Ten tips for conquering Designlab’s UX Academy
After taking two short courses with Designlab in 2016, I finally took the plunge. I enrolled in the UX Academy in the full-time track. That’s 40 hours a week for three months, give or take.
I’m now a few weeks in and feeling the force.
Here are some tips and resources to help you along the way:
1. Don’t try to conquer it!
Make it your friend. Regardless of your intentions for taking the course, Designlab is an opportunity to be a part of a great community and learn about an interesting field. Appreciate it. Do the extra reading, put in the effort and have a little fun on the way.
2. Manage your time
Okay, time management isn’t fun. It’s a major struggle for me. However, it is crucial for a course of this nature. Try to establish good habits early on, so you don’t ever fall too far off-track (or procrastinate too often by writing articles on Medium).
My personal favorite is to make a daily list of tasks on post-its, no matter how small: It’s my good old-fashioned progress bar. With the crossing out of each task, I get a that little hit of dopamine and the feeling of accomplishment.
If you are struggling, why not check out Pomodoro? Or Momentum?
For any late night sessions, make sure you have F.lux installed and working. It makes a huge difference.
3. Ask anyone and everyone
Whilst your mentors are undoubtedly your first point of call in the stormy sea, don’t be afraid to ask around. Start off with your fellow students on the Designlab slack channel, but also ask your friends, family and loved ones. I often receive valuable insight from the most unexpected of places.
We aren’t (usually) designing for ourselves, so let other people have a look.
4. Give Sketch some love
An obvious one here. Sketch is a great tool with a huge range of plugins, and as a budding young designer you should really make use of it’s potential. If you are struggling ask your mentor for tips, or check out one of the many tutorials online.
Start with Udemy, Learn Sketch or Sketch master.
5. To Affinity and beyond
Check out Affinity Designer if you haven’t already. Right now. It’s a great alternative to Illustrator without any of those freelancer-crushing subscription fees. If you haven’t switched yet, you really need to give it a go with a trial. Like the bohemian coding team behind Sketch, Affinity has a great team behind it and they are working towards something special. Affinity Photo is also worth checking out.
6. Make the most out of mentorship
Firstly, make your expectations for the course clear to yourself, and then try get your mentor to give you the feedback you need to help you get there. Push your mentor to push you. Work together to get the results you want and don’t be afraid to ask questions. They are an invaluable resource throughout your journey. If I have any questions I make sure I have them written down before the call so I don’t forget them.
7. Read about design
Theres lots of really great stuff on the internet (and of course books) about all aspects of design. When you aren’t plugged into the course directly, read, read and then read some more. It’s always a great way to learn about new tools, tricks and gather some insights from other designers. Follow some of the big design teams and see what they are up to. Start with dropbox and google.
8. Harness the power of ‘The Noun Project’
Of course, theres is a time and a place for creating original icons in your work, I’m not encouraging plagiarism here. For the most part though, as designers we want to save a little time when we can, especially when working on early rounds of iterations.
The Noun Project has an incredible catalogue of icons, which you can drag and drop into your work for a small monthly fee without attribution. You can even contribute and give back to the community when you have time to design your own.
9. Iterate, Iterate and then Iterate some more
A designers work is never done. Keep on iterating on your work as you progress through the course and keep older versions of your work. Its useful if you need to go back, or for documenting your design process. I sometimes even go back and take a look at old assignments with fresh eyes.
If you are relatively new to design, take a look at some of your early work. There are a lot of awesome designers out there and we are constantly aspiring to be better, but once in a while its good to see how far you’ve come.
10. Take some time to yourself.
Go for a walk, meet your friends, say hello to your social life.
Give your brain a rest.
Don’t forget to be a human you little millennial you.
For me the best thing about Designlab is the people behind it. Harish Venkatesan and the team are always available to answer any questions and concerns you may have. Don’t be afraid to reach out.
If you liked this article please click the little heart icon. I appreciate it.
Here are some other valuable resources I couldn’t quite fit into the article:
https://typewolf.com/
http://dailyui.co/
https://hackdesign.org/
http://blog.invisionapp.com/
https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/newsletter
https://material.io/
https://fontsquirrel.com/
https://sketchappsources.com/
http://bear-writer.com/
http://100daysoffonts.com/index.html
http://creativebloq.com/design/free-ebooks-designers-7133700
http://fontpair.co/
