Tag: UX Design

When Rie Kato and Maria Inês Pires started their final project, they were career changers learning product design. Six weeks later, they were offered consultant roles with the business they’d just designed for.

In six months, Rie Kato went from Senior Account Executive in public relations to confidently calling herself a product designer. Maria Inês Pires evolved her creative practice, bringing strategic, human-centred UX thinking into her brand design work. And before the programme even ended, both had been offered freelance consultant contracts with the health diagnostics start-up they’d just designed for.

That’s what became possible during the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator – specifically during the final Employer Project, where learners work directly with a real business. For Rie and Maria, that business was Salient Bioscience, an award-winning biotech company seeking to redesign its patient registration and results experience.

This is the story of how a live brief became a launchpad, and how academic rigour, practical learning, and real-world opportunity came together to change two careers.

Why learners choose King’s 

The King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator is a six-month, part-time online programme created by King’s College London in collaboration with FourthRev. Learners move from user research and journey mapping to prototyping and high-fidelity design, applying everything in a live Employer Project with a real industry partner and dedicated support throughout.

That combination of academic rigour and practical experience, and the chance to build a portfolio of real work, was what drew Rie and Maria in.

Rie was looking for something credible and immediately applicable.

She also valued the depth of learning that came from studying with a world-leading university.

“Because it’s in collaboration with King’s, the course combines academic depth with practical application – guiding you through the theory, logic, and real-world implementation of UX.”

For Maria, who had worked with brands such as TikTok and Cult Beauty, it was about taking her design expertise to a more strategic, user-centred level. Both learners were ready to redirect their professional paths and to see where real-world experience could take them.

The employer challenge: Making science understandable

For Salient Bioscience, partnering with King’s and FourthRev offered a chance to explore how UX design could make scientific complexity feel clear, human, and actionable.

The start-up’s Scientific Lead, Rob Bradley, explained that his team wanted specialist UX perspectives to improve how patients interact with test results and registration forms.

The brief to the learners was precise: redesign the patient registration and results experience to help users navigate complex medical information with confidence. The goal was to make results actionable, not overwhelming, while maintaining scientific accuracy and trust.

For Salient Bio, collaborating with external product designers went beyond simply refining a process – it helped reimagine how patients engage with their health information, creating a more intuitive and meaningful experience in what can often feel like an overwhelming and complex journey.

Inside the project

Working in teams, learners approached the challenge from multiple user perspectives, applying the full UX and UI design process they’d developed throughout the programme.

In a unique opportunity specific to this Employer Project, the Salient Bio team invited learners to visit their London lab, giving the teams a chance to see the diagnostic process up close and connect design decisions to real workflows.

That visit helped the teams see the product from the user’s point of view and ground their design decisions in real context. Working collaboratively also helped Maria see the parallels between the classroom and the workplace.

“I found it valuable to work in a group because once you go into an actual project in a job, you’ll be working in a team with people who have different experiences, strengths, and needs.”

For Rie, the Employer Project was a clear milestone – the point where her learning turned into confidence.

The design outcome

Across all teams, the learners’ prototypes shared a common goal: to make complex diagnostic information feel clear, navigable, and reassuring. Using layered data visualisation, intuitive navigation patterns, and supportive microcopy, they reimagined how patients might receive and interpret their results online.

“A common outcome from all teams was a focus on communicating clearly what actions needed to follow the users’ results,” said Rob. 

“The teams produced lots of ideas to help users feel they had obtained good value from our test results and wanted to stay within our product ecosystem.”

He noted that each team contributed usable ideas that the company could combine as it builds the next version of its platform.

“All four teams produced outputs with unique and interesting aspects that we can now combine as we build the portal. Their approach and presentation were structured and professional.”

From project to opportunity

Both learners’ journeys came full circle when they were offered Product Design Consultant contracts with Salient Bio, a moment that validated everything they’d learned and built over six months.

Explore Rie’s portfolio of Career Accelerator work here, including her redesign of a health app.

For Maria, the learning experience reinforced just how much thoughtful design begins with understanding people – something she had come to value most throughout the King’s Career Accelerator.

“The tools I really valued were from the first course, especially when we were understanding user needs and learning terminology that was psychology-based – reframing mindsets, influencing users to take certain actions, and achieving results in an ethical way.”

She also reflected on how many of those lessons reached beyond design itself, influencing how she thinks and approaches challenges in her everyday life.

“A lot of those learnings I’ve translated into my personal life. For example, reframing mindsets – when I’m feeling negative now, I try to do that for myself.”

