Design Lab FAQs

You willalways have access to the Designlabcoursework, even after the course ends. The only part of the course that expires after the end date is the mentorship.

Our UX Academy cohorts launch every month, two Mondays after the launch of our short courses (our short courses launch on the first Friday of the month).

Course Prerequisites

We accept a limited number of students per cohort. We evaluate applicants to UX Academy based on the following prerequisites:

Our Design 101 course (see note below) or previous visual design experience with an approved Design 101 course waiver

Commitment to the program and motivation towards the field of UX Design

Strong English language skills:interacting with students, mentors and Designlab staff is a huge part of our program, so all applicants should be able to communicate effectively with others.

Since the program is very rigorous, we've found that these background requirements help us admit students with the greatest chance of success. In addition, we want to ensure that students are committed to the program and are prepared to budget 20 or 40 hours per week on coursework. Being selective with admissions helps us build a thriving community of enthusiastic students and mentors.

Students who take Design 101 prior to UX Academy will receive a Design 101 discount of $400.

Design 101 or Previous Design Experience

Students must demonstrate foundational design skills at a sufficient level in order to be admitted into UX Academy.

Typically, applicants meet the foundational skills requirement by taking our Design 101 course, and demonstrating expertise in their final project within the course. In some cases, students may be asked to take UI Design in addition to Design 101 to continue improving their skills, and will use their final project from UI Design on the application.

You may apply to waive the Design 101 course requirement if you have both of the following:

An online portfolio containing wireframes and hi-res images of landing pages or digital applications

Previous experience in Web Design, Graphic Design, UX Design, UI Design or Product Design

Print, illustration, and architecture portfolios will not be considered.

Evaluation of Design Work

All prerequisite design work will be evaluated and scored on the same principles, listed below:

ConceptThe concept is original and thoughtful, almost on par with a solid design intern's work.

UI/Visual DesignThe UI design is on trend, beautiful and original. The visual layout adapts balanced spacing and placement of elements.

UX Design PatternThe final design is crafted with up-to-date design patterns with correct navigation, form fields, and button usage. The student work is almost on par with a solid design intern's work.

Color PaletteThe color choice, contrast, or hierarchy are not only on trend but appropriate for the subject matter.

TypographyThe type choices, hierarchy, spacing are implemented beautifully with optimal readability.

Graphical ElementsAll graphics, icons, illustrations are expertly chosen, crafted and implemented.

BrandingThe branding is on point and approriate for the subject matter. It not only grounds but also add more depth to the project.

If you have used your final project from Design 101 (or in some cases, UI Design), you will also be evaluated on the following:

Design 101If the project is of a responsive website, there are a total of 3 screens to cover small, medium and large breakpoints. The layouts are perfectly responsive with adaptive strategy to optimize content placement and user experience for each breakpoint.If the project is of a mobile app, there are a total of 3 screens to cover player, playlist and another screen of student's choice. The design adapts either iOS Human Guide Interface Guidelines or Material Design.

UI DesignThe final output includes at least 3-5 screens with polished, systematic, and visually pleasing UI.

Commitment and Motivation for UX Design

Since so much of the course revolves around interacting with your mentors and peers through online video sessions, wed like to get a feel for your communication skills, and your background and goals. We will ask a couple of short-answer questions and you'll also be asked to submit a mandatory short video (<1 minute).

You will have the ability to live record (and re-record) your video within the application. Alternately, you may link to a hosted video or upload an existing file(accepted file types are .mp4, .mov, .webcam, .3gpp, .3gpp2, .flv, .wmv, and .mpeg).

If you plan on supplying a link to a hosted video we recommend using YouTube. If youdon'twant other people to find your video, you can mark it as unlisted, however its important that you do not mark the video private or disallow embedding or we won't be able to see it!

When recording, please answer the prompt as your would in natural conversation - youdon'tneed to worry about a script. Please leave out fancy editing, music and screenshots. We don't want to focus onyour editing skills - we are interested in you! Before you submit the video, playback your recording to make sure the sound is clear - we want to be able to hear what you are saying!

