Making Unicorns a Reality: Kickstarting a New School Just for User Experience Design
Posted in: Kickstarter
User experience design has quickly become a critical skill in fields ranging from software development to industrial design, but how can a designer already enmeshed in their career make a pivot toward UX? While traditional design schools are beginning to incorporate this area of interest into their curricula, sometimes one class isn’t enough.
The Unicorn Institute is a new initiative by Jared Spool, founder of pioneering user experience consulting firm User Interface Engineering, and Dr. Leslie Jensen-Inman, a Ph.D in Learning and Leadership, that aims to provide professional training for experience designers through classes tailored for the market’s needs. And while there’s value in studying design theory and methods, sometimes designers just want the practical experience that can get them to the next level in their career.
If their success on Kickstarter is any indication, Spool and Jensen-Inman have clearly struck a nerve: The Unicorn Institute has brought in over $70,000 so far, three and a half times its $20,000 goal. Most backers are content to put up a few bucks for “digital pixie dust”—a.k.a. wallpapers for a mobile, tablet and desktop—or “digital awesomeness,” the $50 tier, which includes a series of books on experience design; higher reward levels include access to the classes as they become available.
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