PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Designlab offers two tracks for students to choose from.

Full-time Track (40 hours/week)

• The program takes about 15 weeks
• Average of ~2 60-minute mentor sessions a week (total of 26 mentor sessions)
• Weekly Group Crits (12 mandatory)
• 18 30-minute Career Coach sessions during Career Services

Part-time Track (20 hours/week)

• The program takes about 28 weeks
• Average of 1 mentor session a week (total of 26 mentor sessions)
• Weekly Group Crits (22 mandatory)
• 18 30-minute Career Coach sessions during Career Services

REFUND/CANCELLATION POLICY

• You have the right to cancel your enrollment at any time. You must contact Designlab via email to cancel your enrollment.
• You can cancel the course within the first two weeks for any reason and receive a full refund for all payments made. After this two-week period, the $399 USD deposit becomes non-refundable (except for a refund granted in accordance with the Tuition Reimbursement Guarantee as described below).
• If you cancel your enrollment at any time after the two-week period, Designlab will issue a pro­rated refund for the unearned portion of the tuition, less the non­refundable deposit fee.

GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

UX Academy is a rigorous academic program. In order to graduate, you must meet the following requirements.

1. Meet academic requirements

Complete all the assigned coursework each week

You must complete 100% of the assigned readings & projects with mentor approval according to the course schedule, and submit iterations for projects based on mentor feedback.

Pass the following skills checkpoints:

• Objective project assessments for each project according to a skills rubric. You are responsible for ensuring all of your coursework is approved by your mentor.
• Two Phase 1 formal checkpoints:
  • A mid-phase Progress Report, where your mentor will evaluate your course progress and skills development
  • An end-of-phase Progress Report, where your mentor will ascertain your overall development and ability to proceed to Phase 2. If your work does not meet the required quality by the end of Phase 1, you will be asked to repeat work and develop your skills before moving on to Phase 2.
• A formal portfolio review at the end of Phase 2 (known as the “Panel Review”). You must pass this review in order to graduate from the program and enter Career Services. If you do not wish to enter Career Services, you must still pass the review in order to graduate.
  • In the case that your portfolio does not pass the review, you will be allotted additional time and mentor sessions to prep and polish your portfolio. You will remain in this prep phase until you and your mentor determine you are ready to submit for another review.

2. Stay on track and graduate in a timely manner

You may not fall more than 40 hours behind the course schedule.

Pausing

In case special circumstances come up (travel, medical emergencies, etc.), we allow you up to two pauses, each one week long, to use at your discretion throughout the course. During a pause, you will have access to your coursework, but you won’t be able to schedule mentor sessions. Students who wish to pause for more than two weeks total must withdraw from the course, receive a pro-rated refund, and re-apply to enter the program in a future cohort.

3. Attend mentor sessions

You must attend all of your 1-on-1 mentor sessions, meeting with your mentor regularly according to the program schedule (refer to Program Overview above).

Out of respect for your mentor’s time, if you need to cancel or reschedule a session, you must give your mentor at least 24 hours notice. Failure to do so will result in the session being forfeited and counted towards your session limit with that mentor (for the purposes of this graduation requirement, a forfeited session counts as an attended session). You may forfeit no more than two sessions during the program.

4. Attend & participate in weekly Group Crits

You must attend the minimum number of Group Crits specified in the Program Overview above.

Some of your Group Crit session requirements may be excused by Designlab, for example in the case of certain holidays. In the case that Group Crits are specified as optional for a certain time period, you would not be required to make up those sessions.

5. Meet community and academic standards

• Inappropriate or abusive behavior towards mentors, fellow students, or Designlab staff is unacceptable.
• We do not tolerate any plagiarism or academic misconduct.

We reserve the right to withdraw you from UX Academy at any point throughout the duration of the program. Reasons for withdrawal include, but are not limited to, failing to meet any of the requirements outlined above.

CAREER SERVICES REQUIREMENTS

All students must meet minimum program requirements to stay enrolled in Career Services.

1. Set up a Huntr Board

When you start Career Services, you’ll receive an invitation to set up your job hunting board. You must:

• Accept the invitation
• Set up your account
• Share your board with your career coach.

2. Respond to Coach communications

You must respond to all Coach communications within 48 hours

3. Attend weekly Coaching sessions

You must attend Coach sessions every week for the first 18 weeks. You may not forfeit any Coach sessions.

4. Community Guidelines

All students must uphold our Designlab Community Guidelines.

TUITION REIMBURSEMENT GUARANTEE

We believe in you and we believe in our program which is why we are confident enough to offer a tuition reimbursement policy. A lot of time, effort and energy has gone into designing a program which we are proud to call our own. Every aspect of the program is important in building a skilled, well-rounded, marketable Designer which is why we need your full commitment to all aspects of our program in order to qualify for a reimbursement.

In addition, experience has taught us that students who follow all the steps outlined in our tuition reimbursement checklist are considerably more likely to find a role than those that don’t. We want the best possible outcome for you and that’s why we require you to complete all the steps outlined below in order to qualify for our reimbursement.

UX Academy is rigorous and demanding because it needs to be. You’ll need to work hard to make this career switch. If you do work hard and for some reason things still don’t work out for you, we will honor the guarantee if you have honored your side of the agreement and actively completed the requirements laid out below. We understand that life happens and we will do our best to work with you during the course to ensure that you're able to reach the finish line, however, we're unable to grant any exceptions to our Tuition Reimbursement Policy.

What follows is a checklist of our tuition reimbursement requirements.

To request your reimbursement

Please submit your tuition reimbursement request in writing to hello@trydesignlab.com not more than 9 months after starting Career Services. You must provide evidence that you fulfill all the eligibility requirements listed under Graduation and Career Services above by completing and attaching a copy of the tuition reimbursement checklist.

