Designlab

 I was looking for a course that could provide some credibility of Design skills and practical tools that I could have confidence applying in the real world. I feel Designlab's course delivers on my goals. I like the fact it is aligned to and references the Standford D-school principles and practices. It is also an extremely accessible course. Having everything on-line helps tremendously, as does the layout and functionality of its site, and the punchy, to the point nature of its lectures. The coup de grace though is probably the way they make you put it in to practice, so that all the learnings make sense. The mentor approach means you have someone to turn to to make sense of things. I found they can also point out aspects you'd never of thought of and would have completely missed without their expertise to show you. Mine did that quickly and succinctly. No overanalysing or missing the point.

I want to be able to freelance at some point in my career and, while I know how to manage a server and develop everything through the JavaScript and HTML on the front end of the website, it is difficult to get clients when they have to come to you with a design in hand. Most of my attempts at web design in particular had gone poorly in the past, but, through the curriculum and meetings with my mentor, I feel confident that I can actually work with a client to come up with a design now.

I was very impressed with Designlab's Interaction Design course in that in a short 4-week period, I came out of it feeling better equipped to develop a more proper process in my work prior to delivering high-fidelity mocks. The lecture material took wide-reaching topics and condensed them into easy-to-understand chunks each week. The accompanying activities for each of the course's units were engaging and relevant to the lecture material. The weekly scheduled chat sessions with my mentor proved to be very beneficial to get professional feedback on my course work. He was very patient and happy to provide help when needed. He always helped me to see my project from a different perspective and challenged me to think about problems that I would overlook. 

I had a great experience with Designlab and have taken 2 courses so far, Design 101 and Branding & Identity Design. Their programs work great for me because the price is very affordable and the courses are flexible enough that they can easily fit into a fulltime work schedule.

Design 101 

I took Design 101 last year after working in web design since 2002. I felt like I had web development down well but when it came to the visual side of the web I was doing a lot of things wrong and wasn't sure how to fix it. Designlab taught me the foundations of design, the right way, and in a tool agnostic format. This was great because I already new how to use tools like Photoshop and Illustrator but had never learned basic things like visual heirachy, basic typography and color theory. Instead of teaching Photoshop tips and tricks it taught me to pay attention to all the little details that make up a great design.

Branding

I'm just finishing this course and it's been great as well. There's so much more to a "brand" than just a logo and from the very beginning this course helps you think about and identify business goals, who the brand is targeting and what value it provides to consumers. It's amazing how much easier the rest of the project becomes when you take the time to identify core objectives of the brand in the beginning and let those guide the rest of the design process. Once again, I love that Designlab's curriculum focuses on the process because once you learn the right process it's so much easier to use whatever tools you choose.

Mentors

Working with the mentors in each course has been great because they can provide insights to guide you when you're stuck and challenge you to do your best work. Their also great resource to answer questions about working as a designer, especially if you don't live in an area surrounding by lots of designers you could reach out to at meetups and events.

Overall I had a great experience and would definitely recommend Designlab to working professionals looking for a career change or anyone looking to supplement their skills with some specialized knowledge in UX, Branding or Typography.

I loved this course and will definitely check out other courses by DesignLab! The materials were amazing (I seriously have dozens of links on my bookmarks now under headings, such as typography, great design examples, colors, wireframing etc.) and I can't wait to start using them when doing my next design project. The mentor sessions were super helpful - he gave me constructive feedback on my designs and oftentimes he gave me excellent ideas that helped me improve my design SO much. Thanks, DesignLab!

The best part of this course, and Designlab's programs, is the feedback and meetings you have with your Mentor. This was was so beneficial to me because I was going through a career change and really wanted to break into the Design/ Tech field. At the end of the course, I felt like I had a really great grasp on terminology used by professionals in the field and how to explain the "whys" behind my design work. My mentor also provided invaluable advice about getting into the field professionally. Designlab does a great job of pairing you with someone you can benefit from based on your background/ location/ goals for the course.

I am a self-taught Web Designer/ Developer. Going into the course, I felt that I had a pretty good grasp on the basics of design for web/ graphic/ print, but this course definitely offered great resources that I hadn't found on my own before. It dives deeper into design basics, typography, color theory, ways to prepare yourself for a project, layouts, etc. 

It really was a great experience and am definitely considering taking another course through Designlab! If you have a full-time job, you will have time to dedicate to the course. It requires about 6 hours of work per week, but you can easily spend more time playing, learning, and exploring the units!

The only con that I can think of, is that sometimes the readings/ activities seemed out-of-order, that maybe I would have benefited from unit 5 or 6 a bit earlier, but that may have just been because I felt comfortable/ knowledgeable about the basics that were discussed in earlier units. 

I just finished taking a DesignLab course on the basics of Design and I thoroughly enjoyed the high-quality feedback I received on all my project submissions. I appreciated being able to choose which program I wanted to learn in (I used Sketch). My mentor was amazing and taught me so much about how to make good design decisions and how to keep everything forward thinking and relevant. My confidence rose quickly and my design work became actually marketable. I am so happy I took this course!

Although this was only my first online design courses, it will certainly not be my last. I very much enjoyed the platform DesignLab offers and how it provided me with top notch resources and high-quality feedback. It was worth every penny (if not more)! I would recommend this to anyone who is looking to be a proficient designer.