Springboard UI/UX Career Track: Is It Worth It?

As we usher in a new era of digital transformation, businesses are scrambling to keep up with the trends and expand their reach online. Crucial to this is the creation of a positive user experience and gainful user involvement. If you’re unfamiliar with both, don’t fret as we introduce you to the Springboard UI/UX Career Track.

In this article, we examine the Springboard UI/UX career track from top to bottom, from its curriculum, cost, and all the features in between. We also walk you through Springboard itself and what its alumni have to say about the program. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s dig in.

What Is Springboard?

Founded in 2013, Springboard is an online learning platform that offers short-term programs designed to prepare students for today’s most in-demand tech jobs. Its fully-online and self-paced learning model seeks to reach students globally without the barriers that exist in brick-and-mortar institutions.

Springboard Career Tracks

At present, Springboard offers eight immersive programs or ‘career tracks.’ These fall under three categories: data, coding, and design. The career tracks last between six and nine months and cost between $5,500 and $10,000.

While the price may seem steep for short-term programs, this is offset by other features embedded within the programs.

Springboard Real-World Projects

Springboard’s career tracks offer project-based curricula that go beyond theory and emphasize practical, hands-on learning. This way, students can easily shift from the virtual classroom to the workplace. Depending on the career track you choose, you may find yourself building applications and web pages, analyzing data, and developing a design prototype.

By the end of the course, you’ll have a portfolio of projects that you can show to your prospective employers. A portfolio is a great way to demonstrate your ability to apply the skills and knowledge you’ve learned in solving real-life problems.

Springboard Mentorship

Aside from a rigorous curriculum, Springboard also imparts personal support to its students through mentor-guided learning. Every week, students get guided one-on-one calls with their personal mentors. These mentors are industry experts. That means they have the expertise needed to ensure that students have an accurate understanding of the concepts they’re taught.

Springboard Career Services

The Springboard support doesn’t stop once students receive their certificate of completion. Springboard helps its students launch a career for six months after the program.

Its career services are predominantly composed of 1:1 career coaching. During this time, students learn to craft their resume and LinkedIn profile, build their personal brand, ace job interviews, and negotiate their salary.

What if, despite going through the entire job-search process, you still find yourself unable to secure a job? This is where Springboard offers another appealing proposition: its money-back guarantee. Put simply, you get a full-tuition refund, provided that you meet the eligibility requirements.

Now that you know what the Springboard career tracks offer, it’s time to dive deep into our primary concern for the day. That is the Springboard UI/UX career track.

Springboard UI/UX Design: A Review

Customer satisfaction has been the number-one cliché in businesses, and it still holds true even in the virtual space. Perhaps it’s even more important today where customer interaction has been minimized to simply visiting a website.

LinkedIn seems to think so. In 2020, the jobs platform named User Experience (UX) design as the fifth most important hard skill in the workplace. In 2019, staffing agency Onward Search ranked User Interface (UI) designers as the third most in-demand talents, following digital product designers and UX designers.

The writing’s on the wall: UI/UX designers play an essential role in today’s job market. So, how does the Springboard UI/UX career track prepare you to become a UX designer or a UI designer?

Springboard UI/UX Career Track: The Curriculum

The Springboard UI/UX career track lasts for nine months and covers around 700 hours of coursework about UI and UX design roles. The Springboard UI/UX curriculum can be divided into nine modules, excluding the project and career components.

These modules include the following along with some topics covered:

• Foundations of design. This module covers the differences between UX and UI design and the core stages of design thinking. Also covered are the design tools, such as Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD.
• Designing, ideating, and information architecture. Topics include solution ideation, creating user stories, and information architecture.
• Foundations of UI design. Here, you learn about the visual principles, from balance and scale to alignment and visual hierarchy. You also cover UI principles, elements, and patterns.
• Sketching and Wireframing. You’ll learn what goes into the first step to creating high-fidelity designs. Topics include sketching principles, responsive design, and creating wire flows.

Besides learning design theories, you’ll also do four end-to-end projects. These are two capstone projects, one design sprint project, and an industry design project.

Springboard UI/UX Career Track: Cost and Payment Options

The cost of attendance is a key aspect to consider when choosing which program to enroll in. It’s essential to find a program that offers quality education and is within your budget.

The Springboard UI/UX career track costs $11,691. Below are the payment options that you can choose from.

• Upfront payment. An upfront payment at Springboard also comes with an upfront discount. Choose this method and get a 14 percent discount, taking your total down to $10,000.
• Deferred tuition plan. Pay a $700 refundable deposit at enrollment. Once you’re earning, pay $397 monthly for 36 months or until you reach $15,000.
• Monthly payment plan. Pay $1,299 monthly but only for the months that you need.
• Climb Credit loan. Springboard works with Climb Credit to provide students with loans.
• Scholarships. Springboard offers scholarships for women in tech and veterans.

Springboard UI/UX Career Track: Alumni Review

Former and current students have left plenty of Springboard reviews on BootcampRankings regarding its design program. As quoted from one of the reviewers:

“Springboard’s curriculum is a nicely curated selection of resources around the web that pay attention to the core concepts of UX design… I think the real star of the show is the 1:1 weekly mentor calls included in the course. [They] do well to provide a real voice to real-world experience and have the added bonus of keeping you on task.”

Another review said, “The content itself is easy to work through. [W]hen I did have a question regarding the curriculum, my mentor was able to quickly answer and clarify… There is so much more to learn, of course. But I feel I have the real-world skills to start incorporating these into my daily routine as a designer.”

Is the Springboard UI/UX Career Track Worth It?

Springboard offers a full slate of UI/UX training at a competitive price. Their financing options are flexible enough to allow students of varying financial backgrounds to participate in the course. Not to mention how its self-paced format makes it highly convenient for working professionals.

By and large, Springboard’s UI/UX design course is a great choice for busy professionals and tech hopefuls.

UI/UX Design FAQ