English Language Proficiency

Clear and effortless communication between students and mentors is a vital part of the UX Academy experience. We require all students to have a minimum CEFR level of C1 or greater.

If you are not sure of your fluency level, please take the free assessment test here. For the most accurate results, please test for both business and general English.

Before You Apply

Check out http://trydesignlab.com/ux-academy/ and confirm that the program fits your goals.

Make sure you meet the stated course prerequisites.

Check out 5 Ways To Create A Winning UX Academy Application

Deposit

Once you're accepted, you'll put down a $399 deposit before the course starts. You'll pay off the balance either up-front or in monthly payments, starting on the first day of the course. The deposit is applied towardthe total cost of the course.

Discounts

We offer discounts off of UX Academy for every short course you take with Designlab. All students who take Design 101 as a prerequisite for UX Academy receive this discount.

Design 101 discount: $400

Other Designlab course discount: $150

Payment Plans

1. Climb Credit

Climb Credit tends to quote people an interest rate around 7%. This is a fixed rate, it does not increase, and you can easily see what your quote would be through their Designlab page (it takes about 5 minutes to generate).

You have three years to pay off the loan and for the first six months, they charge interest only. This is usually a figure between $40 - $70. After the first six months, they begin charging interest plus principal, which is usually between $200 - $220.

You are not penalized for paying more than their ask, so students sometimes budget for Climb Credit payments ranging between $400 - $550 per month. That way, the loan is paid within a year or less, without accruing much interest.

Climb Credit services $6,350 maximum. This is the remainder of the Academy tuition after students are asked to put down a $399 deposit (which must be paid out of pocket). If you took Design 101, Climb Credit would lend you $5,950 in consideration of your discount.

2. Designlab 6-Month Payment Plan

We also offer a 6-month payment plan that comes with a $400 servicing fee, if you do not want to pay upfront. You will be able to select the payment plan option in our pre-course survey, which you'll fill out after completing enrollment.

Here is what you can expect on the course launch date:

The course launch email is sent out no later than5pm ET on the scheduled date

You'll be able to log into your Designlab accountat any point after you receive this email, so no worries if you aren't available that day or at that exact time.

You will also receive a separate introduction email for your mentor shortly after the course launch email.

After you receive the course launch email:

Once you log into your Designlab account, you'll have a short onboarding guidethat willoutline the coursefor you and explain how things work.

After you've completed the guide, you will be prompted to schedule your sessions with your mentor via our system based on your mutual availability. You can check this article here for how to set up your first call with your mentor.

After that, you're ready to dive into the course!

On your launch day, you'll receive an email to let you know you can access your course.

In order to schedule your mentor sessions, you must log into your account first and complete your onboarding steps.

On the last page of the onboarding guide, you'll see this page which will take you to the scheduler:

Simply click the orange button (shown in the image above) to go to the next step.

After that, you'll see the times which you can choose from:

Please note that selecting the times there will automatically schedule all 4 sessions for that time/day of the week.

If the times listed do not work for you, you can select the button that says None of these work for me which will allow you to get in touch with your mentor so you can coordinate a better time.

If you don't complete your scheduling at this point via the Designlab system, you will need to email your mentor in order for them to manually add the sessions on their end.

However, in the rare event that your schedules are completely incompatible, you can get in touch with our support team and we will help you out.

At certain times of the year, UX Academy has holiday breaks. You aren't expected to work on your course during this time,and mentors are not expected to be available.

Your course progress will be paused during this period, so you will not be required to work on the course, but you can if you choose to. We will also pause Group Crits. Your graduation date will be adjusted to account for these holiday breaks.

November

We'll be pausing UX Academy for a one-week holiday break fromMonday, November 25 - Sunday, December 1. The course will resume on Monday, December 2, 2019.

December

We'll be pausing UX Academy for a two-week holiday break from Monday, December 23 - Sunday, January 5. The course will resume on Monday, January 6th, 2020.

Design 101 is a beginner-level course that helps you to build a firm foundation in design principles. You practice applying your new knowledge of design concepts and techniques through 16 hands-on projects, and get feedback from your 1-on-1 mentor to help you iterate and improve.

