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New to design?
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Enroll in Foundations

No design experience required

course level beginner

Learn with a design tool of your choice

Next course begins

November 3rd

Only 23 days left to enroll

Course duration

4 weeks

10-15 hours per week

Average review

Course Report & SwitchUp

Why People Choose Our Courses

Ready to understand your users? In this 4-week online course built for beginners, you’ll learn how to thoroughly conduct customer research and lay the groundwork for building a great product.

Learn the Design Process illustration

Master the Research Process

Explore the different research techniques professionals use to gain customer insight. Learn how to take those findings and iterate on them with an actual product.

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Build a UX Portfolio

Start building your UX research portfolio. You’ll create deliverables like personas, storyboards, customer journey maps, and empathy maps.

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4 Mentor Sessions

Spend a total of 4 hours with a vetted professional designer who’ll review your work and give you personalized feedback. No more asking what if’s—get your questions answered directly.

Certificate illustration

Certificate of Completion

Proudly display your new skills through a custom landing page certificate you can feature online that showcases your project work.

Master the Research Process

Learn the Design Process illustration

Master the Research Process

Explore the different research techniques professionals use to gain customer insight. Learn how to take those findings and iterate on them with an actual product.

Build a UX Portfolio

Hands On Projects Small Icon Illustration

Build a UX Portfolio

Start building your UX research portfolio. You’ll create deliverables like personas, storyboards, customer journey maps, and empathy maps.

4 Mentor Sessions

Mentor Sessions illustration

4 Mentor Sessions

Spend a total of 4 hours with a vetted professional designer who’ll review your work and give you personalized feedback. No more asking what if’s—get your questions answered directly.

Certificate of Completion

Certificate illustration

Certificate of Completion

Proudly display your new skills through a custom landing page certificate you can feature online that showcases your project work.

Expert Mentors

mentor avatar mentor avatar mentor avatar mentor avatar mentor avatar mentor avatar mentor avatar mentor avatar mentor avatar

Learn everything you need to know from the expert designers whom we’ve vetted to join our mentoring community.

See the full list

What You’ll Learn Through UX Research & Strategy

After four weeks you’ll have learned the basics of user-centered design, created your own research deliverables, and finish the course with a fully validated set of research.

Week 1

Introduction

Learn the basics of UX design, and how a user-centered design process can help us make better products.

Customer Empathy

Learn how to build empathy with your users through a toolkit of techniques like contextual inquiries, diary studies, and customer Interviews.

Week 2

Defining Our Users

Learn how to organize and identify patterns in customer data by creating deliverables like empathy maps, storyboards, and a customer journey maps. You’ll also learn how to assess and report on competitors by conducting a heuristic review and feature matrix.

Week 3

Ideation

Learn how to frame a particular design problem from the research that’s been conducted.

Prototyping

Learn how to define hypotheses, test them, and measure what success looks like for a particular angle of research.

Week 4

Testing our Assumptions

To fully validate a set of research tests ought to be conducted. In this final section you’ll practice conducting quantitative and qualitative testing, usability tests, and practice testing a landing page design.

Student Success Stories

Explore our students’ backgrounds and see what they thought about the course.

Cella Design Student

Cella

Current Role: Developer

Design Experience: Beginner

“I truly believe that learning design makes you a better developer.”

I'm a developer, but have always been interested in design. My interest in UX had grown in the past year and I truly believe that learning design makes you a better developer.

I was initially interested in taking a Designlab course to give me an introduction to design, but the most exciting part was being paired with an incredible mentor. Qa’id’s insight gave me so many ideas of how to better collaborate with my team, while the course taught me how to speak their language. I highly recommend Designlab to anyone who wants to be an aspiring designer or developers who want to become better collaborators!

Qa’id Jacobs
Qa’id Mentor

Current Role: Product Designer

Design Experience: 9+ years

“Working with students like Cella is exactly why I’m happy to be a Designlab mentor”

Cella was like most of us as we start our design careers: inspired, excited, and ready to go in all directions.

