‘It's great for the price’: Reviewing Noble Desktop’s UX/UI bootcamp

Noble Desktop has been teaching the art of design for longer than many of its students have been alive. Since 1990, the school has helped thousands of individuals transform their passions into meaningful careers.

The company is a top player in UX/UI, earning the No. 1 spot on the inaugural Fortune Recommends ranking of the best UX/UI bootcamps. It earned the spot in part thanks to its relative affordability as well as financial and student success options.

Noble Desktop’s CEO, Mourad Kattan, credits the program’s credibility, adaptability, and long history in the space for its successes.

“Many of the bootcamps focus on just UX, we focus on both UX and UI,” says Kattan.

If you are weighing whether or not Noble Desktop is the right bootcamp program for you, Fortune has further details you need to know.

Noble Desktop UX/UI bootcamp program overview

Noble Desktop’s UX & UI Certificate is a 126-hour program, with offerings both online and in-person. Classes are notably held live over the course of six to 24 weeks (depending on full-time or part-time preference). Students can also access class recordings if they miss a session or want to review material—or they can even elect to retake the entire course for free after initial enrollment.

While the program does not offer a job guarantee or have internship placement, Kattan says alumni typically have great success at finding jobs, expanding freelance work, or upskilling within their existing roles. According to Noble Desktop’s LinkedIn, graduates now work at top companies such as Amazon, L’Oréal, and Capital One.

“Participants create their own portfolio of projects they can use when applying for jobs,” says Dan Rodney, Noble Desktop director, instructor, and curriculum developer. “Success to us is our graduates being able to use the skills they learn in their jobs or freelance careers.”

Noble Desktop’s curriculum and instructors

The curriculum at Noble Desktop is dynamic. For the first sessions, the instructor walks students hand-in-hand with projects based on the day’s lesson. Then, students are gradually let loose to work independently and get true first-hand experience on how to build projects from start to finish.

By the end, students will have multiple projects they can add to their own portfolio of evidence of their new capabilities. The program also has time built in for students to gain career guidance—including how to apply for jobs, how to effectively build cover letters, resumes, and portfolio, and how to master an interview. 

The textbooks are also notably written and published directly by Noble Desktop—and are so thorough that they historically have been utilized by colleges across the country in design coursework, according to Kattan.

During the live class time, it is not simply a lecture. The instructors encourage interaction, questions, and discussion. During the online course, students are allowed to share their work with others, share their screen, and walk through their thought process.

Collectively, the skills covered during the program include Skills covered include UX and UI Design principles, Figma, user testing, and prototyping, 

Noble Desktop’s transparency

Noble Desktop puts everything out there that you need to know.

The course syllabus, upcoming class schedule, payment options, and even student portfolio examples are all available on one webpage with easy navigation. For those with additional questions, they not only have an extensive frequently asked questions page, but they also have email and phone contacts listed on their website—and they actually respond (Fortune received responses within 24 hours of inquiries).

The bootcamp also has a page dedicated to its instructors—who have real world experience. Photographs and biographies are available for prospective students to see that real humans with real experience will be the ones teaching the experience they will be paying thousands of dollars for.

Student experience and outcomes

Both Kendyll Boback and Maggie Weidner are recent graduates of the Noble Desktop UX/UI bootcamp, and both cite affordability as one of the top factors that led them to the program.

“The bootcamp that Noble Desktop has, I think it’s great for the price,” Boback tells Fortune. “And it gives you a good start on everything that you need to know about those principles, and then you build up from there.”

Boback initially became interested in UX after graduating college and wasn’t exactly sure how she wanted to apply her healthcare degree. After exploring with free bootcamp opportunities, she began researching more extensive programs and eventually landed on Noble Desktop. Boback adds she also picked it as well due to its online flexibility, one-on-one interactions, and program length.

For Weidner, it isn’t her first rodeo with Noble Desktop. She initially took its graphic design program a few years ago, but returned to learn more about UX and UI in particular. 

Above all, Boback and Weidner both encourage individuals to explore the world of UX/UI via free offerings before spending thousands of dollars on a paid bootcamp. Weidner says she, for example, did not realize how much of an important role research plays in the design process.

“I think that was the most jarring thing going into the program that’s just like, oh my gosh, there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that I didn’t realize, and I think that was really beneficial to sort of what I took out of the class,” she says.

Boback explains the program did not emphasize career services as much as she expected. While advice is provided on how to get internships and jobs, no direct connections are made and students are somewhat on their own to build their portfolios. However, she says the more affordable bootcamp price reflects this.

Now as a customer success manager at a medical device company, Boback uses her newfound UX/UI design skills as she leads a team in onboarding individuals on a new mobile app. Weidner works at a design studio in San Francisco.

“People’s time is valuable, and we want to get them jump-started with practical knowledge,” Rodney says. “It’s one of the reasons Noble Desktop has stood the test of time and continues to thrive as we watch other schools and programs come and go.”

Is the Noble Desktop UX/UI bootcamp it worth it? 

For those wanting an affordable way to learn UX/UI skills from a company that has been in the space for decades, Noble Desktop is certainly a safe bet. Having synchronous classes (including with options: full vs. part time and online vs. in-person) is one large added benefit since students can get help when they’re stuck, ask questions and get immediate responses, and collectively learn with peers.

Noble Desktop is especially good for those with a little bit more independence when it comes to the job search. Participants are allowed six 1-1 mentorship sessions where they are walked through advice on applying for jobs, internships, resume and portfolio building, etc. 

While there is not any structured job or internship placement, students still have opportunities to connect with the thousands of Noble Desktop alumni and potentially land the job of their dreams with a well-known bootcamp education to back them up.