Track 07 — The Prototype Lab
UI/UX Design
The shortest honest route to designing software. Nine weeks on the part of the job a product team actually hires for — talking to users, structuring a screen, building it properly in Figma, and explaining why you made each decision. No brand identity, no print work, no Illustrator.
( What you'll learn )
What a UI/UX designer actually does
Where design sits between users, engineering and the business — and which parts of the job get you hired. Includes an honest look at what this track does not cover.
Interface fundamentals
Layout, hierarchy, spacing, alignment and contrast — the small number of rules that make a screen readable, and how to spot which one a bad screen is breaking.
UX research you can do in a week
Five-user interviews, task analysis and usability testing on a budget of zero. How to ask a question that does not lead the answer.
Information architecture & flows
Turning a messy problem into screens and routes. Sitemaps, user flows, edge cases and the states everyone forgets — empty, loading, error.
Wireframing
Low fidelity on purpose. Working out structure while it is still cheap to change, and getting feedback before anything looks finished.
Figma end to end
Auto layout, constraints, variables, components and variants — used the way a team uses them, so your file is editable by someone who is not you.
Design systems
Tokens, a type scale, a colour ramp and a component library. Why a system makes a designer faster rather than more constrained.
Prototyping & interaction
Clickable prototypes that survive a usability test, plus enough motion to communicate intent without decorating the screen.
Accessibility
Contrast, focus order, touch targets, labels and screen readers. Treated as part of the craft, not a checklist bolted on at the end.
Handoff & your case study
Specs and notes a developer can build from, then writing up the whole project as the case study that gets you interviews.
( Curriculum — 9 weeks )
Understand & structure
Before anything is drawn: who it is for, what they are trying to do, and what the screens need to be. This is the part beginners skip and professionals do not.
- What the role covers, and what it does not
- Layout, hierarchy, spacing, contrast
- Interviewing five users properly
- Task analysis and journey mapping
- Sitemaps and user flows
- Empty, loading and error states
- Low-fidelity wireframes
- Your first critique session
Build it in Figma
From wireframe to a high-fidelity, systematised file — built so another designer or a developer can pick it up without asking you questions.
- Auto layout and constraints
- Components, variants and properties
- Variables and a type scale
- A colour ramp that passes contrast
- Building a small design system
- Responsive screens without guessing
- Clickable prototyping
- Interaction and motion basics
Test, hand off, write it up
Putting the prototype in front of real people, fixing what breaks, and turning the whole thing into a case study that explains your decisions.
- Running a usability test
- Reading results without flattering yourself
- Accessibility pass: contrast, focus, labels
- Developer handoff notes and specs
- Structuring a case study
- Writing about your own decisions
- Portfolio page for the project
- Final review with a mentor
( Tools you'll master )
( Projects you'll build )
A redesign with evidence
Take an app that frustrates you, research why, and redesign the flow — with the interview notes and test results that justify every change.
A small design system
Tokens, type scale, colour ramp and a component library, built in Figma so someone else can use it without a handover call.
A product feature, end to end
One real feature from brief to prototype: flows, states, high-fidelity screens, usability test, and handoff notes a developer can build from.
One written case study
The capstone is the write-up. The problem, what you tried, what failed, what the testing changed, and what you would do next.
( Where this leads )
( Is this you? )
A good fit if
- You want the fastest honest route into product design — two months, one strong case study
- You are aiming at software: apps, dashboards, web products — not logos, print or packaging
- You are a developer, marketer or student who needs design skill for the work you already do
- You are willing to redo a screen after a usability test tells you it did not work
Probably not yet if
- You want brand identity, logos, print or illustration — take UI/UX & Graphic Designing instead, which covers all of it in four months
- You want to build a broad design portfolio rather than one deep case study — the four-month track is the better fit
- You expect to be job-ready as a senior designer in nine weeks; this gets you interview-ready as a junior
- You are not prepared to talk to actual users — research is most of the value here
Two months, one case study.
A junior design portfolio with six shallow projects loses to one project explained properly. Hiring managers read case studies to find out how you think, not to count how many screens you can produce — so this track spends its last two weeks on the write-up rather than starting something new.
If you want typography as a craft, colour theory, brand identity and graphic design as well, that is the four-month UI/UX & Graphic Designing track. This one is deliberately narrower.
( Reading on this track )
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