the time frame. For the majority of the course I worked both nights and weekends to complete what I needed to on time. In addition, it is self-paced, so you get out of it what you put into it. If you're not willing to put in the time to do the readings, prepare and participate in your mentor sessions and do the design work and iterations/revisions, you may not find this course as satisfying as I did.  Read less

I really enjoyed the UX Academy Foundations course! I did it part-time alongside my job, and it was manageable - not overwhelming and not dull either. The projects were fun and interesting, and for me, the possibility to have 8 mentor sessions added great value to the course. I think the course provides an excellent insight into the UX/UI world, and it serves as a good starting point for people who want to continue to the UX Academy. Read less

The foundations course at Designlab exceeded my expectation. They wrote their own curriculum and it is well written. You get 8 week course online and in each week/unit, you get plenty of opportunities to practice what you learned from the reading material and you get to learn how to use design software such as Figma. The Figma tutorial is built into the course. You will be very familiar with Figma at the end of the course. The other thing I wanted to mention is that you get 8 weekly calls scheduled with your mentor. They all have direct working experience in the design field and they provide you with timely feedback on your projects and answer all questions that you may have. My mentor has been very responsive and helpful. I really appreciated her help! I would recommend this course to anyone who does not have a design background but is interested in pursuing a career in UX design. Read less

Designlab makes it easy to jump in with both feet. UX Foundations is a great introduction for those who have only just discovered the world of user experience/interface. The course is 8 weeks (roughly 10 hours a week) and takes you from total newbie to knowing a thing or two! The course prepares you for their larger Academy for those looking for a career boost or change. I'd recommend this course to all looking for a challenge but wanting great support.  Read less

The curriculum and the guidance of a mentor was supper helpful. There were lot of useful resources like the schools slack community for support and questions. I really like how the school gives video tutorials and guided walkthroughs. they encourage student to reach outside there comfort zones and reach out for help and criticism from other student or outside resources Read less

I have to say, before enrolling in this course I had some concerns such as: I didn't have any previous design knowledge, I was coming from a completely different job industry (tourism) and my final concern was my non-native English (even though, I live and work in English-speaking country for the past 4 years). Besides all these concerns, I managed to finish the course within 4 weeks (the course is designed to last 8 weeks), learn so many useful and interesting design-related things, connect with some amazing people, and apply and get accepted into the UX Academy. I am so happy I decided to enroll in the UXA Foundations and finish it as planned. This course is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to make a career change, who doesn't have any design experience, want to try it out, and see if they like UX/UI design before committing themselves to 3, 6, or 10 months long Bootcamp. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone interested in UX/UI design, you wouldn't regret it.   Read less

I started UX Academy Foundations as skeptical of my own abilities. I'm glad to say that I was wrong. I flew through the course much quicker than I thought I would, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The lessons and projects paired with a mentor is ingenious. I didn't feel like I had to adhere to a very rigid set of rules. My mentor encouraged me to expand upon each project and really give it my all. After all, these lessons were for me and my own growth. I never felt so empowered and supported when it came to school work.

Your mentor is not your teacher, they are your team mate. They are there to help YOU. Take advantage of that and use it to push yourself into uncomfortable territory. Your mentor will be sure to keep you on track if they feel you wandered too far off the path.

10/10 I can not recommend Designlab enough.  Read less

I started the foundations course in December of 2020 and finished early January 2021. I couldn't be happier with my choice. I interviewed several bootcamps and this one by far was best overall. The education, online courses, support, cost and mentor you receive was second to none. It is simply the best fit for me.  Once I got into the program, I was blown away by how the material was broken down (they also made it fun and engaging with great reading material and fun projects). I enjoyed the course and would recommend them to anyone asking! Taking this course solidified my plans to take the full UX academy they offer.  Read less

 Design Lab made it really simply and easy to ease into the world of design. I decided to take this course to begin my path into design and change careers from accounting and operations. This course features one on one mentor meetings which gives you a chance to not only get feedback on your work and get answers to confusing curriculum but it allows you to ask questions to someone who is currently in the field. I am currently full time working and was happy that the course was flexible enough for me to complete my work.  Read less

Designlab is a place where you can learn things more quickly when you do it. On a platform, you can see your development. Every student has one mentor, the student can choose their convenient time for a weekly session. 
I think one of the advantages is that it's flexible. Also if the course ends student can still do their projects to receive your certificate of completion! 
The Designlab team and mentors are amazing, they always trying to help students to achieve their best. I highly recommend it. Read less

I had a pleasure of taking the UX Foundations course just recently and would love to recommend it to everyone looking to start their design edu journey and also for those undecided whether the design field is good for them and would like to check out a shorter class  without a huge commitment. It's an 8-week long program, I was personally able to finish it within 4 weeks on the top of having a full-time job. I liked that the class was heavily project based as I was able to get consistent feedback from my mentor on my progress and work on the actual tasks and practice my new skills.  Read less

It was a great experience for me to attend this online course. The mentor was very attentive to my project and was always ready to help me. Also, he suggested and sent me a great collection of books which were very useful while studying on this course. Will I take another course too? Definitely! I'm 100% satisfied with the results  Read less