We asked a number of people who were interested in or recently made a career switch into UX. The UX field was an uncherished dream for some whereas for others it was a matter of survival, reskill / upskill or securing a more rewarding career.
People work towards securing that UX role by taking a Bootcamp, finding a UX mentor, participating in UX hackathons, attending UX conferences, taking a Design certification or just going back to school.
With so many options to choose from, we tried to get some clarity and listed out a few options to break into a rewarding UX Career.
If you are one of those who only go to gym because you took up a gym membership, then the paid option of UX Bootcamp is for you. If you are a self-learner and do not need a certificate. In case you like self-learning via books, UX conferences, and UX blogs are fantastic. Other free options like UX mentorships and learning from UX experts active on social media are also available.
A. UX Bootcamps and Certifications
UI/UX Design Bootcamps are in essence a short training program. The options available to you to attend these bootcamps vary among:
Some of these UX Bootcamps may offer a job guarantee.
It’s always advisable to not count too much on that assurance. Imagine this!
You are the owner of an established Design firm which is facing an acute shortage of UX talent. You publish a job post and receive hundreds of applications. As a business owner in the Design domain, you are aware how to differentiate between a UX expert and a novice. Your first choice among the applications would be to pick up those who are experienced UXers.
If you do have some Junior UX roles for novices to fill, you would select based on UX aptitude, knowledge and application instead of making a selection based on how famous the UX bootcamp attended by the candidate is.
As this piece of writing would be incomplete without mentioning some UX bootcamps and what they mean in terms of costs and time commitment, we put together this list.
#1 Interaction Design Foundation
Name: Remote UX Bootcamps
Duration: 12 weeks
Option to complete: Part time / Flexi
Pricing: Around USD 2,500
Portfolio: Yes
Support: Interaction sessions with mentors and course facilitators.
Certificate: Industry-recognised Bootcamp certificate.
#2 General Assembly
Name: UX Design Immersive Online
Duration: 12 weeks / 3 months
Option to complete: Full time / Flexi
Pricing: Around USD 15,000
Portfolio: Yes, individual, group and industry project
Support: Interaction sessions with mentors and course facilitators.
Certificate: Industry-recognised Bootcamp certificate.
#3 Springboard
Name: UX Career track, UI/UX Bootcamp
Duration: 6-months (UX Career track) / 9 months (UI/UX Bootcamp)
Option to complete: Part time / Flexi
Pricing: Around USD 8,000
Portfolio: Yes, three projects
Support: Interaction sessions with mentors from industry and course mentors
Certificate: Industry-recognised Bootcamp certificate.
Money-back: Only if a UX design job could not be secured within 6 months of course completion, or within 7 days of enrolment
#4 DesignLab
Name: UX Academy
Duration: 28 weeks part-time / 15 weeks full-time
Option to complete: Part time / Full-time
Pricing: Around USD 6,500
Portfolio: Yes, four projects
Support: Interaction sessions with experienced mentors weekly
Certificate: Industry-recognised Bootcamp certificate.
Money-back: Only if a UX design job could not be secured within 6 months of course completion, or within 7 days of enrolment
#5 CareerFoundry
Name: UX Academy
Duration: 10 months Part-time / 6 months Full-time
Option to complete: Part time / Full-time
Pricing: Around USD 7,500
Portfolio: Yes, number of projects not fixed
Support: Interaction sessions with course mentors, Slack community
Certificate: Industry-recognised Bootcamp certificate.
Money-back: Only if a UX design job could not be secured within 6 months of course completion, or within 14 days of enrolment
#6 UX Design institute
Name: Professional Diploma in UX Design
Duration: 6 months Part-time at your pace
Option to complete: Part time, 5 hours per week
Pricing: Around USD 3,500
Portfolio: Yes, 16 projects to give you hands-on experience on all the key aspects of UX. You’ll build a professional portfolio to demonstrate your job readiness.
Support: Interaction sessions with course mentors, Slack community
Certificate: Professional Diploma in UX Design is credit-rated by Glasgow Caledonian University.
Money-back: Only if a UX design job could not be secured within 6 months of course completion, or within 14 days of enrolment
#7 Human Factors International
Name: Certified Usability Analyst (CUA)™
Duration: 3 – 4 weeks
Option to complete: None
Pricing: Around USD 4,000
Portfolio: None
Support: Interaction sessions with course mentors
Certificate: Need to take an exam and pass within 2 attempts. The certification exam can be taken even if the course is not from Human Factors International. Recognised by top companies and Design studios.
Money-back: Not applicable
B. Low Cost Certifications
#1 ‘Google UX Design Certificate’ by Coursera
A professional certificate developed by Google which helps you to get an entry level UX job in the industry. Learn the foundations of UX design, including empathizing with users, building wireframes and prototypes, and conducting research to test your designs. The IT Support, User Experience Design, Project Management and Data Analytics Certificates cost $39 per month by subscription on Coursera. Access to the Google Associate Android Developer Certification training is free and the official exam fee of $149 is paid to Trueability to administer the exam.
#2 ‘Introduction to User Experience Design’ by Coursera
This course is geared toward the novice. It is for learners that have heard about “user experience” or “user interface” design but don’t really know much about these disciplines.
The course mantra is that “Design is a systematic and data driven process.” Design is systematic because it is based on a set of techniques and also on a cycle of discovery.
In audit-mode, most of the content is accessible for free and you may also be able to get a grade depending upon the offering.
When you purchase a Certificate you get access to all course materials, including graded assignments. Upon completing the course, your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page.
#3 “User Experience Design Essentials – Adobe XD UI UX Design” by Udemy
This Udemy course uses Adobe XD to get a job in UI Design, User Interface, User Experience design, UX design & Web Design. This course is under USD 100.
Free UX Mentorships
#1 ADPList
This would help you to learn and grow with help from world-class mentors. There are over 5000 mentors registered on ADPList. It’s completely free. Absolutely no charge. Mentors are volunteers in our community and are paying it forward.
#2 Designed.org
A non-profit organization building the only career growth platform focused on providing equal access to educational resources and mentors for designers across the world. Over 900 amazing mentors are available across the world.
Last couple of years have seen a phenomenal increase in online UX courses and certifications which are churning out scores of new UX graduates. Completing a UX course or enrolling into some kind of UX program is not enough – you need to stand out from the sea of new UXers. Much of UX roles are likely to open in the Internet tech industry – therefore staying on top of latest Design tools (e.g. Figma) and hands-on User Research platforms will help you give you an edge over others who are contending for the same role.
Putting the name of the institution, name of tools, random screen designs and a team project in your Portfolio would get you a job. However, it is less likely to take you close to a solid and sustainable UX career. Application of your UX learnings to a real-world project is always equipping you with the real UX skills – you can also do so by taking a UX internship at a company or solving a real world problem.