User Research

The IxDF courses are self-paced and designed for independent study without the assistance of a mentor or instructor.

Whereas, with an IxDF bootcamp, you’ll have:

• An in-depth curriculum + recommended schedule of daily and weekly activities
• Live class discussions with an instructor
• Personalized feedback on projects and peer critiques from your mentor
• Discussions and forums with your fellow students
• A virtual classroom and common room environment

You can take the bootcamp as long as you are comfortable with reading, writing and speaking English—even if it isn't your first language

We welcome students from around the world, and in recognition of the fact that English will not be everyone’s first language, we’ve maintained a simple level of English in all our materials. And if you occasionally do get stuck, don’t worry—your mentor will be able to help you!

You’ll spend 8-10 hours per week on the bootcamp, which includes project work, lessons, class discussions with the instructor and meetings with your mentor.

Over the 19 years that we've been helping people start their careers in UX and related fields, we've constantly worked to understand what employers expect from aspiring designers, and where conventional bootcamps fail to deliver. Time and time again, employers have reported the same concern to us—that many popular bootcamps fail to produce students with the adequate depth and breadth to work effectively in a real UX or product team.

Many bootcamps pack introductions to UI, User Research and Design Thinking into a single bootcamp, often leaving students without enough time or opportunity to really master each area. Since these bootcamps do not offer enough depth and breadth in these areas, their students are often unable to showcase the expected variety and mastery of concepts to employers.

At IxDF, each bootcamp will give you exactly the kind of breadth and depth employers expect in each area. You'll devote an entire 12-week bootcamp to learning about a specific domain, and you'll create a Capstone Project with tons of real deliverables for your portfolio. At the same time, because each specialisation gets its own bootcamp, you still have the freedom to pick only those that are relevant to your goals.

Even better—once you complete 3 of these specialized bootcamps, you are eligible to join the elite IxDF UX Certification Program where you'll be certified by an expert panel as a professional UX designer, and you'll get a 6-month job guarantee along with comprehensive help with job applications, interviews and presentations.

In a nutshell: Employers want to see depth and variety in portfolios, which students struggle to achieve through conventional bootcamps that are also longer and more expensive. IxDF offers shorter, specialized bootcamps for a fraction of the price which help students to achieve mastery over UX and related fields, making them better prepared for the demands of a real job and giving them an advantage even in a competitive job market.

Practical project work accounts for about 60% of what you'll do in the bootcamp. This will be a combination of standalone practice activities, as well as Capstone Project Work, which refers to a series of individual assignments connected to the Capstone Project Brief you choose at the start, ultimately forming your Capstone Presentation at the end of the bootcamp.

Whatever the type of practical work, you’ll create real deliverables that you’ll encounter when you work in a real design or product team. Each of these deliverables will make perfect additions to your portfolio.

Absolutely! We believe no one should have to put their life on hold to learn and improve their careers, so you can rest assured that with IxDF bootcamps, you'll never have to.

The bootcamp is fully online and part-time, where you'll have the flexibility to learn across 12 weeks. While you will need to be available at specific times for live lectures and meetings, these will be during weekdays at specific times that you will know well in advance.

To make it even easier for you to plan your schedule, we've maintained these activities on the same day most weeks. For example, live class discussions may always fall on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the same time, allowing you to plan other meetings and errands around it easily.

You can also work on lessons and project work flexibly based on your schedule. Deadlines, while strict, are spaced well enough to give you time for your job, studies or busy home life.

If you're unhappy with your bootcamp experience, you can inform us at any time and we'll do our best to find a resolution for you. If despite our best efforts, you still wish to quit the bootcamp, you can request a refund. To be eligible for the refund, you should request it within the first 14 days of the bootcamp.

Beyond the 14 days, we don't process refunds. However, if there's anything we can improve or fix for you, you will have our dedicated support right through the bootcamp.

The Design League membership is a monthly membership that gives you 2 hours of non-structured discussion time with a mentor each month. However, the Design League does not include mentor participation outside of the 2 hours of calls.

If you’d like more hands-on guidance than what the Design League offers, the bootcamp could be right for you. In contrast to a Design League membership type, the bootcamp is a full-fledged program packed with guidance from a mentor and instructor.

• As you learn fundamental theory and concepts, you'll be guided by experienced instructors.
• When you work on practical projects, your mentor will help you every step of the way.
• Moreover, if you enjoy learning with your peers, the bootcamp also includes peer reviews and discussion forums.

In short, as compared to the Design League, the bootcamp offers a more structured approach to learning, and more opportunities to interact with mentors, instructors and fellow students.

Absolutely, the bootcamp is open to students from around the world! After you sign up, you'll also get to choose from at least 2 options of timings for live class discussions, and you'll be paired with a mentor in a time zone that's suitable for you.

You'll learn alongside students from all over the world, and our team of mentors and instructors is similarly global and diverse.

Every IxDF bootcamp is inherently specialized in nature. IxDF offers bootcamps specializing in UX Design, Design Thinking, User Research and UI Design (releasing in October 2021). In each of these bootcamps, you will dive very deep into conceptual and practical work and emerge with a solid foundation and the skills to put that foundation to use in the real world.

Within each bootcamp, you can customize many aspects of your project briefs and choose to work in a domain that interests you.

Employers want to see depth and variety in portfolios, which students struggle to achieve through conventional bootcamps that are also longer and more expensive. IxDF offers shorter, specialized bootcamps for a fraction of the price which help students to achieve mastery over UX and related fields, making them better prepared for the demands of a real job and giving them an advantage even in a competitive job market.

Definitely! The bootcamp is designed with complete beginners in mind. You don’t need any prior conceptual or practical knowledge in the field to take this bootcamp. You will learn by doing and your work will be continuously evaluated by your expert mentor to keep you on the right track. You will also learn the most essential theory aspects through lessons and through class discussions with your instructor.

This bootcamp by itself does not come with placement or career support. That said, the bootcamp will train you in many areas that will make it much easier for you to find and land your dream job. You'll learn to:

• Create and present real deliverables in a compelling way
• Work with peers in a group to give and receive feedback in a team-like environment
• Think like a designer and solve real-world problems
• Manage and meet deadlines
• Present your process like real professionals do

Yes, you’ll get a digital certificate that’s displayed on your IxDF profile, and you can also share it on LinkedIn like all our course certificates. You'll also receive a downloadable copy that you can print and share if any employers or recruiters need you to.

The content in IxDF courses and bootcamps are developed by and with industry-recognized leaders in UX Design. Just like in our self-paced courses, the content in the bootcamp is created by people who have both worked in the industry and taught UX academically. This means that you’ll learn from people who are experts at teaching UX concepts and are also extremely well-versed with the nuances, demands and responsibilities of a real UX job.

Our selection process for mentors and instructors is extremely rigorous and selective. We go the extra mile to ensure that all our bootcamp teaching staff are equally skilled as educators and practitioners, with a proven track-record and 5-15 years of experience. In this aspect, IxDF bootcamps are ahead of the industry—many other bootcamps hire their own recent graduates as instructors. At IxDF, we insist that our instructors have worked on varied projects and held leadership roles in the industry.

When you sign up for a bootcamp, you get access just to the specific bootcamp that you signed up for. If you'd like to join other bootcamps, you will have to sign up for them individually.

If you work or study full-time, we recommend taking only 1 bootcamp at a time so that you can manage the workload and time commitments without getting burnt out. We have rolling enrolments for all bootcamps, so you can always start with one bootcamp and make your way through the others without waiting too long.

The bootcamp includes mandatory live interactions such as:

• Online classes with your instructor (1-2/week for 1 hour each | 65% live attendance required)
• Mentor workshops or Group critiques (1/week for 1 hour | 75% live attendance required)
• 1:1 meetings with your mentor (1/week for 30 minutes | 75% live attendance required)

Additionally, you can book OPTIONAL office hours with your instructor for 20 minutes. This is not mandatory, and is available once per week on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Available time slots

For the User Research bootcamp, these are the time slots you can choose from:

• 9 AM Pacific Time (PT)
• 8 PM Eastern Time (EDT)

To help you visualise this, here's how a typical week in the User Research bootcamp would look if you choose the 9 AM PT time slot.

• Monday: No mandatory live classes or meetings (Optional office hours with the instructor—20 min slots available from 9:00-11:30 AM PT)
• Tuesday: Live Class (Mandatory)—9-10 AM PT
• Wednesday: Live Class (Mandatory)—9-10 AM PT
• Thursday: Mentor Workshop (Mandatory)—9-10 AM PT
• Friday: Mentor 1:1 (Mandatory)—30 min slots available from 9:00-11:30 AM PT

Attendance and Re-watching sessions

Live classes with the instructor and mentor workshops will be recorded and available to watch again. However, you still need to maintain minimum attendance requirements for these sessions.

• Live Classes: 65% minimum attendance
• Mentor Workshops and 1:1s: 75% minimum attendance

How to fit the bootcamp into a busy schedule

Most weeks, these events will occur on the same day at or around the same time slot you have chosen, giving you consistency, flexibility and visibility to plan ahead.

For instance, if these time slots occur in the middle of your work day, you can block out 9-10 AM PT or 8-9 PM EDT and request your manager and colleagues not to book meetings with you during this hour.

The bootcamp also includes project work and theory lessons—you can do them whenever your schedule permits (before work, after work, on weekends, etc.). These components do have deadlines, but they're very well-spaced and generous so as to take the pressure off you.

Live classes with the instructor and mentor workshops will be recorded and available to watch again. However, you still need to maintain minimum attendance requirements for these sessions.

• Live Classes: 65% minimum attendance
• Mentor Workshops and 1:1s: 75% minimum attendance

Part-time in the context of the bootcamp means that you only need 8-10 hours per week to do the bootcamp; this means you don't need to study full-time (usually equal to 40 hours/week), and you can do the bootcamp even if you work full-time or have demanding commitments like being the primary caretaker to children and family.

That said, because the bootcamp is a more immersive and intensive learning experience than a regular online course, there are certain events you have to be present for at a specific time. And there are deadlines for your coursework.

You can do the project work and theory lessons whenever your schedule permits (before work, after work, on weekends, etc.). These components do have deadlines, but they're very well-spaced and generous so as to take the pressure off you.

When it comes to live classes, live workshops and mentor 1:1s, you have some flexibility when it comes to choosing from the available time slots—but once you have chosen a time slot, you are required to be present for these sessions and meet minimum attendance requirements.

These sessions usually happen at the time slot you have chosen. They occur 3-4 times a week, for a maximum of 1 hour. Because of this, you can easily plan around them and fit them into your schedule by simply blocking your chosen hour out for the bootcamp during the week.

Sometimes, the 1-hour time slots available for class discussions and mentor workshops can fall within your work timings. In this case, you could benefit from speaking to your manager and colleagues and requesting them to excuse you for just this 1 hour period. In such cases, you could work an extra hour of the day to compensate, and schedule your meetings around the bootcamp. And since one bootcamp takes only 12 weeks, so it is a minor, short-term adjustment for you and your colleagues.

Many of our students have used this approach and found that they not only got the space they needed to accommodate the bootcamp, but they were also appreciated for taking the time to up-skill themselves.