Designlab
Average Rating4.78
785 Reviews
9 Courses
Designlab is an online training provider that teaches in-demand UX/UI design skills through their UX Academy and short courses. Designlab’s top-tier online programs connect students with expert design mentors, empowering them to launch and advance their career in digital design. Whether students are transitioning into UX design with Designlab’s flagship UX Academy or refining their skills through advanced courses designed for seasoned designers and design teams, Designlab offers meticulously crafted programs to help learners achieve their goals.
With mentorship and community at the core of every course, students benefit from weekly 1:1 video calls in UX Academy and UX Academy Foundations, as well as small peer group sessions in advanced and short courses. Through personalized feedback and guidance, Designlab’s network of experienced mentors helps students navigate the design industry, offering career advice and insights into market trends from a professional’s perspective.
To apply for the UX Academy, applicants need to fill out an online application, and schedule a call with a Designlab representative. Applicants should have a love of good design, a grounding in design fundamentals, and commitment and resilience.
785 Designlab Reviews
Schools can't pay to alter or remove their reviews. Course Report never suppresses negative reviews
Sort by
Filter by
AnonymousGraduate • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineOct 29, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/ADesignLab UX Academy Foundations great experience
I really enjoyed my experience in the DesignLab Foundations course. They were very thorough with their content and provide many opportunities to practice skills. It is very helpful to be able to have tutorials throughout to learn about how to design on Figma (or Sketch) and to get feedback from an experienced mentor. I enjoyed the projects, they really enabled me to practice designing digital products and made me much more confident, skilled, and knowledgable in design. I would recommend...I really enjoyed my experience in the DesignLab Foundations course. They were very thorough with their content and provide many opportunities to practice skills. It is very helpful to be able to have tutorials throughout to learn about how to design on Figma (or Sketch) and to get feedback from an experienced mentor. I enjoyed the projects, they really enabled me to practice designing digital products and made me much more confident, skilled, and knowledgable in design. I would recommend this course for sure, DesignLab allows you to learn with lots of support and encouragement.- AnonymousGraduate • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineOct 13, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
UX Designer
I really enjoyed Designlab, having a mentor and a supportive community to learn with was great! It really prepped me to develop a solid resume/portfolio. - AnonymousGraduate • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineOct 13, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
Great class and fun experience!
I was very unsatisfied with my current job, so I decided to try this class out and see how I would like it. It was definitely a huge learning curve for me. It took me some time to change my mindset on certain things like trying to complete everything instead of submitting incomplete work during the suggested time limit. Overall, I had a good experience with this course. I would recommend this course to a friend.
Pros:
-Beginner friendly course for people with no design backgrou...I was very unsatisfied with my current job, so I decided to try this class out and see how I would like it. It was definitely a huge learning curve for me. It took me some time to change my mindset on certain things like trying to complete everything instead of submitting incomplete work during the suggested time limit. Overall, I had a good experience with this course. I would recommend this course to a friend.
Pros:
-Beginner friendly course for people with no design background
-Lots of fun projects that include a lot of copy work and your own designs
-Working with softwares like Sketch or Figma
-Awesome student perks for software discounts
-Provides lots of original reading material and short tutorial videos
-Provides additional reading material from other resources outside of Designlab
-Awesome mentorship program - 8 mentor meetings (1hr / session) are provided
-Supportive Slack community from DL staff and DL students
-Lots of informational webinars such as keeping students on track to enrolling in UX Academy bootcamp
Cons:
-No live instructor
-Self-learn and self-paced course
-Very short tutorial videos. Could use some more video content.
-Suggested time limits could be increased for slow learners
-There are some minor typos in the reading materials and some of the text provided for some projects - AnonymousStudent • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineOct 08, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Self paced bootcamp with tons of resources
I enjoyed this bootcamp class as someone with zero experience in UX/UI design. The curriculum was self paced, however in order to advance to UX Academy it does have to be completed in 8 weeks. The mentorship experience is a great resource as well as the slack channel. The only con is that in order to move on through certain assignments you need mentor approval of iterations which can delay progress on the course timeline. Overall, great price for a bootcamp with tons of resources. - AnonymousStudent • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineOct 04, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
Great self-paced program!
