UX Design Bootcamp

Become a UX designer. Land a job or your money back.

  • 100% online, project-based curriculum

  • 1:1 mentorship + career coaching + four-week externship

  • Graduate in 6 months, part-time

banner image

Valena del Valle

Design Graduate

From Undergraduate Student
To Product Designer @ The Hartford

Design the future you deserve

+$28K

Average salary increase of Springboard UX design students who provided pre- and post-course salaries

December 2023

In this UX bootcamp you will:

  • Conduct user research and identify design problems

  • Sketch solutions, wireframe, build high-fidelity mockups, and create prototypes

  • Perform usability tests, iterate on prototypes and master the User-Centered Design process

Plus, you’ll learn the tools designers use, including:

Learn how to create better digital experiences in just six months.

Tech still needs you! Now is the time to invest in your career.

Here's the truth: tech companies continue to face a talent shortage, despite the recent layoffs. But don’t just take our word for it — read the latest media reports below, or visit our blog for an in-depth look at why demand for skilled tech workers is not slowing down anytime soon.

Today, a majority of tech jobs are at companies outside the tech sector in industries like banking, retail, health care, and manufacturing, whose operations are increasingly becoming digital. These mainstream companies continue to invest in tech skills.

As Silicon Valley Retrenches, a Tech Talent Shift Accelerates

Silicon Valley may have been rocked by massive layoffs for the last half-year, but tech jobs remain plentiful in the U.S., opening doors to stable and potentially lucrative careers even for those without college degrees.

Need a job? Tech remains a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

Despite the widespread layoffs, hiring freezes, and cost-cutting taking place in tech, many tech workers are finding reemployment remarkably quickly. They’re still the most sought-after workers with the most in-demand skills.

Laid Off Tech Workers Quickly Find New Jobs

Learn with a hands-on curriculum

Speak the language of design, build skills and test them with a curriculum designed by UX experts.

Get an edge with human support

Work with a mentor, career coach, and more. They have your back and will hold you accountable.

Land a job or your money back

We back our program with a job guarantee. Get a job or you'll receive a full refund. See terms.

What you’ll learn in this UX design bootcamp

In this UX bootcamp, you’ll execute each phase of the design process and build your skills through key resources and hands-on project-based learning.

Topic 1: Introduction to UX Design

In this introductory unit, you’ll gain a foundation for UX best practices while exploring the various roles within the industry.

  • Learn the differences between UI and UX

  • Learn the skills needed to be successful as a UX designer

  • Discover the range of UX design roles and their responsibilities

Topic 2: Design Thinking

Design thinking is the mindset designers like you will use to create effective user experiences. This unit will walk you through the stages of design thinking while highlighting an empathetic, hands-on, interactive approach to problem-solving.

  • Gain an understanding of design thinking stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test

  • Develop an awareness of divergent and convergent thinking

  • Learn the techniques of brainstorming, gamestorming, and affinity mapping for idea generation

Topic 3: Understanding the Problem

You’re now entering the discovery phase of the design process. In this unit, you’ll learn how research uncovers user problems and then walk through different types of user research in the design field.

  • Become familiar with various design-based research methods

  • Determine which research method to use at various stages in the design process

  • Learn about competitive research and conduct a heuristic analysis

Topic 4: Understanding Your User

This hands-on unit will tailor your learnings about user research to your first capstone project. 

  • Learn how to conduct research for your capstone project

  • Learn how to recruit users, write screeners, and conduct interviews

  • Learn about the benefits of diary studies and have the option to conduct a diary study for your capstone

Topic 5: Synthesizing Your Research

You’ve conducted your research, but now it’s time to put your findings down on paper. You’ll learn to synthesize your research through various methods to make your data more cohesive.

  • Explore the different methods you can use to synthesize research, including empathy maps, personas, jobs-to-be-done framework, etc.

  • Understand how synthesizing will help your team focus on the user experience

  • Learn how to present your synthesized research to stakeholders

Topic 6: Intro to Design Tools

This brief unit will get you acquainted with the most common design tools at your disposal: Sketch and Adobe XD.  You’ll choose one of the two to use for the rest of the program.