This course focuses on covering the basics, and helping you learn how to generate original ideas and communicate like a designer. By the end of Design 101, we hope that you will have much greater confidence in your own design abilities, providing a platform for further study.

UI Design builds on the skills gained in Design 101. The course covers some of the same areas, but adds depth to your understanding of design principles by covering how they apply to the specific challenges involved in designing user interfaces.

If particular, you will be diving more deeply into color theory, typography, and visual hierarchy, and learning how to make better decisions in these areas in the context of website and app design. Design 101 is not a formal prerequisite for UI Design, but you should be aware that UI Design does assume an entry level of design knowledge.In both courses, you'll receive regular written feedback from your 1-on-1 mentor, and will have four video calls with them during the course to discuss your work in more depth and cover any other questions.

Here's an example of what you'll do in Design 101 versus what you'll do in UI Design.

Yes! We're proud of the outcomes of our student graduates from the program.

Success Stories

We regularly publish success stories of our students, profiling how they made their career switch and moved into the design field. You can read our recently published stories on the blog here.

Example Portfolios

We've had strong success with the program, with students getting hired at companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Sony, Adidas, and many more.

Here's a small sample of portfolios of our student graduates:

Judy Kosowsky (Hired at Lightricks)

Run Chen (Hired at LevelUp)

Anna Lee (Hired at Centric Digital)

Audrey Quek (Hired at Zendesk)

Testimonials

"Enrolling in UX Academy has been the best decision I have made in a very long time." - Anna Lee

"I joined UX Academy full time after years working around building digital products but with no formal experience in design. After three months I was able to create a portfolio, develop my own apps and now I have a job as a UX/UI Designer in a big company in the Netherlands where I now live (I'm from Mexico)." - Celeste North

Browse more testimonials here.

No problem! Just drop us a line with the following details:

Name

Course (e.g. Design 101)

We'll take care of the rest.

In Sketch, to export an image or PDF:

Click the artboard name to select the artboard you want to export.

In the Inspector (the panel on the right of the screen), click Make Exportable.

Set your export options. We recommend PNG, JPG, or PDF for uploading work to the Designlab platform.

Click Export Selected at the bottom of the Inspector.

For full guidance on exporting from Sketch, check out Sketchs own help article.

In Figma, to export an image or PDF:

Click the artboard name to select the artboard you want to export.

In the Inspector (the panel on the right of the screen), find the section labeled Export.

Set your export options. We recommend PNG or JPG for uploading work to the Designlab platform. Note that PDF export is not currently possible in Figma.

Click the Export [artboard name] button.

For full guidance on exporting from Figma, check out Figmas own help article.

For tips on uploading multi-image files to the platform, check out this article !

Short Courses

Our short courses are 4 weeks long and they launch on the first Friday of every month.

Short courses include:

Design 101

UI Design

UX Research & Strategy

Interaction Design

Please note all of our short courses are $399 USD.

Design 101 is a beginner-level course that helps you to build a firm foundation in design principles. You practice applying your new knowledge of design concepts and techniques through 16 hands-on projects, and get feedback from your 1-on-1 mentor to help you iterate and improve.

This course focuses on covering the basics, and helping you learn how to generate original ideas and communicate like a designer. By the end of Design 101, we hope that you will have much greater confidence in your own design abilities, providing a platform for further study.

If you don't have previous experience with design software, that's not a problem. We recommend you check out this article for some reassurance, and then explore some of our recommended design tools. Your mentor will also be able to help you learn software skills during the course.

You can read more about the format of our short courses,and you can check out some past Design 101 student work.

If you'd like to continue learning after Design 101, we have other 4-week courses, including UI Design, and UX Research and Strategy. We also offer UX Academy, a longer design intensive to help you switch careers into UX Design.

We want students to feel secure in their decision to sign up for a Designlab short course. This is why we offer a Satisfaction Guarantee.

