According to Ketterman, who took the academy path himself, even if you try to participate in forums or start your own study group, these programs are mostly made up of adults switching careers who do not prioritize extra socializing with fellow students.
The bootcamp approach most design academies employ does not allow to adequately train students for real-world jobs, and the “Our 12-week course will launch your design career!” slogans appear to be nothing more than exaggerated marketing. Having those unrealistic expectations, students of the academies are often disappointed when they can’t land a job or are ill-equipped for it, having problems with managers and team members. Valuable wisdom that can be gained through a sit-up with an industry-tested mentor can’t be extracted from a video library.
“Basically, students are just buying a certificate, but it’s useless,” concludes Philips. “They’re designed for quantity over quality. No industry professional takes those types of 12-week “UX Design Certificates” seriously.” Designed purely to “productize” education, such programs attract people with low fees that will boost companies’ bottom line.
However, experts agree that if the online model is rolled to more lengthy and detailed programs, it could develop into a new primary educational paradigm.
Philips claims that brick-and-mortar design education institutions are nothing but relics of the past, “echoes of the industrial age, similar to factories, offices, retailers, and so on,” that are “going the way of the dinosaurs.” In his opinion, the best design schools of the future will combine personalized, online courses at varying depths with an awareness of local languages, customs, and cultures. As design education is moving from physical campuses to the web and becomes accessible in the far corners of the world, the curriculum needs to consider cultural differences and courses must be tailored to local customs and cultures.
Does this mean that traditional brick-and-mortar design schools will soon grow obsolete and have to go? Bowers believes that through radical actions institutions “stuck in a rut of ritualistic methodology” can establish themselves in the realm of design education of the future. He outlines several solutions meant to keep them in business. Addressing the problem of high tuition fees, he suggests adopting an accelerated program, somewhere between 48 and 72 weeks, cutting all classes that are not directly related to design theory, methodology, or application. This, he hopes, will help designer students to avoid acquiring debt on unnecessary classes, as the bulk of their training will be accomplished in one year of study instead of a traditional four-year journey.
Aiming to prepare students for challenges of real-world workplaces, Bowers proposes to emulate the journeyman model utilized by the building trades. He thinks that allowing students to work at semester-long projects creates poor time management habits. These, according to Bowers, could be replaced with new mini-projects every week addressing a specific area of design process within a larger, team-oriented effort, e.g. user research or visual design. Rotating students through clearly defined and interdependent design roles, with a professor adopting the role of a creative director rather than an instructor or “educational facilitator”, would also help students to be better trained for the job.
All experts agree about the importance of an opportunity to collaborate with experienced, senior-level professionals during years of study. For students, working with mentors in parallel with their learning is very helpful because they can critique portfolios, share stories from the field, and help make professional connections. Besides, industry people could consult and advise institutions on their design curriculum to make it more applicable to the requirements of the profession.
Real-world work and internship should also be included in the design education to provide the valuable practice of on-the-job training. “At some point, you’ll have to move on from the safe confines of class projects and gain exposure to real-world work. Even if that means doing some pro-bono work, do it. There’s no substitute for working with real clients—taking their feedback, questions, and criticisms and using them to refine your work,” Ketterman advises.
It is obvious that design education paradigm is changing. The traditional design school must change or it will be replaced with a new approach that will more capably address resources and and professional development of aspiring designers. It is not year clear what form the coming paradigm will take but some things are certain. If aspiring designers hope to start a fruitful career, they must take the initiative for their training, try various design roles, learn soft skills to interact with peers, and seek advice from trustworthy design mentors.