  • Explore and use design tools using Sketch and Adobe XD

  • Gain an understanding of how you will use each design tool in your work

  • Complete a mini-project by recreating the UI of a few screens

Topic 7: Design and Ideate

You are now entering the design phase. You’ll start to design solutions for the problems you identified in the Discovery stage. You’ll also brainstorm solutions to the problem you’re trying to solve for your capstone and learn how to write and map user stories that capture the intent of your personas.

  • Learn to brainstorm solutions to the problem you’re trying to solve for your capstone

  • Begin to write and map user stories based on personas

  • Create how might we statements (HMW) 

Topic 8: Information Architecture

Information architecture (IA) helps you map out how users will experience your product. This unit will introduce many concepts to help you organize your information around your user. 

  • Learn the core concepts of information architecture 

  • Explore site navigation and learn best practices

  • Create deliverables such as site maps, user flows, and card sorts

Topic 9: Sketching and Guerilla Usability Testing

Sketching is the first step to getting your ideas out of your head and into reality.  With sketching, you’ll learn to use the general design rule of “test early and test often,” bringing your ideas to life through low-fidelity designs. 

  • Learn why sketching is such an integral skill for UX designers

  • Create sketches and paper or Marvel POP prototypes to conduct early usability tests

  • Learn best practices for guerilla usability testing

Topic 10: Wireframing and Interaction Design

Wireframes are digitized versions of your sketches and sit between sketching and high-fidelity mockups. This unit prepares you to map your product’s content while also teaching you that there is room for flexibility and innovation. 

  • Create wireframes for your mobile and desktop red routes

  • Develop an understanding of the importance of designing for edge cases

  • Learn about and create wireflows for multiple states of the same screen

  • Learn about interaction design principles and how to apply them to your designs

Topic 11: User Interface Design

This unit will help you understand how to make your designs more accessible and engaging through the key visual principles of User Interface (UI) Design. Cultivating an understanding of how UI design works will enable you to find a balance between an aesthetically pleasing UI and a functional one.

  • Learn visual design fundamentals and how to apply these principles to your work

  • Become familiar with the design patterns used for different platforms and operating systems  

  • Explore techniques you can use to make your designs more accessible and engaging

Topic 12: Psychology Principles and Special Topics

Your designs can go from good to great when you understand the psychology of how users engage with your product.  This unit explores how to create designs that increase engagement and conversion.

  • Learn best practices for creating an onboarding experience that efficiently helps your users understand the value of using your product

  • Explore the topic of empty states, including why they’re important and how you can design them well

  • Gain an understanding of the relationship between strategy and service design

  • Study innovations like wearables emerging in the UX space

Topic 13: Prototype and Test

Prototyping is the stage when you are closest to your final product. In the final phase of the UCD process, you’ll create a prototype of your capstone project’s red routes and then facilitate usability tests. 

  • Learn how to create a clickable prototype

  • Understand the benefits of usability test plans and begin writing one

  • Learn how to facilitate usability test sessions

  • Gain an understanding of how to synthesize findings gathered during usability test sessions

Topic 14: Communication Skills

Learning how to tell a compelling story about your designs can ensure alignment across business functions. This unit teaches you how to effectively communicate your ideas to a variety of stakeholders, such as team members and clients.


You’ll also put together a comprehensive case study of your entire capstone journey and give a presentation about your capstone project. 

  • Develop the necessary skills to communicate your ideas to a variety of audiences effectively

  • Explore what makes an effective presentation

  • Learn how to write a compelling case study 

Topic 15: Portfolio Projects

Building a UX Portfolio
While working through this bootcamp, you will complete three projects that you can showcase in your design portfolio. A breakdown of core projects:

Capstone: A self-defined project working through all phases of the design process

Design Sprint: A Google-Ventures style design sprint on agile methodology


Industry Design Project: A 4-week remote externship with a company to develop new products.

These projects will comprise a portfolio site you build, complete with an engaging bio and personal logo. 

