UX Career Ready

Empowering people through UX Design Education

Title

Lead UX Design Instructor

Time frame

July 2022 - Nov 2022

Summary

I led a cohort of 15 students through an intensive UX Design program at General Assembly. My role involved delivering structured lessons, mentoring, coaching, and evaluating student projects to ensure comprehension, confidence, and capability. By the end of the program, 95% of graduates successfully secured their first UX roles within 1 year of graduation.

I led a cohort of 15 students through an intensive UX Design program at General Assembly. My role involved delivering structured lessons, mentoring, coaching, and evaluating student projects to ensure comprehension, confidence, and capability. By the end of the program, 95% of graduates successfully secured their first UX roles within 1 year of graduation.

Results

Through a combination of strategic instruction, hands-on projects, and personalized mentorship, students achieved measurable outcomes:

Thanks to structured lessons, constructive feedback, and consistent coaching, students were able to confidently present their UX portfolios during job interviews.

84% secured their first UX role within six months of graduation.

Students built 3 comprehensive projects demonstrating UX principles to use in their portfolios

Students achieved proficiency in Figma, mastering key design tools.

Empathize

Define

Ideate

Prototyping

Test

Challenge

Students entered the program with varying levels of experience, requiring tailored instruction and individualized mentorship

My challenge was to bridge these gaps through clear instruction, engaging projects, and motivational coaching.

Knowledge Gaps: Many students had limited or no prior UX knowledge.

Diverse Backgrounds: The cohort included creative professionals, recent graduates, and mid-career professionals from unrelated fields.

Technical Proficiency: Proficiency in design tools like Figma was a key learning curve.

Career Readiness: Students needed guidance in preparing portfolios and resumes for job applications.

User experience design is a strategic process that intentionally improves the customer experience.

Strategy

To address the cohort's unique needs, I implemented the following strategies:

Structured Curriculum: Delivered 14 hours of weekly instruction covering UX fundamentals, frameworks, research, usability studies, and design systems

Hands-On Projects: Guided students through 3 major projects focusing on wireframes, mockups, and responsive designs

User Feedback Loops: Encouraged iterative improvement through regular critiques and evaluations

Clear Evaluation Metrics: Provided transparent grading criteria focused on content, strategy, UI, and efficacy

One-on-One Mentorship: Offered individualized coaching sessions to address specific challenges and career concerns

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Lessons

Projects

Tools

Evaluation

Career

Process

The UX professional program was structured around key milestones:

Lessons: Delivered comprehensive instruction on UX frameworks, visual design, and research methodologies.

Projects: Each project was created around helping them understand design systems, responsive mockups, prototyping, and realistic projects involving helping local businesses

Evaluation: Each project was scored based on predefined criteria and followed by constructive feedback sessions

Tools: Students developed proficiency in Figma for wireframing, prototyping, and UI design

Career Readiness: Supported students in creating digital portfolios and preparing resumes for job applications

“Alexandra is an amazing communicator. She combines her positive attitude with a proactive and observant approach. Her lessons were well-prepared and really taught how to make a meaningful impact in the user experience.”

“Alexandra’s knowledge, passion, and engaging personality shine in every conversation. She is keenly aware of how to extract insights. Her constructive feedback and encouragement truly inspired me to to my best.”

Learnings

This program really helped me to hone my teaching, coaching, and mentoring skills to help the students develop their UX capabilities.

Clear Communication is Key: Students thrived when given clear expectations and structured feedback.

Hands-On Practice Drives Mastery: Real-world projects solidified theoretical knowledge.

Coaching Builds Confidence: Emotional and professional support encouraged students to embrace challenges.

Collaboration is Essential: Group projects fostered teamwork and cross-functional communication.

Coaching involved giving students moral support as they were going through the learning curve. I helped hem to develop a growth mindset to strengthen their resiliency and tenacity to excel with their future UX responsibilities.

Expressive. Innovative. Strategist. Leader.

Expressive. Innovative. Strategist. Leader.

Expressive. Innovative. Strategist. Leader.