I’ve been engulfed in the world of design ever since I could remember. Growing up in a family of designers, I was exposed to the beauty and power of design at a very young age. I began working as a graphic designer for a department of the UC Davis Vet School called WIFSS, which ultimately opened my eyes to the different avenues of design and eventually lead me to further graphic design jobs. Although I enjoyed graphic design, I decided to take my career one step further by completing my UX Design certification from UCSD.
The #1 question I get asked is “what is UX design?” That question can sometimes be hard to answer, since UX design encompasses a range of duties, including website design, web application, software, apps and basically any form of human/device interaction. Before the program, all I knew about UX design was that it would help me take the next steps in my and boost my paycheck quite a bit.
For this particular blog, I decided to do a question/answer format to hopefully answer some questions you may have about my experiences with the UC San Diego’s UX Design Extension program.
Personally, I liked the wide array of electives offered by UCSD and the options to take all of the classes online. I also liked that a portfolio component was required, ensuring that students who complete the program end up with both a well-regarded diploma certificate and several sample projects that can be shown to prospective employers. This definitely came in handy when applying for UX jobs.
I would highly recommend the program to anyone looking to learn more about UX. The way UCSD set up the courses reminded me a lot of my undergrad classes at UC Davis, so it was very easy to adapt to. Also, they suggest completing the program in 2 years, but it's definitely possible to do it in 1, you just may need to convince a few teachers.
What I liked the most about the program was that the courses really pushed you to do your best. The teachers were very responsive to any questions I had and deeply cared about their students learning. They often set up the assignments to help with your final, so it makes the final less daunting.
What I liked the least was that sometimes the courses seemed "easy.” The curriculum definitely helps develop your skills, but I think at certain points the courses could have been more challenging.
The most challenging course for me was Responsive Design. This involved a lot of coding and I was not familiar with coding at the time. It mostly used HTML/CSS and a little bit of Javascript. I found myself spending the most time on this course (side note-most of what I do at my UX job I have now uses HTML and CSS, so I am very glad this course was a part of the curriculum).
The least challenging course was probably one of my electives I took, SEO and Marketing. I opted to take this course in-class and the class was set up almost like a ted-talk. Although it may not have been challenging per say, it was an amazing class and I learned a lot from taking it. Marketing and UX go hand in hand, so it was very valuable for my career (another side not- my current job combines a lot of marketing with UX design).
The finals were different depending on the class, but for the most part they were case studies or a final website prototype. You can see examples of some of my case studies in my portfolio. The case studies mostly involved optimizing websites/apps user experience. For the final class you have to take in the program, our final project was a finished version of our website portfolio.
The responsive design was a required course. You could also take a few elective courses offered that goes deeper into the coding side of UX.
I think the courses have to be followed in order (like principles of UX design, UX Design 1, UX 2 etc.); however, you can take many of the courses simultaneously. So for instance, the first quarter I took Principles of UX design, UX design 1 and UI design (elective) simultaneously; the second, I took UX Design 2 and Responsive design; and the third and final quarter I took SEO and Marketing and UX Portfolio. This particular schedule worked perfectly for me, since I wanted to finish the program within a year so I can start my job search.
I started apply for UX jobs in my final weeks of the course since I was mostly finished with my portfolio. Shortly after applying, I started receiving requests for phone interviews. I had about 8 or so phone interviews (some of them were recruiters and some out-of-state) and 3 in-person interviews (side note- I also received quite a few interests from LinkedIn but these mostly consisted of recruiters). I received offers from those 2 of the 3 in-person interviews, all of which were entry-level UX design positions. One specialized in app development and one in Marketing Tech. I decided to go with the latter and now am happily working for the amazing company Zeeto in sunny, San Diego.
I would not say my job is the typical UX design job that I was taught, but rather combines front-end development and UX. I frequently optimize websites and landing pages to increase revenue and conversion rates for the client. I also build out entire funnels (yes, that means lots of HTML and CSS) for new clients, which involves some of the UX steps taught in the UCSD program.
My tally for the 7 courses came out to about $5,400, which really isn’t much considering the course takes 1-2 years to finish. If money is an issue, I would start off with discounted online classes like Udemy, or free courses like CodeAcademy.
Before choosing UCSD’s UX program, I did my fair share of research; if I was going to spend over $5,000, I was going to make sure the school was legit. There are many UX design program, some free, some online and some in-class. For me personally, an online class structure worked best since I also worked full-time. Coming from a 4-year university, I was used to challenging curriculum and daunting deadlines; however, disciplining yourself to stay on top of these classes was definitely something I had to learn. Overall, I am extremely glad I chose this path and am excited to see the opportunities that lie ahead.
If you have any further questions, I will gladly answer them. Please feel free to e-mail me or message me on LinkedIn.