Please note there are factors that may affect your eligibility for the Satisfaction Guarantee:

If you have completed more than 1 mentor session we may provide a partial refund

If you have 1 or more forfeited sessions with your mentor you are ineligible for a refund

If you have not completed any mentor sessions, your refund must be requested within 30 days of your cohorts official end date

Your request can only be honored if Designlab is responsible for issues with your course experience. These issues may include but are not limited to, curriculum, mentorship, etc.

Please note at this time we are not able to provide a refund for unused sessions due to completing your course early.

UX Academy is broken into 3 phases.

Coursework

Phase 1 and 2: 480 hours Phase 1 is devoted to skills building, through a series of modules that cover the UX design process (topics like introduction to UX design, user research, information architecture, interaction design, user interface design, and iteration and implementation). In Phase 1 you will go through lessons, both readings and videos, followed by projects. In total, you'll do more than 50short projects in the first phase of the course - each module contains many hands-on exercises to help you build skills.

Phase 2 is focused on portfolio-building, through in-depth capstone projects that you work on. You will work on 3+ in-depth capstone projects in this portion of the course end-to-end design projects that help you build on the foundation you developed in Phase 1. Youll create portfolio deliverables, write case studies, and put it all together with your own online portfolio. Well also focus on getting prepared for the next steps: creating a cover letter and resume, cleaning up your online presences, and putting together an action plan for your job search.

When you finish Phases 1 and 2, you have a well-rounded set of skills, the ability to use new tools, and a solid portfolio that showcases your background and work.However, theres still work to be done between that stage and getting a job. Things like:

Improving your portfolio, resume, and cover letters

Focusing your job search by identifying the kinds of role that fit your skillset

Developing your interview technique by preparing strong stories about yourself, your background, and the workyou'vedone

Handling job offers and managing negotiations about salary and conditions

Looking for an example of work that a UX Academy student has completed? Check out Anna Lee's work.

Once this core coursework is over, you'll begin Phase 3 of the journey: Career Services,where we pair you with your Career Coach, who will be like a mentor to help guide you throughyour job search.

Job hunting can seem like a complicated process, and our goal is for Career Services to support you by providing structure and practical advice.When you first meet, youll touch base about your skills, talk about your near-term and long-term goals, and jointly devise a plan of attack for the weeks ahead. Whether youre already being invited to interviews or are just getting started with the job search, youll agree on a strategy, and set a timeline for further check-ins.

Mentorship and Community

UX Academy is an online program with a robust set of peer-to-peer interactions, both with your mentor and fellow students. Here are some of the core aspects of the course experience:

1-on-1 mentorship: You will work with a mentor 1-on-1 throughout the entire course. Youll interact with your mentor in 2 primary ways:

Weekly 60-minute Skype (video) sessions. You can use these sessions to discuss your work in depth, share your goals, ask questions, and more. Students find this time to be the most valuable part of the course experience.

Part-time (20 hrs/wk) students have 1 mentor session per week for 28 weeks

Full-time (40 hrs/wk) students have 2 mentor sessions per week for 15 weeks

Mentors will leave written online feedback on your project submissions to help you as you progress through each week.

Slack community: UX Academy has an incredibly active Slack community. Students use Slack to ask questions, get feedback, chat about the course, answer discussion items, share job opportunities, and connect with other students. We have cohort-specific channels, location-specific, and topic-specific channels (#dailyui, #freelance, #job-opportunities, and much, much more).

Group Crits: As a designer, it is crucial that you can present and defend your design decisions. This is a soft skill that you must learn through practice. In UX Academy, we help you develop this skill through Group Crits: weekly video group critique sessions with other students in the course. Youll present the work you completed in the previous week, receive critique from your fellow students, and share critique with other students. Each session is run by a facilitator - a Designlab mentor, UX Academy graduate, or advanced UX Academy student.

Alumni

After graduating from UX Academy and landing your first job, you will enter our UX Academy Alumni network. Here are some of the alumni community features well be rolling out soon:

Private online alumni community

Ongoing hangouts/meetups for networking

Career coaching and advisory

Post-graduation coursework

UX Academy alumni include product designers at places like Facebook, Sony, Adidas, Microsoft, and more.

