Hi, I’m Elle! I work as a product designer at Getaround and as an industry mentor here at Pathrise, where I help our fellows land great jobs in product design through technical workshops and 1-on-1s. Check out my review of Memorisely.
- What does Memorisely do?
- Who is Memorisely for?
- What does Memorisely cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Memorisely
- Alternatives to Memorisely
- How does Memorisely compare to Pathrise?
What does Memorisely do?
Memorisely is an online tech bootcamp that teaches people the skills they need to launch a new career as a UX designer. They offer a part-time course on UX/UI design and a shorter, part-time course on design systems. Class sizes are extremely small, with only about 10 students per cohort. All students meet on Zoom for live classes, either from 7am to 9pm EST or 2pm to 4pm EST. The curriculum is extremely hands-on, with a firm no PowerPoint policy. An active Slack channel is also available for Q&A and collaboration with other students.
UX/UI design
The flexible UX/UI design course lasts 10 weeks with live classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. However, before beginning the bootcamp, students have to do pre-work that includes meeting the 9 other students in their course via Slack, completing a reading list, finishing some UX/UI prep tasks, writing UX/UI Medium articles on the finished tasks, learning UX/UI foundations, and creating accounts on software tools like Notion, Figma, Miro, Loom, and Maze.
During the course, students learn all about UX/UI tools, workflows, and best practices as they build 3 polished portfolio projects to help them become a UX designer by landing a great job. The curriculum also covers design thinking, rapid prototyping, Notion, mapping user flows, Figma, user surveying with Typeform, mobile app design, how to ideate/sketch solutions in Miro, and much more. After learning more about mobile app development, the final 2 weeks of the course are a “sprint”. Students solve group challenges and critique each others’ work.
The last week of the UX/UI course focuses on career services and job support. Students build a strong UX design portfolio, launch their portfolios on a custom domain, optimize their LinkedIn profiles with effective keywords, and apply for 5+ UX/UI jobs with instructor assistance. The graduation ceremony can also be a great networking opportunity as Memorisely invites alumni speakers and local professionals over Zoom. All grads get a formal certificate that they can add to their Linkedin profile and resume.
Design systems
Students in the part-time design system course meet for 5 weeks with live classes on Monday, plus instructor 1-on-1 time on Thursdays. Before starting the course, students complete pre-work that includes meeting their classmates on Slack, familiarizing themselves with some simple design systems, completing short design system prep tasks, and creating accounts on Notion, Figma, and Loom. The curriculum covers design system fundamentals like Figma, color types, opacity ranges, type styles, scales for headings/text, grid styles for different devices, columns, rows, shadow ranges, spacing ranges, plus media and nested components. By the end of the course, students will have built scalable design systems with Figma and Notion that they can add to their professional design portfolios to help them land a job. However, this 5 week program does not include career services.
Who is Memorisely for?
The courses are designed to help people with little to no design experience learn the skills they need to land a design system or UX design job. Their program is especially helpful for students seeking small sizes and for people who want a flexible, part-time program they can complete while working a full-time job. In addition, they update their curriculum frequently, so the course could be a good fit for current designers looking to learn the latest design tools, workflows, and design best practices.
What does Memorisely cost? How much work is involved?
The 10-week UX/UI fundamentals course costs $2,100 upfront. Students can also choose to pay in 3 monthly installments of $916 for a total of $2,750. The 5-week design system course costs $650 upfront. A monthly payment plan with 3 payments of $250 is also available.
Unlike many other bootcamps, there is no formal admissions process. However, since cohorts are small, courses can fill up very quickly. While classes usually feature students of many different experience levels, no formal experience is required. Pre-work can usually get anyone up to speed.
Ratings and reviews
Memorisely is fairly new and does not have many reviews yet, but so far the reception has been positive. They hold a 4.91/5 star rating on Switchup, where grads praise the hands-on curriculum, small class sizes, and dedicated instructor team. A recent review raved about the project-based curriculum with a mix of theoretical concepts. She was happy to learn “actionable steps I could follow simply and generate great results.” She also felt that the curriculum “allowed me to translate all of the exercises and insights into my work” and she easily “got a new job!” However, although this grad was confident that enrolling was “the best decision I ever made” she only rated the job support 3/5 stars.