I just finished the Designlab foundations program, and I really enjoyed it! I was able to complete the program at my own pace, and finished in only four weeks! I was very impressed with the amount of support that's offered throughout the program between the mentoring sessions, the group-crits and the slack channel. There were only a couple of times I got stuck working on a project, but with all the support I received I was able to sort it out pretty quickly. I also appreciate that this p...I just finished the Designlab foundations program, and I really enjoyed it! I was able to complete the program at my own pace, and finished in only four weeks! I was very impressed with the amount of support that's offered throughout the program between the mentoring sessions, the group-crits and the slack channel. There were only a couple of times I got stuck working on a project, but with all the support I received I was able to sort it out pretty quickly. I also appreciate that this program was exactly what was advertised. There are a lot of programs that don't fulfill the promises they make in their marketing, but Designlab was easy, fun, and I'm really happy with what I was able to learn in only 4 weeks! - AnonymousStudent • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineSep 09, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
UX Foundations Academy
Great and well-structured Curriculum!
Designlab's UX Foundations Academy was a great way to introduce UI Desing. The curriculum is well-structured which is perfect for someone like me who has no background on design. It focused more on UI rather than UX, which was how the program was built to specifically cater to applicants with no design background. The program has a solid foundation on design principles, which is a great foundation if you want to pursue UX Ac...Great and well-structured Curriculum!
Designlab's UX Foundations Academy was a great way to introduce UI Desing. The curriculum is well-structured which is perfect for someone like me who has no background on design. It focused more on UI rather than UX, which was how the program was built to specifically cater to applicants with no design background. The program has a solid foundation on design principles, which is a great foundation if you want to pursue UX Academy. The curriculum was thorough and easily digestible, with lot of additional reading materials to supplement a specific topic being discussed. Clearly, the whole program was designed to be online so everything was well though of and easy to navigate for a 100% online program.
The only reason why I am not giving this a 5 star rating was my experience with my mentor, which I think is a case-to-case basis. Contrary to the great mentorship that other students experienced, which what sold me to enroll in this program, I experienced the opposite. Instead of having hour-long feedback sessions, our session only lasted about 20-30 mins with 15 mins as my presentation. My feedback would be as vague as 'Good job!' or 'Nice Work!'. Sometimes, my mentor would have a passive-aggressive behavior and answer my questions sarcastically, which really put me off. I suggest reaching out to admissions and request for a change if you're not happy with your mentor.
Overall, I am satisfied with Designlabs's UX Foundations Program. I think it's fairly-priced with the content that your getting. I cannot wait to start UX Academy. I highly recommend this for anyone thinking of pursuing UX/UI Design! - AnonymousGraduate • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineAug 19, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
UX Academy Foundations Course
A course that provides the basics on UI/UX to be taken before entering Designlab's UX Academy. - AnonymousStudent • 2. UX Academy (Part-time) • OnlineAug 10, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Spend the money elsewhere
On the last day of my UX academy, my mentor let me how difficult it would be for me to get a job and that I was very junior. Considering the mentor is supposed to elevate your skillset this lets you know everything you need to know about the course. This program does not prepare you to be industry-ready and land a job after taking the course. If you go into this program with that expectation you will be disappointed. This program is only the tip of the iceberg needed if you are making a...On the last day of my UX academy, my mentor let me how difficult it would be for me to get a job and that I was very junior. Considering the mentor is supposed to elevate your skillset this lets you know everything you need to know about the course. This program does not prepare you to be industry-ready and land a job after taking the course. If you go into this program with that expectation you will be disappointed. This program is only the tip of the iceberg needed if you are making a complete career change. I highly recommend spending the money elsewhere and getting a more formal and thorough education. - AnonymousGraduate • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineAug 01, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
DesignLab Review
An amazing opportunity to step into the field of UI/UX. I feel the Foundations is a great starting point. LEarned a lot and most importantly I was grateful to have a one-on-one mentorship with an experienced UX designer who was very supportive in my learning journey. He consistently encouraged me to keep moving even on the most challenging days. The key learning for me was to practice timeboxing and working in a compartmentalized time frame to study and do design exercises. Having a supp...An amazing opportunity to step into the field of UI/UX. I feel the Foundations is a great starting point. LEarned a lot and most importantly I was grateful to have a one-on-one mentorship with an experienced UX designer who was very supportive in my learning journey. He consistently encouraged me to keep moving even on the most challenging days. The key learning for me was to practice timeboxing and working in a compartmentalized time frame to study and do design exercises. Having a supportive mentor and an admissions team on the side was nice as it never felt I am on my own working in isolation even though the course was fully online and self-paced. Overall I had a good experience and I learned a lot. - AnonymousStudent • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineJul 05, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
