You may be asking yourself, “Is a UX Design Bootcamp going to get me a job?”. In my Springboard UX Design Bootcamp Review, I’ll let you know what my experience was like learning with Springboard and my thoughts on why a Bootcamp may be the right choice for you if you’d like to become a UX Designer.
How I found Springboard
Thanks to my mentor and current boss, I was introduced to UX a couple of years after returning from teaching abroad in South Korea. This Summer I’ll be celebrating 3 years of UX Research experience as a UX Consultant! In the beginning, there was always a feeling of imposter syndrome in the back of my mind because I did not have formal UX experience credentials. I had a steep learning curve learning what UX was and had difficulty grasping concepts such as Personas. Thankfully, I was able to improve greatly as a UX Researcher.
For the purposes of becoming a better UX professional, I wanted to get some kind of credential or certification that I could show to my clients. I wanted to “pay my dues” and show that I really knew my stuff! I also wanted to do more work that was “visual” and creative. So, I began to research and went on Youtube and came across a Youtuber called chunbuns. She described how she became a UX Designer with NO experience! She talked about how people could transition to UX Design without a design background. She also talked about the high pay and high impact that UX Designers have.
Check out her video below:
Chunbun’s video on how she became a UX Designer with NO experience!
I found Springboard through Chunbun’s video above!
Curriculum
I was in the last cohort for Springboard’s UX Design Skills track. They now have two comprehensive programs for aspiring UX professionals. The UI/UX Design Bootcamp and the UX Career Track.
The UX Design Skills track was very comprehensive and gave a great overview of the skills needed to become a full-fledged UX Designer. I tried various ways to learn UX in the past like Udemy or Skillshare. While they were great resources for learning new skills, sometimes they were too specific or only broadly covered material that I wanted to learn. That curriculum is a curated collection of articles and videos from the internet. There are Youtube videos, Linkedin videos, and various articles that are presented in a way that you get “just enough” to build a foundation and move on. The great thing about this is that you don’t “go down a rabbit hole” learning one subject too much which is a common problem when self-studying. You get a curriculum that guides you at your own pace that won’t waste your time.
My curriculum was divided into these areas:
1.Getting Started
2. Introduction to UX Design
3. User Centered Design & Design Thinking
4. User Research: Understanding Your User
5. Usability Analysis
6. Empathy Mapping, Personas & Scenarios
7. Designing for Mobile
8. Lean UX
9. Content Strategy
10. Sketching, Wireframing & Prototyping
11. Visual Design
12. Research Evaluation
13. Capstone Project
14. Career Resources
In total there were about 15 projects in my program with varying levels of difficulty. The beginning projects weren’t particularly tough but the projects later in the course became more and more difficult but manageable. The one thing that irked me about some of the projects was that sometimes you had to depend on others to conduct research. For example, if you created a screener survey, the number of responses that you received and the time that it took to receive them depended on your effort and method of acquiring responses. You really had to put in tons of effort in many instances to conduct quality research and create great visual designs.
Had I self-studied, I most certainly would have given up. I experienced this when I studied Web Development back in 2016. There were many times where I felt “stuck” and had no one to help me. Ever took a Calculus class, seen how things were solved by the teacher, and then thought to yourself “Wow, this is easy!” Then when you took a test… they changed things up and you were like “HUH!?” If you study UX Design by yourself, you may find yourself feeling that same kind of stress. Springboard has a solution to this! They provide a mentor!
Mentoring
In this Springboard UX Design Bootcamp review, I really want to emphasize how important having a mentor was to me. Each week I had about 30 minutes with my UX Design mentor. Prior to our meetings, I would send an agenda of what I would like to discuss for our meeting. So if I had a question that stumped me like “What color palette would you recommend for my mobile app?”, they would be able to answer it with their real-world experience. All of Springboard’s mentors have some sort of experience in the field that they mentor in. It’s great to also ask questions on job-related things like “How easy is it to find a job?” or “What’s it really like to work in UX Design?” I am super grateful that my mentor helped me out so much to understand difficult concepts. She gave me tons of resources and answered questions that I had throughout the week via e-mail whenever I got stuck. Not only that, through screen-sharing she walked me through how to design symbols in Sketch step-by-step. Thanks to her, I was able to successfully complete my program and I can’t thank her enough!
Pricing
When I took the UX Design Skills Track, I paid about $499 a month to learn how to become a UX Designer. Now that it is discontinued, Springboard has two UX tracks to choose from that are more comprehensive.
I would say that the pricing for the UX courses provided at Springboard are still competitive. The value provided by Springboard is great. On their website, they compare themselves to their competitors. You can see the chart below:
Another great thing about Springboard is that they do offer an 18% discount if you pay upfront. They also offer scholarships to Women and Veterans. Not only that, they have a deferred tuition plan and have loans available for students in need.
The tuition pricing may vary and change over time, so please be sure to visit the Springboard Website at https://www.springboard.com for the most up to date pricing and payment options.
Portfolio
I was super busy and completed my Bootcamp in around a year. If I focused I probably would have finished it in about 6 months or faster. Life happens.
My Portfolio: https://bit.ly/39PaoZC
Springboard UX Design Bootcamp Review
If you were to ask me whether or not I’d be able to design a mobile application all by myself, I would have thought that it was impossible! “I’m not a great designer. I don’t even know what programs to use.” That would have been my response over a year ago when I first started my UX Design Bootcamp with Springboard. Thanks to my mentor at Springboard and lots of GRIT, I was able to successfully complete the program. Now that I have 2+ years of experience in UX, I’m fully confident that I’ll be able to find a full-time position as a UX Designer in the very near future.
I hope that this Springboard UX Design Bootcamp Review helped you in deciding whether or not to join a UX Design Bootcamp. From my experience, I would highly recommend it if you’re transitioning careers. A bootcamp alone won’t get you the job. You’ll need to build a stellar portfolio and network to have an edge over the rest of the many applicants that are vying for a UX Designer position too.
The great thing about UX is that people come into the industry from all kinds of backgrounds. It’s one of the few careers that you can get into where you are truly rewarded and valued for your skills. You don’t need to get a 4-year degree and go into student debt to get into this field. A bootcamp is a great way to be guided into the career of your dreams. Good luck!
Exclusive Offer
For those that enroll through my Affiliate Link, you can take $750 off your first Springboard Course!
Affiliate Link: https://www.springboard.com/invite/DQ9U9
Hopefully this discount can help!
3rd Party Reviews of Springboard
Note: This blog post was written for an older website of mine back in 2020. I was able to get a full-time UX Business Analyst position in 2021 and now work remotely.
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