General Assembly’s second online full time course, UX design, was recently released for 2020. Online bootcamps are a fantastic opportunity for those who don’t live near an in-person campus but would still like a full, intense bootcamp experience. In this article, we’ll take a look at what this new course has to offer potential students.
School Overview
General Assembly (GA) started in 2011. GA is one of the most well known and oldest bootcamps in the field. The school has both an online campus and 20 physical campuses around the world. The school also has a plethora of courses covering many tech fields from design to development. GA has four full-time in-person courses, 11 part-time online courses, and now, two full-time online courses.
In addition, it has an extensive network of alumni and hiring partners, including companies like Google, Microsoft, and IBM. This means that GA’s student body is not only comprised of those seeking a job, but also those sponsored by their own company to get an education.
User Experience Design Immersive Course
Now that we have some background on the school, let’s take a closer look at the newest online offering.
What is UX Design?
User Experience design (UX) shares many similarities with User Interface design (UI), however, UX covers the entire experience and emotions felt by a customer when using a product, rather than just the interface. UI is about the buttons while UX is about how people feel about the buttons (and the rest of the product, brand, and company).
What does the new course cover?
This course is an online adaptation of General Assembly’s in-person UX design course. The course is designed to turn students into UX designers. The course is also beginner-friendly, no prior experience is required.
Here’s a rundown of the syllabus, broken up into six units:
- Prework – The pre-work covers UX basics to bring students up to speed with the course.
- Unit 1: UX Foundations – This section covers the foundations for UX concepts, like identifying needs and problems, along with hand sketching and rapid prototyping.
- Unit 2: UI Foundations – This section covers UI, an essential part of UX. The section goes over subjects like information architecture, interaction design principles, and building a UI.
- Unit 3: Design Iteration and Development – This unit is all about applying what was learned in the previous sections with advanced testing and research, UX writing, and content strategy.
- Unit 4: Working With a Product Team – Working with a team is just as important as understanding good design. This section helps students to develop interpersonal skills specific to UX design, along with some of the adjacent technologies used by development teams.
- Unit 5: UX in the Real World – In this unit, students get to apply everything they’ve learned on a real project with real clients. Here they gain actual experience in the field while still in the course.
- Unit 6: UX Career Planning – After getting real-world experience, students focus on building the skills needed to land a job in the UX world. This involves understanding the business and building the student’s own personal brand.
How long is the course?
The UX Design course is a 10-week program. The course is immersive and tailored to mirror the in-person course, so students can expect a full-time schedule.
How much is the course, and how can I pay for it?
The General Assembly cost for this course is $14,950. Students have two options when paying for this course:
- Upfront – Students can pay for the entirety of the course upfront and save $450.
- Installment Plan – Students can divide the tuition fee into three manageable payments of $4,984.
In addition to these payment plans, students can reduce the cost of tuition with scholarships. One notable offering is the See Her Excel scholarship for women which can waive $1,000 off the total tuition fees. In addition, GA offers Social Impact programs that help provide education for adults with low-income and those in underrepresented communities. GA also accepts the GI Bill for full-time courses like UX Design.
Will I still benefit from career services?
According to GA, remote full-time students get the same career help and services that in-person students do.
“We approach our Remote Outcomes programming with the same philosophy, promise to, and expectations of our students” – General Assembly
This means students are entitled to assistance from GA’s dedicated career services team, along with a career coach that will work one-on-one with them. Students can expect help with career concerns such as resume reviews, portfolio creation, and interview preparation.
Conclusion
For those who are more design-minded than development-centric, UX design is an excellent career path. Getting to understand the psychology and emotions of customers is key to producing a quality product, and many find working with this type of design exciting. If you feel the same, GA’s latest course might be a good choice for you.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