We take the job of educating you very seriously; 480 hours is a lot of coursework, so we ask for 100% of your commitment in return. Were here to support you but the success of your UX Academy journey depends on your commitment to the program and the amount of time and energy you put forth.

Ready to apply? Check out the prerequisites and application instructions here.

Please note: These instructions are for mentors only.

To update your availability, please navigate to the "Availability" tab in your mentor dashboard.

You can adjust your availability for sessions there.

What are your upcoming dates for UX Academy?

Program date: December 9, 2019Application deadline: December 3, 2019 6:00pm PDTEnrollment deadline: December 6, 2019 6:00pm PDT

Program date: January 20, 2020Application deadline: January15, 2020 6:00pm PDTEnrollment deadline: January17, 2020 6:00pm PDT

Program date: February 17, 2019Application deadline: February 12, 2020 6:00pm PDTEnrollment deadline: February 14, 2020 6:00pm PDT

When will I hearan update about my application?

We review applicationson a rolling basis, usually before the stated time frame of 2 days. You're typically best served by applying whenever you think you're ready even if it's well before thestart date as long you've completed all course prerequisites.

Interested in applying?Please visit this article that explains program prerequisites and steps to take before you apply.

We offer three tuition options for UX Academy:

Upfront Payment (via PayPal or by credit/debit card)

Extended Payment Plan (serviced by Climb Credit)

6-month Payment Plan ($400 fee serviced by Designlab)

For all options, admitted students need to make a $399 refundable deposit to save their spot in the program. For upfront payments and payment plans serviced through Designlab, the next payment is due on their cohort's start date.

As an example, a 6-month payment plan serviced by Designlab would look like this:

$7,149 (total tuition, including servicing fee) - $399 (deposit) = $6,750 (balance), split into 6 payments of $1125 with the first payment due on the cohort start date.

If you take Design 101 first, we'll apply a $400 discount by subtracting it from the balance before calculating your next payment(s).

Our UX courses on the site right now are good ways to build a foundation in various skills in the field. Each course is about 40 hours of total work which will give you series of projects.

Here are some examples of past student work to get a feel for how deep the projects go:

UX: Research & Strategy

UX: Interaction Design

Design 101

We've seen students improve their skills at a pretty rapid pace on our platform, especially with the quality of our mentors. However, with 40 hours of coursework, we like to be realistic about outcomes so we don't really promote job readiness for these shorter courses.

UX Academy is a comprehensive program with 480hours of coursework aimed at helping you build the hard and soft skills you need to break into UX. In addition to teaching you the skills, we'll work with you to build a thorough portfolio, develop your ability to communicate around design and product decisions, and practice with mock interviews.

If you're interested in learning more, submit your email on the UX Academy page. We'llsend you additional information and reach out to set up a call to answer any questions you might have.

If you are a mentor and need to reschedule your session with a student:

1) Log into your Designlab account

2) Navigate to your "Students" tab,

2) Click "View Session" for the session you would like to reschedule

3) Then go ahead and hit the "Reschedule" button!

If you are a mentor and need to reschedule your session with a student:

1) Log into your Designlab account

2) Navigate to your "Students" tab,

2) Click "View Session" for the session you would like to reschedule

3) Then go ahead and hit the "Reschedule" button!

To check the status of your payout and next payout date, please:

1) Log into your account

2) On your mentor dashboard, navigate to the "Payouts" tab

3) You can also update your payout information there!

If you are a mentor, please always let us know if you're planning to take a break:

Reach out to your students and let them know you will be away

Postpone your sessions

Let us know via the "Contact Us" form, with:

Subject: "Mentor Leave Request"

Message: dates you will be away

Each Designlab short course is 4-weeks longandconsists of three core components:

Online coursework:Each unit in the course has a mixture of in-house and curated contentincluding lessons, videos, and further readingto help you build a firm foundation in design theory.

Project work and feedback:The course contains hands-on exercises and project briefs to complete. You'll upload each assignment to the platform, where your design mentor will leave written feedback on all your work.