Please note in order to remain eligible for tuition reimbursement you need to meet all graduation and Career Services requirements, which are included again for convenience in the comprehensive checklist below.

Tuition Reimbursement Checklist

General

• You are over 21 years of age
• You are legally able to work in your target work city or cities
• You live within commuting distance (90 minutes) of the city in which you are looking to work
• Your target work city is on our list of eligible cities

Completing UX Academy

• You need to complete 100% of required weekly readings and have projects completed and mentor approved

  • This includes a formal review at the end of phase 1 of UX Academy where your mentor will ascertain your overall development and ability to proceed to Phase 2. If your work does not meet the required quality by the end of Phase 1, you will be asked to repeat work and develop your skills before moving on to Phase 2.
• You need to make sure that all mentor suggested iterations are re-submitted and approved
• You must not fall behind more than 40 hours at any point during the course or become inactive at any point

• You cannot take more than 2 pauses and each pause may not exceed 1 week

  • In case special circumstances come up (travel, medical emergencies, etc.), we allow you up to two pauses, each one week long, to use at your discretion throughout the course. During a pause, you will have access to your coursework, but you won’t be able to schedule mentor sessions. Students who wish to pause for more than two weeks total must withdraw from the course, receive a pro-rated refund, and re-apply to enter the program in a future cohort.

• You must attend all mentor sessions in Phase 1 and Phase 2

  • Out of respect for your mentor’s time, if you need to cancel or reschedule a session, you must give your mentor at least 24 hours notice. Failure to do so will result in the session being forfeited and counted towards your session limit with that mentor (for the purposes of this tuition reimbursement requirement, a forfeited session does not count as an attended session).
• You must attend weekly group crit sessions. 12 in the full-time track and 22 in the part-time track.

Graduating UX Academy

• You must submit your final portfolio for panel review no later than 4 weeks after your official estimated completion date

  • You must pass this review in order to graduate from the program and enter Career Services. If you do not wish to enter Career Services, you must still pass the review in order to graduate.

• You must pass portfolio review within 8 weeks of first submission

  • In the case that your portfolio does not pass the review, you will be allotted additional time and mentor sessions to prep and polish your portfolio. You will remain in this prep phase until you and your mentor determine you are ready to submit for another review. If this process takes longer than 8 weeks, you will no longer be eligible for tuition reimbursement.

Career Services

• You must start Career Services immediately after graduation

  • You must begin Career Services immediately after passing your Portfolio Review and graduating, without taking a pause or break
• You cannot take any breaks or pauses within Career Services
• You must set up your Huntr Board and share it with your Career Coach
  • When you start Career Services, you’ll receive an invitation to set up your job hunting board. You must accept the invite, set up your account, and share your board with your career coach.

• You must keep your Huntr Board updated weekly

  • Keep your Huntr board up-to-date with follow-up efforts and additional communications. If you do not get a response from any of your initial job applications, you must follow up in some way at least one time to attempt to gain feedback.
• You must complete all weekly assigned work in Career Services including the final 6 weeks of curriculum after your coaching sessions end
• Any communication from your Career Coach is responded to within 48 hours

• You must attend all 24 weekly Career Services sessions with no forfeited sessions

  • Career Services is intended to be 18 weeks long, however if you’ve yet to land a role after your first 18 weeks of Career Services, Designlab provides you 6 additional weeks of curriculum to support your job search. You must follow along with this curriculum, attend additional assigned sessions, and complete all required work.

Job Hunt

• You need to apply to at least 5 relevant jobs each week from week 3 onwards (preferably before)

  • You must be searching for a UX Designer or Product Designer role. UX Academy is designed to help students land generalist positions ( UX Designer, UX/UI Designer, Product Designer). Our system and curriculum are not designed to support junior-level students pursuing specialized roles (UX Researcher, UX Strategist, UX Analyst, etc.) at this time
  • You must track all jobs applied, add a link to a screenshot of your job application or confirmation email to the notes, and move each job applied through appropriate stages in Huntr.
  • The jobs applied to must be in your target locations.

• You must attend a minimum of 2 relevant networking events in one of your target job hunting cities each month.

  • You must provide the event link and document your attendance via the monthly Progress Checkpoint or they do not qualify as completed

• You did not receive an offer for any design roles (full-time, part-time, freelance, internship, or apprenticeship)

  • If you do receive an offer of any type, please let us know by completing the “I’m Hired” form which you will find on your student dashboard

Conduct

• You must not commit any act of plagiarism or any other academic misconduct
• You must ensure that your behavior is appropriate and never abusive towards any Designlab students, mentors or members of staff

Additional notes

The Tuition Reimbursement Guarantee does not apply to students who have been convicted of a felony in the last seven years.

Eligible Cities Checklist:

US Cities:

• Atlanta, GA
• Austin, TX
• Boston, MA
• Boulder, CO
• Chicago, IL
• Dallas, TX (Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex)
• Denver, CO
• Detroit, MI
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• Minneapolis-Saint Paul, MN
• New York, NY
• Oakland, CA
• Philadelphia, PA
• Raleigh-Durham 'Research Triangle', NC
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington DC

Non-US Cities:

• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Berlin, Germany
• London, UK
• Toronto, Canada
• Vancouver, Canada
• Shenzen, China
• Dublin, Ireland
• Paris, France
• Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Singapore
• Sydney, Australia
• Hong Kong
• Melbourne, Australia
• Cape Town, South Africa

Outcome Data

By participating in the UX Academy program, you are agreeing to share your outcome data with us when we request it. Personal information will be kept confidential but may be used in outcome reporting.