Another grad was convinced Memorisely has “the best instructors” whom she described as “energetic, patient, and kind.” She also loved their curriculum design, commenting that the course staff “puts in the time and effort to make the class personable, interactive, and fun.” The course also claims a 100% graduation rate, attributed to their small class sizes. They host positive reviews on their own website as well. Overall, grads seemed very satisfied with the design skills and support they took away from the program, though a few students may have preferred if the job support lasted longer than 1 week.
Alternatives to Memorisely
If you decide not to enroll in Memorisely, there are a number of alternative bootcamps and resources that can help you launch a new career in design.
- People seeking online self-paced or instructor-led design courses can check out DesignerUp. Students get 1-on-1 mentoring and an accredited design certificate they can add to their LinkedIn profiles or resumes. Learn more about DesignerUp in our review.
- Aspiring designers can also check out Designlab. Students in their bootcamp work with an industry mentor and a career coach. Their curriculum is also hands-on like Memorisely. Read more about Designlab in our review.
- Students seeking a flexible online design program can look into Bloc. They teach web design and web dev with a hands-on curriculum and 1-on-1 mentoring. Students build projects they can add to their portfolios.
- Similarly, Springboard is an online educational resource that hosts courses on UX design and plenty of other tech subjects. Their program includes 1-on-1 mentoring and lots of opportunities to build design portfolios. If students don’t land a tech job within 6 months of graduating, they get a refund. Learn more about Springboard in our review.
- If you prefer bootcamps, Thinkful has tracks in UX/UI design, software engineering, and data science. Their program includes 1-on-1 mentorship and project-based curricula.
- Aspiring UX designers and software engineers seeking a full-time bootcamp can also look into Kenzie Academy. Although their program is likely much more intensive than Memorisely’s flexible courses, it is fast paced with lots of hands-on learning and job support. Read more about Kenzie Academy in our program review.
- Similarly, Prime Digital Academy and Georgia Tech Bootcamp have full-time courses on software engineering and UX design.
More alternatives
- The popular bootcamp General Assembly offers full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on tech topics like UX design. Their program includes 1-on-1 mentoring, a massive alumni network, and 19,000+ hiring partners. Learn more about General Assembly in our review.
- Similarly, BrainStation is a well-known bootcamp that has tracks in UX/UI design and many other tech topics. Like Memorisely, their program is hands-on with lots of opportunities for students to build design portfolios.
- The design resource Gymnasium hosts courses on UX design as well. Many of their courses are offered for free and provide real work experience for students. Likewise, Design Sprint School has online, self-paced courses.
- Likewise, Avocademy is an online design bootcamp that helps students build up their portfolios.
- The self-paced learning platform Udacity teaches courses on UX design with both technical mentoring and career coaching. Their program is hands-on with opportunities to build design portfolios. Read more about Udacity in our review.
- The massive online learning platform Coursera offers 3,900+ courses taught by professors at accredited universities. Like Memorisely, their program is remote and self-paced. They offer both free and paid options, with over 100 UX courses.
- Similarly, edX is an online learning platform with UX design courses. They host 3,000+ self-paced courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT, and even top tech companies like Microsoft. Find out if edX is right for your career goals in our review.
How does Memorisely compare to Pathrise?
Memorisely is a bootcamp for people who want to launch a new career in design. The course is designed for people who have no experience in the field. Fellows in the Pathrise program should already have some background in their chosen field to get the most out of our technical curriculum.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that helps people land their dream tech job. Our mentors have experience on both sides of the hiring table, having already helped 1,000+ people land great roles. Mentors work 1-on-1 with fellows on all phases of the job search, including resumes & portfolio optimization, reverse recruiting and cold emails, behavioral and technical interview preparation, salary negotiation, and more.
Our program is flexible. There are just 2-4 hours of group sessions per week and fellows can schedule 1-on-1 sessions as needed. The Pathrise income share agreement (ISA) means that fellows don’t pay anything until they land a job they love and start working. On average, fellows in our program land a job in just 3-5 months. We never require any upfront payments or deposits.
Pathrise optimizes the job search through 1-on-1 mentoring and technical training. Fellows in our program can see their interview scores double and their application responses triple. If you are interested in working with one of our experienced mentors to land your dream job faster, join Pathrise.
Apply today.