UX Academy Foundations
I really enjoyed UX Academy Foundations. After researching various bootcamps to learn more about UX design, I chose Designlab because I liked that it was self-paced which worked well with my busy schedule. Although it was self-paced, the material and lessons provided were substantial and I felt like I learned a lot. The hands-on projects were invaluable as well - I was able to pick up Figma through these projects as each lesson/project built upon the one before it so that I had a clear u...I really enjoyed UX Academy Foundations. After researching various bootcamps to learn more about UX design, I chose Designlab because I liked that it was self-paced which worked well with my busy schedule. Although it was self-paced, the material and lessons provided were substantial and I felt like I learned a lot. The hands-on projects were invaluable as well - I was able to pick up Figma through these projects as each lesson/project built upon the one before it so that I had a clear understanding by the end of the course. I also really enjoyed the 1:1 sessions with my mentor. He was able to answer my specific questions and really helped me as I went through the course. I highly recommend DesignLab UX Academy Foundations for anyone wanting to learn the basic principles of UX design. - AnonymousGraduate • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineJun 30, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
Great UI Design Crash Course
UX Academy Foundations is a great UI Design crash course. You get to learn and complete several activities every unit on UI design principles and basic visual design principles. Not only have I learned a great deal, but I also gained expertise in a couple standard industry tools. I would highly recommend this course to anyone trying to learn the basics of design and get their feet wet. - AnonymousStudent • 1. UX Academy Foundations • OnlineJun 10, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
Good content, but communication issues.
Overall, the program is very practical and I was excited to work on the projects. My mentor worked hard and gave me detailed feedback. She was also responsive and did a good job of answering my questions. However, I also had some issues. I was planning to finish the course in 4 weeks to get ready for the UX Academy program, and I answered that in the survey before I started the foundation course. I expected that my mentor would know that I only had 4 weeks as a re...Overall, the program is very practical and I was excited to work on the projects. My mentor worked hard and gave me detailed feedback. She was also responsive and did a good job of answering my questions. However, I also had some issues. I was planning to finish the course in 4 weeks to get ready for the UX Academy program, and I answered that in the survey before I started the foundation course. I expected that my mentor would know that I only had 4 weeks as a result and that we would do 2 sessions a week in order for me to finish at the time I wanted to finish. However, it seemed like she did not know this when we started, and she initially expected that we would meet once a week. This leads me to believe that there was a lack of communication on the part of the school with my mentor. Additionally, I contacted the school about this, but they took a week to respond, and they did not really do anything, so I ultimately just had to talk with my mentor and solve the situation. As a result, I ended up missing out on 2 sessions by the time I finished the course. The sessions also felt rushed as well since I had fewer of them than normal. I feel like I lost some opportunity to learn as much as I could have otherwise. I thought that I was going to be able to use the last two sessions to review concepts that I learned during the course, but after finishing the final project for the foundation course, I discovered that I couldn’t even make any more appointments with my mentor, despite having 2 sessions left. This despite the fact that I had previously talked with my mentor about using the last 2 sessions for review, and she had said ok. I contacted my mentor and the school about this issue of missing out on 2 sessions, but I have yet to receive a response. I think the school needs to better communicate the time expectations of the program. If they do not expect students to complete it in only 4 weeks, they should make that clear, and communicate it to anyone who signs up indicating that they want to apply for a UX Academy cohort that is coming up soon. Or, if it is ok for a student to finish in 4 weeks, then they should more proactively communicate the student’s expectations of scheduling to the mentor so that it is clear to the mentor right from the start what the person they are working with wants. My overall experience was that the coursework was good, but I felt rushed and like I wasn’t able to enjoy the experience as much as I think I could have with more time. Because all of these issues come from a lack of communication, it does make me a little nervous going into the UX Academy program.
Designlab Alumni Outcomes
Recent Designlab News
Jess Feldman
Updated October 21, 2024
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize the tech industry, mastering these powerful tools is essential for today's tech professionals. To help you stay ahead, we've curated a list of cutting-edge AI courses specifically designed for those already working in tech. Most of these courses require coding skills and a solid understanding of technical concepts, so they're also ide...
Rachel Meltzer
Updated December 15, 2021
If you’re a creative problem-solver, then a career in design may be for you! But how do you choose between a career in web design versus a career in user experience (UX) design? Since these two career paths are both user-focused, they have many similarities, but we’re breaking down the nuanced differences between web designers and UX designers to help you find the better fit for you! Find out...