Visit Maria’s LinkedIn profile to view her portfolio in her Experience section.

Results and impact 

For Salient Bio, the partnership delivered prototype designs, information-architecture recommendations, and fresh ideas that have directly influenced their ongoing development.

“This partnership has been really beneficial to Salient. It’s brought in ideas and prototype designs that would have been impossible to achieve with our in-house team. We’ve also learnt a lot from the students about the underlying principles of UX, which will influence our approach to future projects.” – Rob Bradley, Scientific Lead, Salient Bioscience

For learners like Rie and Maria, the experience became clear proof of how a carefully designed, careers-first programme can help you make a successful career change possible in months, not years.

Rie said the strength of the course content and the calibre of her peers confirmed she’d made the right choice in joining the programme.

Design that transforms lives and learning

The Employer Project with Salient Bio stands as a clear example of what happens when education, industry, and careers intersect on the Accelerator.

For the employer, it produced actionable design ideas and new ways of thinking about user experience in healthcare. For the learners, it offered confidence, credibility, and their first steps into a product design career – proving that a rigorous, applied learning experience can lead not just to new skills, but to new careers.

If you’re ready to explore what your own journey into product design could look like, download the brochure for the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator.

Before entering the product design world, new designers often face a daunting question: How do I prove what I can do?

In an industry that prizes process as much as outcomes, a UX/UI design portfolio isn’t just a formality — it’s a clear demonstration of your skills, your unique process, and your ability to deliver real design impact.

For learners in the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator, that proof comes not from hypothetical exercises but from real-world projects, expert feedback, and a deepened sense of self-belief.

The programme at a glance

The King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator is a six-month, part-time, fully online programme created by King’s College London in partnership with FourthRev. It’s designed for people ready to build a career in UX and UI product design, whether they’re making a pivot, building on creative or technical skills, or looking for a structured path into the industry. Learners receive:

✅ Practical experience through hands-on case studies and a six-week Employer Project

✅ Early and ongoing portfolio development starting in Course 1

✅ Training in industry-standard tools like Figma, applied in design scenarios

✅ Career coaching, personalised feedback and peer support throughout

✅ A UX design certificate from a globally respected university

This Career Accelerator prepares you to do the work, speak to your process and stand out for your impact, and learners from a wide range of backgrounds are proof.

From blank page to portfolio powerhouse

When Rajdeep Deo, a mechanical engineer, joined the programme, she was planning a significant career pivot. At first, UX might not have seemed like the obvious next step, but for her, it quickly clicked.

Over the six-month programme, Rajdeep applied her structured problem-solving mindset to multiple design challenges — including building three end-to-end UX case studies with real industry companies: a voice interface concept, a health-tracking app, and a tourism site redesign. These weren’t theoretical tasks; each one mirrored actual business scenarios, designed to help learners demonstrate breadth and depth across key UX principles.

“The course encouraged us to apply what we learned to real projects and case studies — not just made-up exercises. I’ve worked on a tourism site, a health app, and now a voice interface challenge. It’s helped me show a good range.”

“The way the course is structured encourages you to go beyond just reading theoretical material — you’re constantly applying what you learn to practical projects and real case studies in a meaningful way. I think that’s going to help me stand out to employers as I start looking for jobs.”

These projects formed the backbone of Raj’s UX/UI design portfolio, which she created during the Career Accelerator. The depth and range of work, combined with the clarity of her storytelling, became something she could take pride in.

“It’s crazy when I think back to when I started six months ago. If you’d shown me my portfolio now and told me how much I’d learn by the end, I don’t think I’d believe it was mine, just because of the amount of work involved and the depth we’ve gone into. It’s been really amazing. I feel like I’ve come a long way in just six months.” — Rajdeep, King’s Career Accelerator Alumna

Feedback that sharpens, structure that guides

From the beginning, portfolio development is an integrated part of the learning journey — not an afterthought. Learners receive feedback from Course Facilitators, attend dedicated portfolio sessions, and take part in live reviews that help them refine their narrative and showcase their process clearly.

“We had a lot of portfolio classes throughout the course, which were really valuable. My approach was always to tell a simple, clear, and concise story behind each project — not just what I did, but why I did it, and making that obvious to anyone reading it.” – Rajdeep, King’s Career Accelerator Alumna

In UX hiring today, that storytelling ability is a powerful differentiator. According to Indeed’s design hiring team, the UX portfolio examples that stand out aren’t just polished — they clearly explain the thinking behind the work. They show process, not just outcomes.