As she progressed through the coursework and refined her skills, I was happy to be there to give my suggestions, perspectives, and anecdotes, which seemed to help Cella focus her energy on the areas of design that resonated most with her. Working with students like Cella is exactly why I'm happy to be a Designlab mentor.

Rave Reviews for Designlab

Ranked 4.8 out of 5

On Course Report

30,000+

Mentor sessions
in the last year

Rated 4.8 out of 5

On SwitchUp

Read more Designlab Testimonials

Course Project Preview

Take a look at an actual course project from one of our past students. With our platform, students and mentors are able to comment directly on specific sections of the project for feedback.

Wei
Wei Mentor
Status Approved

Hi Lindsay—great job overall on breaking down the information into the different areas! One question, are all these findings from one participant? Typically this is more effective if you can aggregate findings across a few participants. That way you can spot if any trends and patterns appear.

Empathy map by Lindsay
Lindsay Design Student
Lindsay

Process

I wanted to start with “Janine” first because she seemed to be the most interested in learning more about the app and how it would affect her life and personal workspace. I wanted to give as much thorough detail as possible so that when I look back, I can gain more insight and it will help me develop a great persona.

Feedback

Anything! Really open to see what comments come out of this project.

Read about Lindsay's work

Lindsay Design Student
Lindsay

Process

I wanted to start with “Janine” first because she seemed to be the most interested in learning more about the app and how it would affect her life and personal workspace. I wanted to give as much thorough detail as possible so that when I look back, I can gain more insight and it will help me develop a great persona.

Feedback

Anything! Really open to see what comments come out of this project.

Read mentor feedback

Wei
Wei
Status Approved

Hi Lindsay—great job overall on breaking down the information into the different areas! One question, are all these findings from one participant? Typically this is more effective if you can aggregate findings across a few participants. That way you can spot if any trends and patterns appear.

Get the syllabus to see the rest of the course

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I’m Ready To Enroll

Pay nothing today—we won’t charge you until the first day of the course.

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No design or software experience required

We'll help you get started with the industry's latest tools.

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Flexible course length and deadlines

Early morning, late at night, on the weekends—it’s up to you.

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Created for working
professionals

Perfect for adding new skills, or starting a career change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to know Sketch (or Figma, Adobe XD) beforehand?

Not at all! This course is for complete design beginners, so we'll provide tutorials to help you get started with your tool of choice. You'll also practice that tool throughout the course as you work on different projects.

Does a mentor get assigned to me or can I pick a mentor?

We do our best to match mentors and students based on timezone and availability, but if you have a request we’re happy to try and accommodate it!

How are mentor sessions scheduled?

Mentor sessions are flexible—you schedule them yourself based on your mentor's posted timeslots. You can also reach out to your mentor to figure out the best time that works for both of you!

Do you offer any discounts?

We currently offer discounts for existing students, and veterans. We also offer a payment plan that allows you to pay half up front and half at the end of the course. We’ve also had past students’ employers sponsor their course tuition.

What is the course pacing?

Each week students have a set of curriculum & projects that they can work through at their own pace. Expect to spend 10-15 hours a week to complete everything along with your weekly mentor call. Night owls or early birds, it doesn’t matter, just as long as you finish your work on a weekly basis.

What if I can’t start the course on launch day?

Since the course is self paced and flexible in nature—when you decide to start your first week’s curriculum is up to you!

What if I don’t like the course?

You can drop the course at anytime and we’ll refund you completely! We have a 100% money-back guarantee, no questions asked.

Can I use my company’s L&D budget for this course?

Absolutely! If you have any questions about how to do this when you’re enrolling for the course, please reach out via our Help Center contact form for more information.

What if I’m a part of a team that wants to take this course?

We’re happy to work with a team or company and optimize the course to teach several students at once. Depending on how many students there are, we’re happy to offer additional discounts. Please reach out via our Help Center contact form for more information.

See more questions

Pricing $399 $499 for four weeks

I’m Ready To Enroll

Limited spots available this month

You won’t be charged anything today—only on the first day of the course. If you decide to continue on with UX Academy, you’ll receive a $150 credit.