What’s New at Designlab? [June 2021]

It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through 2021! Q2 was another busy quarter here at Designlab, and as always, we have some exciting updates to share about our product roadmap...

Capstone Updates 🚀

After a teaser in our Q1 product update, the UX Academy capstones have been fully updated! Students now have the flexibility to customize each of their capstone project topics, and can also work through the projects in the sequence that they want (app creation, responsive web, adding a feature—you choose which comes first). Mentors are enjoying working with their students to help them create unique project briefs and define problems worth solving. As a result, graduates of UX Academy and their portfolios will stand out even more when interviewing due to their unique project examples.

Students are encouraged to consider several audiences as they approach the capstones: it's not just the user that's going to see the designs after all. They may ask mentors to help them practice stakeholder meetings, formulate what to say to a developer, and discuss how they might work with clients, among other things. 

We'll continue to follow this project and check back in after a couple of quarters have passed. Since portfolio projects are such an important part of the curriculum, we want to make sure we're keeping an eye out for any issues that may arise or improvements that can be made!

New Course: Data-Driven UX Design 📈

We're very excited to let you know we’re launching a brand new offering: our first advanced course on the topic of Data-Driven UX Design 🎉

After surveying hundreds of Designlab alumni, mentors, and hiring managers, data-driven design emerged as the #1 skill for designers to improve when working in teams. We all know that designers have a critical role to play in the product development process, however, without quantitative insights and the ability to analyze and dissect metrics, it's hard to convince partners across product, engineering, and leadership to implement your design suggestions.

In just 3-6 hours/week—with a new cohort-driven format that features activity-based learning and facilitated live sessions with groups of vetted peers—this advanced design course will help you learn how to:

• Master the use of product data and UX analytics
• Use data in the design, launch, and iteration of digital products
• Craft experiments to validate your design decision-making
• Prove how your UX work impacts both product and business 
• Grow as a leader within your product & design teams

It also features expert, behind-the-scenes video case studies from top companies like Stitch Fix and Asana. You'll see how some of the best teams in the world use data to shape their design process, and have the chance to follow along with sample data sets and role-play scenarios to hone your own skills.

Our mission has always been to empower creators to do the work they love, and this is an exciting evolution of that! We hope this new advanced course—along with others we have planned—will help you continue to advance your career in the UX design field.

In Progress: UX Academy Renovations 🛠

We've embarked on revising UX Academy from the ground up! Updates won't start rolling out until the end of 2021, but be on the lookout in our community for opportunities to give feedback on some of the new lessons and projects we have planned. 

If you’re interested in checking out and making use of the new capstone updates (and more!) as we move into Q3, we encourage you to explore our UX Academy program.