💼 Explore Rajdeep’s UX portfolio here.

Group projects, real outcomes

Portfolio-building in the programme isn’t limited to individual assignments. Some of the most powerful and job-relevant work comes from collaboration, through group projects that mirror what it’s like to design within a product team. These experiences don’t just sharpen communication and teamwork skills — they often lead to standout case studies learners feature in their portfolios.

The final six-week Employer Project in the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator is a prime example. Set by an actual industry company, it’s designed to simulate the realities of UX and UI design work: cross-functional teams, evolving priorities, tight deadlines, and client-facing briefs. Rather than an academic exercise, it becomes a six-week glimpse into the day-to-day working environment learners are preparing to enter.

It was during this project that Emma, a design assistant looking to step into a more strategic, user-focused role, discovered how much she could grow — both as a collaborator and as a designer. After completing the programme, she landed a UX Designer position at EasyJet, and the Employer Project became a turning point, shaping one of her most impactful portfolio pieces.

“I’m not someone to really enjoy group projects so much, but because I was in such a good team and everyone had different strengths, it allowed me to observe what other people are doing that worked, and what I should be taking on myself. It was a massive learning curve for me, and it really changed my perspective on group projects. It was very nice to be in that environment.”

That experience helped Emma connect theory to practice and produce project work she would later feature in her portfolio. It also made the leap into her new UX role feel natural.

Emma’s experience reflects a wider truth: when learning mirrors professional UX design challenges, the shift from classroom to career becomes not just achievable, but seamless.

🎥 Watch Emma showcase her portfolio at this event.

Tools that make the work real

Product design is grounded in practice — in tools, team platforms, and design systems. That’s why, from day one, Career Accelerator learners work with industry platforms like Figma and Notion, applying them to professional-level design problems.

But learning tools are only the starting point. What sets this online UX training apart is how learners apply those tools — for real-life users, under real constraints, and with tangible results.

Klaudia Skiba, who entered the programme at the beginning of her UX journey, landed her first Product Designer role at a healthcare software company while still completing the Career Accelerator — a connection made through her Course Facilitator. Her Employer Project became a standout portfolio piece: her team redesigned an NHS app, using actual user reviews to define the problem and propose validated solutions.

“You have to provide research pieces that show it’s viable and that it’s essential that it’s improved. For example, I was working on an NHS app used in the UK. I used the bad reviews from the Apple Store and showed the exact pain points that users had. Then I went through usability testing. We also presented it, so it’s essentially a whole other case study for your portfolio.” 

Experiences like this, identifying user problems, conducting UX research, iterating based on insights, are what make a portfolio relevant, respected and ready for hiring conversations.

💼 Explore Klaudia’s UX case study.

Support that strengthens every step

While tools and projects lay a strong foundation, the support learners receive often makes the biggest difference in building confidence.

Every learner in the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator is paired with a Career Coach and a Success Manager who support them throughout their learning journey. Whether building a study schedule, refining a CV, preparing for an interview, or getting feedback on a portfolio case study, the support is consistent and expert.

Making the shift: From learning to doing

Learners are drawn to this programme because it offers more than skills — it offers the chance to think, create and deliver like a UX designer from Course 1. Each activity and assignment is designed to build confidence through practical, hands-on experience.

Rizal Azlan, who has a psychology background, used what he learned to take on freelance UX projects while still in the programme, demonstrating just how immediately applicable the content is.

The Employer Project, where Rizal’s team worked on a hospital booking app, helped him experience what many online UX bootcamps miss — true collaboration, with real-world stakes.

“We were working with Creative Navy on a hospital booking app. I felt like that really stood out compared to a lot of my previous learnings, where it’s all very theory-based — you don’t really get hands-on to work on a project, especially with other people, until you’re in the working world, until you actually have to apply it. By that time, it’s kind of too late because they expect you to have those skills already.”

This is what makes the difference: learning that feels like doing, and doing that leads to jobs. Or, in Rizal’s case, to launching 1+1 Studios, the gaming company he co-founded after completing the Career Accelerator — applying his UX skills to create something of his own.

 🔗 View Rizal’s low-fidelity game design.

Designed with the industry and recognised by it

Across this case study, learners have mentioned companies like the NHS, Creative Navy, and real tourism and healthtech brands — and that’s by design. The King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator connects learners to the standards, tools and expectations of real companies, through case studies and projects grounded in professional practice.