Jess Feldman
Updated September 01, 2021
User experience (UX) design is an in-demand tech field offering plenty of opportunities for career-changers and upskillers. Nicole of Designlab demystifies the UX design career path from entry-level to senior-level UX design roles, diving deep into the traits of successful UX designers and the typical responsibilities and salaries at each career level. With her many years experience as a de...
Jess Feldman
Updated September 01, 2021
Course Report · Course Report Coding Bootcamp News Roundup - August 2021
August was buzzing with news about the benefits of credentialing for alternative, skills-based learning. We’re sharing the latest on the Apprenticeship to College Act in Congress, and regional workforce development programs aimed at helping high school students and adult learners find tech roles through bootcamps in...
Liz Eggleston
Updated August 19, 2021
After working for a decade in aerospace engineering, Jack Henstridge wanted to tap into his creative side and shift gears into UX design. After extensive research, he decided to enroll in the UX Academy program at Designlab because of the hands-on curriculum and mentorship opportunities. Jack shares how his Designlab bootcamp experience and portfolio helped him land his first design role as a...
Jess Feldman
Updated September 30, 2024
While some tech companies like Slack and Apple have shared that ~7-8% of their US workforces identify as LGBTQ, visibility for LGBTQ+ folks in the tech industry remains a struggle. Diversity in entrepreneurship and in the workplace is essential – it ensures different perspectives and experiences are represented within a team and encourages new ideas and better problem-solving. With 700,000 te...
Lauren Stewart
Updated January 24, 2018
Did you know that by leaving a Verified review of your coding bootcamp experience on Course Report, you’re entered to win a $500 Amazon Giftcard? This time, our lucky winner was Gretchen, who graduated from online bootcamp Designlab in April 2017! We caught up with Gretchen to find out about her coding bootcamp experience and why she decided to attend Designlab.
Want to be our next Rev...
Lauren Stewart
Updated September 04, 2024
Most high-salary industries need more diverse workers, and tech is no exception. The conversation about diversity in tech usually focuses on gender, diversity encompasses racial, socioeconomic, cognitive, and experiential differences. Think pieces and diversity reports show large tech companies admitting they have a problem and beginning to address the diversity in tech crisis, but can the ...
Lauren Stewart
Updated December 30, 2016
It’s that time again! A time to reflect on the year that is coming to an end, and a time to plan for what the New Year has in store. While it may be easy to beat yourself up about certain unmet goals, one thing is for sure: you made it through another year! And we bet you accomplished more than you think. Maybe you finished your first Codecademy class, made a 30-day Github commit streak, ...
Liz Eggleston
Updated April 30, 2015
Dalton Mitchell works as an IT Manager, but struggled with the more aesthetic side of design. Without quitting his job or taking on the financial burden of full-time bootcamps, Dalton decided to join Designlab, a part-time, mentor-driven, online learning platform. Having completed the Design 101 course, Dalton tells us about finding a career path that he loves and how Designlab helped him d...
Designlab Alumni Reviews Summary
Based on 700+ Designlab alumni reviews on Course Report, students consistently praise the hands-on projects, 1-on-1 mentorship from industry professionals, and the comprehensive UX/UI design curriculum. A student shared, "Designlab is a very solid introduction into the world of UX/UI design... Before you know it, you have the confidence to start making your own icons and building a brand." Some critiques, however, mention the reliance on Discord for community interaction, which some found less professional than alternatives like Slack.
Overall Experience
4.8
Instructors
4.7
Curriculum
4.7
Job Assistance
4.3
More Information
Guarantees Job
Job Assistance
Includes Housing
Offers Corporate Training
Accepts GI Bill
Awards
Recent Designlab News
By Jess Feldman
By Rachel Meltzer
By Jess Feldman
FAQs
How much does Designlab cost?
Designlab costs around $7,749. On the lower end, some Designlab courses like 9. Design 101 cost $499.
What courses does Designlab teach?
Designlab offers courses like 1. UX Academy Foundations, 2. UX Academy (Part-time), 3. UX Academy (Full-time), 4. Data-Driven Design and 5 more.
Where does Designlab have campuses?
Designlab teaches students Online in a remote classroom.
Is Designlab worth it?
Designlab hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 785 Designlab alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Designlab on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Designlab legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 785 Designlab alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Designlab and rate their overall experience a 4.78 out of 5.
Does Designlab offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Designlab offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read Designlab reviews?
You can read 785 reviews of Designlab on Course Report! Designlab alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Designlab and rate their overall experience a 4.78 out of 5.
Is Designlab accredited?
While bootcamps must be approved to operate, accreditation is relatively rare. Designlab doesn't yet share information about their accreditation status.