Get Real-World UX Experience LIVE 3-Day Masterclass

This is a LIVE, multi-day workshop that takes place over 3 weeks with a small group.

This workshop is for you if you have not yet found traction in your career-change to UX Design. In 3 sessions over 3 weeks, we will work together to get you real world, industry-recognized, hands-on experience with a real client.

Many early-career UX designers are finding themselves unable to get a role in their chosen career because of their lack of real-world experience doing hands-on UX work. This masterclass helps early-career designers get industry-recognized experience by delivering real value to small businesses.

This masterclass expands on the 2-hour workshop where I teach an end-to-end process for:

1. How to find a business you can bring value to at your current skill level
2. How to approach the business and pitch your services
3. How to sell a low-cost, high-value website evaluation
4. How to evaluate a website to identify usability issues and accessibility vulnerabilities
5. How to make improvement suggestions that will impact business metrics
6. How to prepare a slide deck and report covering your recommendations
7. How to deliver a stress-free stakeholder presentation
8. How to create a compelling case study for your portfolio

This masterclass is intended for UX designers who want to do the work that gets them the job they seek.

By the end of this masterclass, you will have completed a project that demonstrates your knowledge and experience to a future hiring manager. You might even find that freelancing is your path, and will have experience applying this replicable process for finding and landing clients and delivering high-quality work.

Dates and Times

This masterclass is ideal for designers in the US time zones. Classes will take place from 9am-12pm PACIFIC TIME ZONE

• Day 1: Saturday, May 25
• Day 2: Saturday, June 1
• Day 3: Saturday, June 8

Here's the format of the Masterclass:

On Day 1, we will work together to complete several hands-on activities:

• Strategic Outreach Planning: creating your individual list of outreach targets, companies you will offer your website evaluation services to that serve industries you want to focus on for your career.
• Elevator Pitch Development: developing your personal "Elevator Pitch" to introduce yourself and what you do to a potential client.
• Elevator Pitch Practice: you'll practice delivering your pitch and get feedback on delivery and refinement. Homework for Day 1 includes contacting potential customers and offering your services.

On Day 2, we will conduct a thorough website usability and accessibility evaluation.

• Learn How to Evaluate a Website Properly: You'll get experience running the process from start to finish, including defining the details of what you're looking for regarding accessibility and usability.
• Every Question Answered: Every question you have about the spreadsheet and how to assess specific scenarios will be answered in the context of real websites.
• Accessibility and Usability Resources: The spreadsheet has over 170 checklist items, and each of those has an explanation for how it relates to the WCAG 2.1, examples of what it looks like in a UI and the impact on users with disabilities.

On Day 3, we will synthesize the evaluation findings and practice mock presentations:

• Identifying High-Impact Issues: we will analyze the results of the evaluations conducted on Day 2, together and individually. You'll get experience prioritizing issues that matter to the business including financial and legal impacts.
• Recommendation Development: we'll go through the creative process of ideating practical solutions for the highest-priority issue you've found on the customer's website and how to explain and demonstrate them for stakeholders.
• Mock Stakeholder Presentation: you will practice delivering your findings in preparation for delivering the same presentation to actual stakeholders based on the work you did to evaluate their website. You'll get actionable and supportive feedback on delivery, and feel prepared to deliver a professional presentation.

By the end of this three-week Masterclass, you will have a real-world case study in your portfolio.

By the end of this three-week Masterclass, you will have a real-world case study in your portfolio demonstrating your understanding of usability and accessibility requirements, the business impact of UX design, the UX design methods you would apply to do the work required and an estimation of the time and effort needed to deliver results. You'll also have a pitch ready for the business whose website you evaluated to do the work fixing the issues you found.

You'll be fully prepared to:

• Continue a career as a freelancer, confident in your ability to deliver impact for small businesses and keep growing.
• Present your skills and knowledge in a way that stands out from the crowd of bootcamp graduates and unskilled juniors in a competitive job market.

Bonus: Presentation Debriefing and Next Steps

After the workshop is finished, your next steps will be to deliver the work you completed to the client you found in Week 1. But then what? After all attendees have had the chance to reconnect with their stakeholders, we'll come together for one final meeting (optional) to talk about how the presentation went and what to do next. You'll either pitch your services to do the work to address the issues found in the evaluation or you'll find another client and repeat the process.

Are you ready to get real world UX experience?

Spaces are limited. Prices will increase for future masterclasses.