UX Design Institute

The course is very well structured and delivered in a manner that is relatable and easy to follow. The course strikes a nice balance between practice and theory, as it is both theoretically comprehensive and practically inclined, without ever feeling overwhelmingly one or the other. Each module leads the learner through a series of processes that serve as a roadmap for developing a solid and meaningful user experience. During the process, you will learn among other methodologies, how to correctly conduct user surveys, heuristic evaluations and usability tests as well as producing customer journey maps and flows.The course is very well scaffolded, with successive projects ultimately culminating in a capstone project that helps learners incorporate and apply all they have learned into a medium or high fidelity working prototype.
One of the aspects of the course that impressed me most was the emphasis on professionally relevant curricula. I feel that this emphasis on industry requirements lends a tangible, real-world dimension to this course that is both refreshing and reassuring. All the tutors that I interacted with were very professional, helpful and accommodating and the feedback on projects was informed and thorough.
Having taken some other courses in this space, I would have liked to have seen more peer collaboration and perhaps some interactive quizzes after each module. I do however recognise that this won’t work for everyone and I understand that the UX Design Institute has put a huge amount of work into delivering an engaging and well-balanced curriculum. Overall, I found the course to be very rewarding and I have since received very positive feedback on the body of work I produced during the course from industry thought leaders and professionals alike.

 I have learned the mindset, the confidence and the skills that make UX designers so valuable with a globally recognized, industry-approved qualification. The Professional Diploma in UX Design gave me a thorough understanding of the concepts and techniques today’s employers are looking for.

I have gained practical skills that can give businesses a competitive advantage by providing great experiences to their users through designs. I found the course to be extremely well and provided grateful information. I had never taken an online class before and I definitely learned a lot and understand the UX Design process to create good products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to end users. 

The experience was sub par. I haven’t left a review for anything in my life, but I felt this was important for anyone looking to make a career pivot. 

I’ll start with the pros:
- course is easy
- affordable
- graduated within 3 months
- responsive in slack 
- Eoghan is probably the best mentor there 

Cons:
- mentor ship isn’t really mentor ship, it’s more so people responding to questions on a forum. If you’re looking for that 1 on 1 quality development, continue searching for a different school. James is one of the mentors there and he is extremely rude and pretentious. 
- videos are outdated 
- grading process is archaic 
- the final exam doesn’t necessarily align well with what we learn in the course (I did pass however) 

My biggest takeaways in regards to skills from this course were: 

Usability Testing, Affinity Diagrams and Prototyping/Wireframing.

You can learn this stuff on YouTube. 

All in all, you get what you pay for. It was about a $2000 course. I managed to finish in 3 months (January 2021). If you’re looking to get your feet wet I’d recommend anything in Udemy. The investment cost for a career pivot might be more rewarding in courses like Career Foundry or General Assembly. 

Pros for the course
- Well structured, with plenty of valuable information to learn from.
- Course material in interactive and having to do projects along the way is very helpful to practice.
- Feedback on your projects and what to improve is great and to the point.
- You get access to slack groups where everyone is supportive and helpful.
- Shows software that can be used which is good for those like me that had no idea.
- You get Glasgow Caledonian University on your diploma as the course is a collaboration with them.
- Can do it in your own pace as you have 1 year to complete it.

Cons for the course
- Can be a bit pricey, but is not the most expensive out there.
- Doesn’t provide an idea/test practice for the final exam, so you go through all the course material.

I would say overall it was worth my time and money. I have no previous design experience and found learning the entire process incredibly helpful.  I think I have learned a lot of skills that are applicable outside of the world of UX especially in research/analysis and the design process. 

The course is taught over ten modules with UX concepts on video. You are also given 6 webinars live with an expert where you can showcase your work and get feedback or at least see what others are doing. Then on top of that, and what I've found an enormous help, you are given access to a Slack channel with your course mates as well as a general Slack channel for everyone who is on the course. These are really active, especially the latter, and lots of people post their projects for feedback which I find really helpful to take on board myself. There is also regular interaction with course tutors on email when you submit projects. 

I was expected to do at least 11 projects, and there is a total of 16 (if you opt to do them all you would be doing mobile and desktop). These are research (user testing, in-depth interviews, survey, competitor benchmarking) analysis (empathy maps, affinity diagram, flow diagram), and design (define navigation, define interactions, prototype and wireframe) and then a multiple-choice exam which is pass/fail. I've given them 3/5 for 'job assistance' but this isn't a major focus of the course - they do however give very helpful tips on portfolio building and job hunting in the final module.