Video calls with your mentor:You'll have four mentor sessions where you'll discuss your work in more depth, share your goals, ask questions, and get extra help. Through the Designlab platform, you and your mentor are able to match your availability and schedule a time for each call.

You willalwayshave access to the course curriculum and platform, but the mentorship portion and access to the Sketch discount are only available within the courses official start and end dates.If you're not able to complete the course by the official course end date, you can always go back to finish your projects and receive your certificate of completion!

In an effort to help manage schedules and timing around the Christmas and New Years holidays, UX Academy will be effectively paused for two weeks, from Monday December 23, 2019 - Sunday January 5, 2020.

What this means:

Coursework: Students are not expected to work on coursework or apply to jobs

Mentor sessions: Mentor sessions are not expected to be scheduled

Group Crit Sessions: Group Crit sessions will not be scheduled. All students will be excused from attending sessions during this break.

Progress dates: Student progress dates will be adjusted by two weeks to allow for this break. Please disregard progress tracking during the holiday period as the adjustment, which includes changing the estimated completion date, will be made in the system after Sunday January 5, 2020.

We wish to allow a break for students, mentors and Group Crit facilitators to enjoy the holidays. Support from the Designlab team may also be limited as our team spends time with their loved ones. Students are welcome to continue with their coursework independently on the Designlab site during these weeks.

If you have any questions, please reach out here .

We hope you enjoy the holiday!

Please log into your account and navigate to the Capacity tab in your mentor dashboard. You can adjust your capacity there by course.

Please log into your account and navigate to the Capacity tab in your mentor dashboard. You can adjust your capacity there by course.

Group Crits are a judgement-free zone. This is where youll learn not only how to speak about your work, but also how to collaborate with other designers to solve problems. The facilitator running the session will be there with you every step of the way, and they will ensure that the group is having a healthy and respectful conversation.

If youre nervous or shy, feel free to chat with the facilitator privately before the start of the session so thatthey'reaware of how they can help you. Our goal is to help you build confidence as a designer through Group Crits.

Sometimes you'll notice that you receive your student introduction email, but the student is not appearing in your dashboard.

Most of the time, this means your students have not completed the full onboarding process. Please let them know they must complete onboarding for you to interact on the platform. If students have finished onboarding and still not showing up on your dashboard, please let us know at [email protected].

Career Services is our 24-week program aimed to help UX Academy students reach their end goalgetting hired. During Career Services, students will have an opportunity to acquire skills and strategies from their Career Coach in order to navigate the complicated and competitive design landscape.

To get a clear sense of the details and expectations please take a look at the Career Services Guide.

We understand life happens and you may need to take a pause from the program. Per our policies, as a UX Academy student, you are allowed two 1-week pauses. In order to request this time off, simply follow these steps:

Log into UX Academy

Locate the pause request form under course links (see belowfor a visual guide)

Answer a few quick questions and submit

That's it! We'll review your request and follow up shortly afterward.

If you've had an emergency and you need to request additional time off, please contact us at [email protected].

Yes, absolutely! Even if you have nothing new to present, you are still required to attend as attendance will be taken by the facilitator. You also need to participate, so use this time to practice offering constructive critique!

Also, if youre feeling stuck on your coursework, being a part of discussions during Group Crits can help you learn from how others approach design problems. You never know what inspiration and ideas you might encounter on the next call!

In UX Academy, each week runs from Monday to Sunday. So Monday is the first day of the week, and Sunday is the last day of the week.

We use a tool called Calendly to manage RSVPs for Group Crit sessions. Please note that, while Calendly shows weeks running from Sunday to Saturday, Group Crits are still logged on UX Academys Monday-to-Sunday schedule.

Since our courses are focused on applying learning about design fundamentals in digital design projects, we recommend using Sketch or Figma. As well as being user-friendly and easy to learn, they are also cutting-edge, collaborative design tools used by professional UX and UI designers today.

Figma is browser-based, works on any computer, and is free for individual users. Sketch requires a Mac, and you need to buy a licensebut you can get 50% off via our Perks page. (Note that youll only be able to access the perk once your course has started, so if youre installing it ahead of time, get started with the trial version and upgrade later.)

