Break into tech with

UX Design

Gain skills and a Google Certificate in 20 weeks without quitting your day job. Pay $0 upfront.

20 weeks
20 hours/week

Why This Course

As the digital product industry grows, user experience (UX) designers are in demand across a variety of industries, including technology, finance, advertising, and start-ups. UX designers help build products like websites, apps, and physical objects. Their goal is to make people’s interactions with those products useful, enjoyable, and accessible. This course will prepare you for a career in the field by teaching you entry-level skills, including: understanding what makes existing products difficult to use, exploring what can make people’s experiences great, and designing wireframes, mockups, and prototypes to bring those ideas to life. With these skills, you will be prepared to continue your journey as a generalist or a specialist in a variety of UX design-related roles, including: visual designer, interaction designer, UI designer, UX researcher, product designer, and more.

Benefits of the field:

• High salaries

• Growth Potential

• Flexibility

• Engaging, challenging work

Our alums work for the world’s top tech companies

Get started with $0 upfront

Build a career based on your potential, not your bank account.

$0 Upfront

Learn in-demand skills
Land a great job
Pay only after the program
Support the next class

Learn on your time, from anywhere, while keeping your day job

Your third-party coursework and Merit America career coaching services are online. Live meetings are only 3-5 hours per week. You can complete the coursework in-between shifts, on weekends – whatever works for your life.

Monday, January 10

Merit America Program

At Work 8am – 3pm
Online Coursework 3pm – 5pm
Daycare pick-up 5:15pm
Family Dinner 6pm
1:1 Career Coaching 8pm

Work with a team dedicated to your success

Meet regularly with a career coach and squad of your peers to keep you on track. After you finish, you’ll join a network of hundreds of Merit America alumni.

Joining…

Joining…

Joining…

Michael, Career Coach
How’s your coursework going this week?
Cora
I’m really struggling with my resume…
Michael, Career Coach
You’ve got this! Let me connect you with our job success coach, Teresa.

Also, something to look forward to: you’re only one week away from completing your Google Certificate!

How does Merit America Compare?

	Merit America	Tech Bootcamp	Community College
Course Length	20 weeks	20-24 weeks	50-100 weeks
In person/Remote	Remote	Remote	In-person/Remote
Part-time?	20 hours	Varies	Varies
Maximum Payment/Tuition	$5,700	$16,000-$19,000	$5,000-$10,000
Certificate	Google UX Design Certificate	Varies	Yes
Organization Type	Non-profit (Merit America collaborates with for-profits)	For-profit	For-profit or Non-profit
Coaching and Job Search Support	Yes	Yes	Varies
Downside Protection	Yes	Varies	No

Ready to get started?

Apply for an upcoming
UX Design cohort

Apply for October 2023

Earn a Google Certificate to get the skills employers are looking for

UX Foundations

Core Principles of Design

Understand human-centered design and equity-focused principles. Learn about cross-functional team collaboration. Practice end-to-end process including: (1) empathy and research; (2) problem definition; (3) collaborative ideation; (4) mapping and mock-ups; and (5) prototyping and testing. Get exposed to visual design craft, and understand the unique qualities of responsive and cross-device design.

UX Specialization

UX Specialization

Strengthen your technical skills by learning professional applications like Figma and AdobeXD. Learn special techniques for ideation and user-centric problem-solving, including HMWs, crazy eights, journey-mapping, storyboarding, wireframing, low-/high-fidelity prototypes and prototype testing. Practice special research methodologies for building empathy, including: user interviews, surveys, usability and competitive auditing.

Professional Skills

Mastering the job search

Complete true-to-life UX projects, including a mobile app, an app optimization, a responsive website, and a design for social good. Showcase that work in a portfolio you will build. Then standout in the interview process by working with your Merit America coaching team to create an effective resume and cover letter, and learn the best way to answer common UX design interview questions.

Want to know more?

Enter your email to download the detailed course syllabus.

Signup complete.

Thank you for signing up!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the training in-person, online or both?

The training is 100 percent online, but it’s interactive. You will complete your Google certificate program on the Coursera platform. You will interact with your squad and access career coaching services through the Merit America platform. Both provide a blended online learning environment where you will participate in live virtual meetings and complete coursework independently online through industry-recognized partners, like Google.

You will leverage learning tools such as the widely used digital workplace platforms and software, including: Zoom, Slack, Google Suite, and our customized Merit America Learner Portal.

What are the admission requirements?

To be eligible for any of Merit America’s programs, the following must be true:

You have a high school diploma or GED but no bachelor’s degree.
Associate degree holders are welcome.
Bachelor’s degree holders are not eligible unless both of the following are true: Bachelor’s degree was received over 5 years ago and your income over the past 12 months was less than $35,000 due to unemployment or underemployment.
You do not have a graduate degree.
You are a fluent English speaker, reader, and writer.
You are a resident of the U.S. and authorized to work in the U.S.
You will be seeking full-time employment upon completion of the program.
You have access to a desktop or laptop computer that can connect to the internet.

What does a typical week look like at Merit America?

Merit America programs are flexible to fit into your busy schedule. For the UX Design program, you’ll spend about 18 hours in online coursework and 2 hours working on professional skill development with the help of your career coach, technical coach, and a squad of your peers.

The sessions are usually after typical business hours, and the coursework can be completed whenever you have free time.

What kind of support will I receive during the course?

When you join Merit America, there’s a team dedicated to your success.

Your program success manager and career coach helps you develop the professional skills you need to succeed in the job market, and will work with you to chart your career path.

Your cohort is made up of talented people just like you, and you’ll work alongside them to complete coursework and develop projects.

Your job success specialist will help you find job opportunities that match your interests and skills. We also have an employer partnerships team that sources jobs directly from employers that are made for Merit America alumni.

Can you guarantee me a job?

We can’t guarantee job placement or salaries, but we do provide you with a structured training curriculum, professional career development, and dedicated job-placement support. Because of this, the majority of job-seeking alumni are placed in new jobs within three months of completion.

But we can guarantee you won’t have to pay if you don’t obtain employment within 2 years after completing the Immersion phase of your program as defined in our Tuition Refund Guarantee.

What will I learn?

UX Design

Jump to

Why This Course

Our alums work for the world’s top tech companies

Get started with $0 upfront

Learn on your time, from anywhere, while keeping your day job