Breaking into a new field can often come with a frustrating paradox: many employers want employees who already have experience, even for junior-level roles. But if you’re new to the field, getting that experience can be a real challenge.
Hiring managers increasingly look for more than a strong educational background. They want proof that, once hired, you can hit the ground running. This is where Client Capstones can make a meaningful difference.
Through Designlab’s partnership with Riipen, an experiential learning platform, every UX Academy student is matched with a vetted company facing genuine design challenges, and students collaborate in small teams to deliver real outcomes, all while being supported at every step by experienced design mentors.
These Client Capstone projects give new designers additional practical experience and client-backed portfolio work to more confidently enter their job search.
Client Capstones in Practice
Each Client Capstone pairs a student with one or two peers to work directly with a company over several weeks. With the guidance of their mentors, students meet with stakeholders, set project goals and deliverables, and hand off their final designs.
The experience mirrors professional design work: navigating feedback, adapting to changing priorities, and collaborating with other designers.
By the end, students graduate with portfolio projects that clearly demonstrate ownership, teamwork, and real-world problem-solving—skills organizations often look for during the hiring process.
From Learning to Impact: Client Capstone Success Stories
Working with clients moves students beyond classroom-style exercises and introduces nuance that better prepares them for professional design work. The payoff is meaningful: they see their designs evaluated and implemented in real-world contexts and complete the program with additional experience to show potential employers.
Here are examples of recent Client Capstones that helped UX Academy students strengthen their portfolios and solve real business challenges.
Runwei
UX Academy students Jason Zhu and Cleo Lotito Langsford collaborated with Runwei, a platform that helps entrepreneurs find non-debt funding opportunities, on a new dashboard design.
What began as a mission to redesign a single page quickly grew into a deeper exploration of the entire user experience. The student team was impressed by the client’s knowledge and passion for the industry, but the dashboard didn’t reflect the supportive, empowering experience Runwei wanted to provide users.
The team addressed the ambiguity around the project goals by digging deeper through competitor analysis and interviews with Runwei’s community. “The team consistently provided thoughtful guidance when questions arose, which kept our collaboration moving forward efficiently,” Jason shared.
Once a clearer direction was established, the students reimagined the dashboard from the ground up. They introduced progress tracking, more straightforward opportunity cards, personalized widgets, and more intuitive filtering and sorting. By the end, they had turned a confusing interface into a connected, motivating workflow.
The project gave the students firsthand experience redirecting a project based on research and advocating for user needs, all while building a strong, scalable foundation for Runwei.
TiriVelo Pet Care
When UX Academy students Maque Symonds, Sam Spillman, and Shivangi Gupta began working with TiriVelo Pet Care, they inherited a set of low-fidelity wireframes that lacked hierarchy, clarity, and a clear design direction. There was no design system in place and little context for how users were meant to move through the onboarding and booking experience.
Rather than moving straight to visuals, the team focused instead on understanding why the user journey felt confusing. Through persona development, competitive analysis, and a usability audit, they uncovered user issues around trust, labeling, and flow.
For the students, the most valuable part of the project was building the skills to iterate based on feedback. “I also loved being able to work on complex flows, which challenged me in the best possible way,” Maque says. Refining screens and making strategic decisions pushed the team to think beyond surface-level fixes, and they learned to advocate for their designs.
Through stronger cues, clearer labels, and more predictable patterns, they ultimately built a more cohesive product. By the end of the capstone, the students delivered a polished, brand-aligned design system that would carry the company forward.
SciQuiry
Another team of students collaborated with SciQuiry, a science learning platform helping K–8 students master science through adaptive, game-like learning sequences. UX Academy students Enya Stegmann and Abhay Rao were tasked with redesigning SciQuiry’s digital experience to better communicate its value, simplify onboarding for teachers and students, and build trust through clearer information architecture.
Through research, surveys, and usability testing, the students discovered that teachers needed transparent pricing and clearer classroom value, while students needed a simpler, more engaging entry point.
They then restructured the site to guide users more intuitively from discovery to sign-up. For the students, the project was an opportunity to apply UX fundamentals to a meaningful mission. “We’re glad we could contribute to something that sparks curiosity and brings science to life for kids,” Enya says.
Unlatched
Client Capstones also give students the opportunity to work on exciting early-stage products, like Unlatched, a dating app focused on authenticity and emotional connection. Sunjay Chopra and Max Szollosi partnered with the company to design a more human dating experience.
The project goals were to reduce swipe fatigue, simplify onboarding, and create a playful mobile interface that empowered users to express their real selves through two unique profiles: Hype, for a more polished presentation, and Unhinged, an edgier, unfiltered profile.
Working with a passionate founder, the students balanced usability with emotional resonance and delivered a refined prototype in just a few weeks.
“By the end, we had created something we all truly loved and felt proud of,” Max shared. “I believe Unlatched has huge potential.”
Building Confidence for a Career Transition
Client Capstones give students an opportunity to do more than practice UX design. They plan, execute, and deliver real work and leave with case studies that reflect a greater range of ability.
With Client Capstones, UX Academy gives new designers a comprehensive and authentic learning experience that more fully prepares them to work as UX/product designers. Students develop stronger UI skills, make connections with real companies, and are better positioned to get hired after graduation.
Ready to Take the First Step Towards a Design Career?
UX Academy combines the mentorship, hands-on learning, and career support students need to confidently transition into UX or product design.
Explore UX Academy or attend an upcoming informational webinar to learn how the program can support your journey.
Questions? Reach out to our helpful admissions team.
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