To help you get started, you can learn the basics of these packages through our free Sketch 101 and Figma 101 email courses!

Heres some other software you might be interested in exploring during your course:

Prototyping tools like InVision, Marvel, and UXPin

Wireframing tools like Balsamiq

Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes more advanced packages like Photoshop and Illustrator. (We also have a Photoshop 101 email course !)

As for computer hardware, you can use either Mac or PC. However, note that some packages like Sketch will only work on Macand Macs are still the de facto industry standard amongst designers.

If you want to make your submissions private, you can go to your the settings tab of your profile, and scroll down to the box marked set profile to private. Heres a videoshowing you how. This will allow only people logged into a Designlab account to view your profile and work:

We do not currently support an option to hide your submissions from other students. This is due to the collaborative nature of design we've found that students tend to have the most success when learning with and from others, and we use the platform to help facilitate that.

However, If you believe someone is plagiarizing you work, please contact us so we can investigate.

We do not currently support an option to hide your submissions from other students or mentors. This is due to the collaborative nature of design we've found that students tend to have the most success when learning with and from others, and we use the platform to help facilitate that.

However, If you believe someone is plagiarizing you work, please contact us so we can investigate.

On the other hand, if you want to make your profile private so it is not searchable via search engines, you can go to your the settings tab of your profile, and scroll down to the box marked set profile to private.

Heres a videoshowing you how. This will allow only people logged into a Designlab account to view your profile and work:

Yes, just email [email protected] from yourstudent email address (or with some proof of your student identity), and we'll give you a discount code that you can apply to any of our courses.

This is usually caused by attempting to upload files that are too large. Before uploading check that your file is a PNG, JPG or PDF, and that its below 5MB.

You might also find that uploads fail, or that your images are difficult to view, if the image resolution is too low or too high.

Here are some tips to overcome this:

When you create a new artboard for your project in Sketch, Figma, or whatever software youre using, make sure that you choose an appropriate size. In Sketch or Figma, if you press A, you can choose from standard screen size options in the Inspector (the panel on the right of the screen).

Particularly when youre new to digital design, it can be difficult to get a sense of the scale of what youre working on. In Sketch, you can zoom to actual size (100%) view by pressing Command 0 (zero). In Figma, its Shift 0 (zero).

Another way to establish a sense of scale is to take a screenshot of a website or app, and paste it directly into Sketch or Figma. You can place it next to your artboard to give yourself a guide for text size, spacing, and the size of elements.

For tips on uploading multi-image files to the platform, check out this article !

Yes, we do but only for upfront payments, not internal 6-month payment plans. Here's what you'll need:1. Recipient's email address:[email protected]. Before submitting your payment, please add a note that includes your full name, email address, the course name, and the course date you're signed up for.

Once we've confirmed your payment via PayPal we'll send you an email with your account information and steps to follow.

We understand life happens, so if you need to cancel a session, you can do this within your Dashboard. Just be sure to give as much notice in advanced to your mentor as possible.

Please note that there are two possible statuses for canceled sessions:

Canceled: this means you cancelled with at least 24 hours notice, and you will be able to reschedule the session with your mentor;

Forfeited: this means you did not cancel with at least 24 hours notice, and you will not be able to make up this session with your mentor.

To cancel or postpone a session, follow these steps:

Log into your account

On the right-hand side, click "View Session" for the one that you'd like to cancel

If you are cancelling with at least 24 hours notice, choose to either reschedule or cancel session

As a student of Designlab's Short Courses, you are eligible to enjoy special pricing for a number of tools used in the industry such as Sketch, Invision, Framer, etc.In order to redeem them, please follow these steps:

Log into your Designlab account

Go to our Perks page

Click "Redeem" on the perk of your choice

Important:Please note that per Sketch's policies, you are only able to redeem the perk during your official enrollment dates. Unfortunately, we cannot provide the enrollment letter after the course's official dates.

You can find a list of all of our courses here in our Courses page.

