Would I Do Designlab UX Academy Again?

It’s going to be a no for me, but if you have more means and more support, it could still be an okay option for you. From April 2022 through March 2023 I was in the Designlab UX Academy Bootcamp. I outline the costs, the course, and what did and didn’t work for me in the video review shared here.

2024 is going to be a very challenging time to try to get into UX as either a career transitioner or a recent graduate. Keep reading below to see some resources that were suggested if you were to go the self-study route.

Timestamps

[00:18] Introduction
[00:58] My Background
[02:51] Enter Designlab
[03:46] Designlab Cost
[04:02] DL UXA Course Outline
[06:34] Why I Chose Designlab
[09:12] What Didn’t Work
[12:50] What Did Work
[14:56] Who Should Do DL?
[16:10] Advice To Past Self
[17:39] Challenges of Self-Study
[19:47] Conclusion

Jeremy Miller’s Suggested Resources

Jeremy Miller is the host of the podcast Beyond UX Design and author of the book of the same name. He listed a number of resources that he would suggest for the new UX learner who couldn’t afford a bootcamp or traditional education. Below are the links to those resources.

Debbie Levitt, MBA: YouTube, Patreon, Website

Dr. Ari Zelmanow: UX Researcher. arizelmanow.com

Joe Natoli: UX Consultant, speaker, author, and founder of UX 365 Academy.

Sophia V Prater: Founder of Rewired and OOUX Strategic Certification Program.

Christopher Nguyen: Founder of UX Playbook.

Michael Riddering: Instructor at Figma Academy 2.0.

Jeff White: UX Designer, Educator, and Consultant with Storytelling Workshop.

Adham Dannaway: Author of Practical UI.

Krisztina Szerovay: UX Designer, Mentor, and Instructor of How To Train Your Designer Eye.

A Funny Thing That Happened

I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Adham Dannaway (author of Practical UI as mentioned above) shared this link on LinkedIn about well constructed landing pages. He walks you through a poorly constructed landing page of ACME Studio UX Design Academy, which is fake. However, except for the name, it’s a pixel for pixel recreation of the Designlab landing page. It didn’t feel great to see the landing page torn apart, but Adham is not wrong. These are the people I paid thousands of dollars to help me learn UX, and their own landing page could use some work. The link to this case study was shared on the DL Discord sometime after I graduated. I’m not sure if it was allowed to remain or not.

Other Thoughts

It’s difficult for me to say if Designlab is better or worse than other bootcamps. This is the only UX education I have known. One benefit I have seen at some other bootcamps is that some corporate partners that provide students with work on real world projects. I can imagine that would be valuable.

As mentioned in the video, if this has saved you from spending thousands of dollars on a bootcamp, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi.