Coming from a self-taught UX designer that has mentored 70+ junior UX designers in bootcamps.

UI and UX design has boomed over the last several years and is one of the fastest-growing fields. As resources for learning new skills become more accessible thanks to the internet and modern-day technology, the opportunities to learn an entirely new field from no experience have grown exponentially. UX bootcamps have become one of the biggest, most accessible paths of entry for almost anyone that wants to pursue a UX discipline.

What is a UX bootcamp exactly?

A UX design bootcamp is an intensive and immersive education program that equips learners with the foundational knowledge, skills and tools they need to enter the job market. UX design focuses on the branding, functionality, usability and design of digital products and services, mobile apps, and websites. (Forbes)

I am a self-taught UX designer of three years with a seven-year web design background who paved my way up to now a mid-level UX designer in tech. If you’re curious about my non-bootcamp experience, you can read about that here.

For the last 6–7 months, I had the opportunity to mentor 70+ junior designers in a well-known UX bootcamp program. While I’ve witnessed the positive impact that UX bootcamps have on many students’ careers, there are still key areas where they fall short that all aspiring designers should be mindful of.

I’ll take my observations and learnings from my bootcamp mentorship and share them here with you today.

1. Working cross-functionality with product managers, engineers, researchers, and UX writers.

Students are often placed in an incubator-like environment where they are working only with their teammates (consisting of other designers) and with the client. The drawback of this type of environment is that this is not always reflective of the real environment. UX designers are frequently balancing the likes and needs of the user and the product manager while working within the technical bounds defined by the engineers.

What happens when your design gets handed off to development and then engineers come back to inform you of an API constraint? Or what if your product manager comes back to inform you the scope is expanding and we’ll need to revisit the drawing board? This happens more often than you think and being communicative, adaptable, and proactive are key traits to successfully navigating cross-functional relationships.

2. Designing within extremely complex circumstances or edge cases.

From my experience mentoring UX bootcamp students, they are often paired with clients whose use cases are extremely broad. For example, “As a user, I’d like to sign up for an account”. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the use case itself, this is usually the most specific I’ve seen it get, and therefore students have limited exposure to designing complex cases. Students end up utilizing what I call “safe knowledge” which is applying what they’ve always been known and taught to the work and not being put in a position where that is challenged. In the sign-up use case example, it’s fair to say most designers of all levels know what a standard sign-up page looks like on an app. It’ll have an email field, a password field, a forgot your password, and maybe even some third-party sign-up methods like Google, Facebook, and so forth.

In a real environment, the case usually is never that simple. The flow is much deeper, more multi-step, and also more phased out. There are legal and compliance constraints, strict third-party API rules, required form fields for data capture, and business-specific features such as referral codes or something else.

All this to say, this experience isn’t something UX bootcamps can provide you. Realistically, you can only get this experience from working in the field, in your first or second UX job.

3. Designing within an existing design system

I’ve mentored many junior designers who are paired with clients that are start-ups with no design system in place or barely have any branding in place. What this typically results in, are junior designers being tasked with designing the system themselves, coming up with the client’s color palette, style guide, and design system rules. While there are many cases in the real environment where you may be the sole designer driving the company’s design system from the ground up, more often than not, designers are often working within the confines of the company’s pre-existing design system. This is especially true if you are ultimately trying to work at a pre-established mid-to-large-size company.

Design systems are often seen as a library of components, however, there’s so much more than just the components. It’s the why and how. Each component has a function, a specific set of use cases, and its technical limitations. The next most important thing to acknowledge is that no design system is perfect. Almost all of them have shortcomings and need improvement. Especially if you’re inheriting a design system that does not have a systemized process in place for updates.

Design systems are constantly evolving as the product evolves and the needs of the users evolve. This makes it all the more important to achieve competency in working with various design systems and the unique limitations that they possess. It’s one thing to plug and play with components from the design system and it’s another thing to utilize the system to develop a quality design and to also know when to challenge the existing system.

It is important to acknowledge that UX bootcamps cannot guarantee you these experiences. If you come across a bootcamp that does promise these things or promises that you’ll enter the market as a mid-level UX designer with a six-figure job, it’s simply not true. A bootcamp serves as foundational knowledge and it cannot be the only means to success. If you’re considering a UX bootcamp vs. self-taught, you can read my 5 Takeaways on Pursuing UX Design Without a Bootcamp. If you are a bootcamp grad, the learning doesn’t stop here. Continue seeking real-world UX experience, asking questions, and learning from your design peers.

Thanks for reading!

🤝🏼You can learn more about my UX work here and connect with me on LinkedIn.
💬 Always welcome your thoughts or a conversation below!