Here are our current offerings and their costs:

Design 101 - $399

UI Design - $399

Interaction Design - $399

UX Research & Strategy - $399

Please note that all of our courses are priced in USD.

No,you can access the online coursework and complete the projects whenever you'd like. The only "scheduled" part of the course are the mentor sessions, which you arrange with your mentor based on mutual availability once you get started with the course.

You willalways have access to the Designlabcoursework, even after the course ends.

The only part of the course that expires after the end date is the mentorship.

Yes, you are! However, please note that you can only switch between tracks once during your UX Academy enrollment (we allow more track switches only in rare circumstances). We may also need to assign you to a different mentor when you switch tracks; this depends on your current mentors capacity.

Before requesting a switch, wed encourage you to take a look at the part-time (20 hours a week) and full-time (40 hours a week) syllabuses.

They are quite different course experiences, and which one is right for you will depend on your other commitments, how quickly you want to complete the course, and how intensively you prefer to work.

The full-time track might be for you if:

you have a schedule clear of other major time commitments

you are highly motivated to complete the course within 3 months;

you are experienced and confident at independent learning

The part-time track might be for you if:

you need to balance UX Academy with other commitments, like working a job more than half-time

you are okay with the course taking 6 months rather than 3

you would prefer to study flexibly and at your own pace

Before making a decision on what to request, youre welcome to schedule a call with a member of our support team, who will be able to help you think through the options.

Onceyou'vegiven this some consideration, if you decide youd like to request a switch of track, please email us at [email protected].

Our mentors are busy working professionals who mentor in addition to full-time jobs. However, we do set an expectation that they should respond within 48 hours of you uploading work.

Depending on their working pattern, mentors may also choose not to respond over the weekend. When you first meet your mentor, you could check with them whether you can expect to receive feedback at weekends.

Note that you can always find your mentors contact information within your dashboard on the right-hand side, and wed encourage you to communicate directly with them in the first instance.

If you havent heard back from your mentor within the expected timeframe, please let us know and well help sort things out.

After enrolling in UX Academy, you will be given access to your Pre-coursework. This is a sort of onboarding guide that gets you acquainted with the Designlab system and prepares you for what to expect from the course.

However, you won't have access to the actual coursework until the official course launch date.

Here is what you can expect on the course launch date:

The course launch email is sent out no later than5pm ET on the scheduled date.

You'll be able to access your UX Academy courseworkat any point after you receive this email, so no worries if you aren't available that day or at that exact time.

You will also receive a separate introduction email for your mentor shortly after the course launch email.

After you receive the course launch email:

Get acquainted with your mentor! After getting the mentor intro email and introducing yourself, go into your dashboard and schedule a time for your first session.

After that, you're ready to dive into your work!

Unfortunately, its not possible to make up missed sessions by attending more sessions per week. However, you are definitely encouraged to attend more if you feel that it is helpful.

Please note that you are still eligible to graduate from UX Academy if you do not meet the Group Crit attendance requirement. However, failure to meet your attendance requirement may disqualify you from our Tuition Reimbursement Policy.

No,you can access the online coursework and complete the projects whenever you'd like. The only "scheduled" part of the course are the mentor sessions, which you arrange with your mentor based on mutual availability once you get started with the course.

Were proud of our diverse student and mentor community at Designlab, and most of the time assigned matches work well. However, were all humans, and sometimes we justdon'tclick, whether on a personal level, in terms of how we see the world, or when it comes to whether were able to work effectively together.

Ifyou'vejust been assigned a mentor and feel like they might not be a good match, wed encourage you make sure you schedule and attend your first mentor call anyway. Sometimes experiences can surprise us, and you might find that you can learn from one another in ways you didnt expect.

Wed also encourage you to communicate to your mentor what youre looking to get out of the experience. Mentors are often able to adjust their approach to meet your needs. However, ifyou'vetried communicating and are still feeling unhappy with your mentor at any point after that first call, we can switch you to an alternative. Please note that this might take a few days, as we take care to consider time zones and matching interests when pairing students and mentors.

If youd like to request a change of mentor, just let us know here.