Designlab’s UX Academy is an online boot camp program that teaches the holistic UX/UI design process to career switchers wishing to build the skills and portfolio needed to land their first role as digital product designers. Students enrolled in UX Academy undergo a rigorous curriculum that has them completing over 100 hands-on design projects and exercises in a mentor-supported environment.

Mentors and employers tell us that they LOVE working with Designlab students. UX Academy has a reputation for attracting individuals who are highly motivated, dependable, imaginative, detail-oriented, and, most importantly, empathetic. 

Our learners will help your company understand your users, define a key problem to solve, generate impactful solutions, and build them in tools like Figma over a five-week period. Your business challenge will act as their final capstone project before they apply for graduation and their certificate.

If you’re interested in working with a group of UX Academy students:

1. Submit a project here for the Riipen and Designlab teams to review. 
2. Refine the project brief with the help our custom client coaching chatbot
3. Propose changes to the project brief based the results of the coaching session

Once approved, you will be matched with up to three motivated students who can begin working on your design challenges. Project start dates are between June 30th and September 5th.

Note: Our Client Capstone projects run on a rolling basis and always begin on a Monday. Each project lasts 5 weeks from the start date. If a school or holiday break falls during the project window, we’ll automatically extend the timeline to ensure students have the full 5 weeks to complete the work.

The output should be a digital product or experience, which may include a web application, desktop application, responsive website, mobile app, or something less common like designs for a smartwatch, a car’s dashboard, or the interface of a home appliance for example.

• Projects should be approximately 80-240 hours in length and are to be completed over a 4-week period.
• Each project should require the contributions of 1-3 participants (a maximum of 240 hours in total).
• We have pinned an example project template to this experience which you can use as a starting point.
• If you choose to use a template from our library, ensure that you have added as much context for your business needs and of your customer base as possible.

Deliverables will vary depending on the project scope. At the conclusion of the project you will have assets that can be used to further your business goals. 

Note: If participants are completing confidential work they can still submit work on the platform by uploading redacted samples, using the worklog feature, and writing a brief project reflection. In this case, we might also recommend that you have the participants sign an NDA before starting your project. You can use the Agreements feature to do this.