Topic 16: Career Support

Career units throughout the bootcamp will help you create a tailored job search strategy based on your background and goals. Topics include:

  • Types of industry roles 

  • Job search strategies

  • Building a network and using it to land interviews

  • Creating a high-quality resume, LinkedIn profile, and cover letter

  • Preparing for technical and non-technical interviews

  • Successful negotiation

Build a portfolio that proves your skills to hiring managers

The best way to learn UX design is to get hands-on experience. Complete nine mini projects, a design sprint and a capstone project. Build an interview-ready portfolio you can show to future employers.

While working on projects, you will:

  • Identify a user problem to solve

  • Conduct competitive research

  • Sketch, design and build a prototype

  • Perform usability testing and identify improvements

Past projects from Springboard students

Anthony Ra

Capstone project: A more conscious and health-focused productivity app

Sofie Vickers

Capstone project: Personalized and online tutoring for students

Get real-world experience with an external client project

Complete a four-week remote externship with a startup. It’s an exclusive experience that will set you apart from others. During this Industry Design Project you’ll get:

  • Exposure to the industry by working with a company

  • An opportunity to dive deeper into an aspect of the UX design process

  • Experience working in collaboration with a design team and directly with a client

  • Mastery from your mentor

    Build skills faster with an expert in your corner. Your mentor will keep you accountable and give you an insider's view.

  • Counsel from your career coach

    Get prepared for the job search. Your career coach will help you gain confidence and know-how to land the role.

  • Support from your student advisor

    Stay on track and achieve your goals. Your student advisor has your back and will keep you on track to graduation.

  • Collaboration from your community

    You’ve got a built-in community — students who, just like you, are betting big on themselves.

Mentor: Elsa Ho

UX Researcher

Mentor: Ali Rushdan Tariq

Principal and Associate Director

Mentor: Earl Friedberg

UX Manager

Watch Bre’s journey from academic adviser to UX designer

Bre Walker started her career as an academic advisor at a university. However, she’d always found ways to dabble in design. Bre decided to pursue her passion and is now a full-time UX designer at KeyBank.

Springboard UX design graduates have achieved life-changing growth. You can too.

+$28,208

Average salary increase of UX Design students who provided pre- and post-course salaries.

December 2023

80.7%

Of job-qualified individuals who reported an offer, received it within 12 months of graduation.

December 2023

1,664

Enrolled students in the UX Design Career Track since 2018.

December 2023

A UX design bootcamp with a job guarantee

Invest in yourself with confidence with the Springboard Job Guarantee. If you put in the work and don't land a job, we'll give you a refund. Terms apply.


Eligibility for the Springboard Job Guarantee:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in related UX field OR 1 year of relevant work experience

  • Successful completion of all mandatory coursework, core projects and career development tasks

  • Fulfill all post-completion job search requirements — regular networking, job applications and interviewing

Requirements

  • At least 1 year of documented professional experience or a degree in one of the following areas: understanding users, producing / managing visual content, or developing digital products.

    For example: user research, HCI, human factors; graphic / industrial design, architecture, studio arts; UI design.

  • Aptitude toward problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.

New to design?

Become a designer from scratch. Apply for our UI/UX Design Career Track bootcamp — no prerequisites.

Apply to the next UX design bootcamp

This UX bootcamp is a six-month program for students devoting 15-25 hours per week.

4 ways to fund your future

Everyone should have the opportunity for growth. That’s why we offer a range of payment options.

What are UX designers earning?

These are the average salaries of UX designers in the US.

pricing-chart

Data as of November 2022; cross-referenced with Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Indeed, Payscale, Salary.com, BuiltIn, and Comparably.

Why Springboard vs. other bootcamps

We're the only bootcamp to offer all the features below. Plus our program is designed to fit your schedule — all at an affordable cost.

(data as of December 2022)

Springboard

Flatiron

Thinkful

General Assembly

1:1 Mentoring

✔️

✔️

Real Client Project

✔️

✔️

Job Guarantee*

✔️

✔️

Tuition**

$7,900

$16,900

$12,150 FT / $9,500 PT

$14,950

*Terms apply | **Total cost varies based on approved interest rate. Financing only available for U.S. residents

Your questions, answered

Ready to become a UX designer? Apply now

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