At the centre of it all is King’s College London — a name that adds immediate weight to their skills and learning, recognised by employers around the world.

The combination of company-led challenges, expert feedback and university backing offers clear proof of your readiness for the field. It shows you’ve solved real employer problems and worked to high industry and academic expectations. In job conversations, this elevates your credibility, helping you stand out as someone already thinking, working, and presenting like a professional designer.

The design decisions you can show — and stand behind in interviews

One of the most valuable outcomes of the programme is learning how to showcase your UX work in a way that stands up to real hiring conversations. Through live reviews, expert feedback, and repeated practice, learners develop the clarity and confidence to present their portfolio and connect with employers in ways that resonate.

Learners like Rajdeep, Emma, Klaudia and Rizal have all shown that career progress isn’t just about what you design — it’s about how you share your thinking, demonstrate your process, and speak to the value of your work.

By the end of the six months, learners graduate with a portfolio of work developed through industry-aligned briefs, shaped by feedback and strengthened by self-reflection. But more than that, they know how to showcase it — how to explain their choices, respond to feedback, and own their story.

That’s the real proof of progress.

Ready to see what your own journey could look like? Download the brochure to explore the full programme.

When Anna Prokůpková was part of the team drafting legislation for the European Health Data Space, she noticed a missing piece. The framework was meant to help patients across the EU, but the process lacked a crucial element: user experience. Despite the project’s scale and significance, little was understood about how real people would engage with the system once it was built. 

“The first time I actually heard about UX was when I was working on legislation… and none of us had a clue what UX really was.”

This experience marked a turning point for Anna, who was working as a Public Health Advisor at the European Parliament. It sparked a new curiosity about the practical application of policy and what happens after laws are written.

That curiosity would eventually lead her across the world – from Brussels to New Zealand – and into a new career at the intersection of policy and product design, with the help of the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator.

We spoke to Anna during a live Career Accelerator Info Session. You can catch up on the full conversation and hear how her career change into UX design began here:

Considering new horizons

When Anna and her partner decided to pursue a long-held dream of relocating to New Zealand, the personal move brought with it professional unknowns. Her partner had already secured a role, but for Anna, it meant leaving behind a successful position in the EU Parliament and preparing for a completely new job market.

With multiple priorities to juggle, including wrapping up her role in Brussels, planning an international relocation, and continuing her studies, Anna sought out a flexible UX design course that could help her stay focused, motivated, and supported. The Career Accelerator met these needs head-on with structured assignment-based learning, industry-validated projects, personalised career coaching, and the credibility of King’s College London.

Exploring a new skillset

With a background in policy and law-making, Anna began exploring UX and product design as a way to build on her strengths – translating complexity into clarity and designing for real-world application.

She was particularly drawn to the comprehensive and practical structure of the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator, which combined user research and testing skills with hands-on experience in real design tools. The programme didn’t just offer technical learning, it helped her build an end-to-end understanding of the UX process, backed by a portfolio-ready project and personalised coaching.

Building a bridge to new opportunities

Anna’s transition “wasn’t just about learning things”, it was about applying what she learned to build a competitive presence in a brand-new job market. With personalised one-on-one support from the Career Accelerator’s career coaching team, she was able to:

• Update her CV and LinkedIn profile to align with New Zealand’s hiring standards
  
• Craft tailored cover letters to stand out in a market where she had no prior network
  
• Build a UX project portfolio by taking on freelance and pro-bono UX work, including for a local NGO
  
• Strengthen her job search strategy, with coaching that helped her identify opportunities, build confidence, and grow her network
  
• Balance her coursework and relocation challenges thanks to regular check-ins and flexible support from the programme team
  

Even with the pressures of an international move, multiple time zones, and a 11-hour difference, Anna stayed on track, thanks to consistent, practical support that adapted to her circumstances.

A real-world role that aligns with her skills

It all paid off. Anna landed a role that perfectly blends her policy expertise with her newly acquired UX and product design skills: Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy at the Medical Council of New Zealand. The organisation was excited by her experience and blend of skills and was able to create a tailored position covering policy, strategy, and service design.

Anna’s new role allows her to shape healthcare policy through a user-centred lens, a unique and impactful intersection of her past and present careers.

Finding the right balance between bias and empathy

One of Anna’s biggest mindset shifts while on the programme came from learning how to separate personal bias from user feedback – something she hadn’t needed to do in her policy work.

“While in policy, I’m mainly just selling my own bias and trying to convince people about what I think is correct… In UX, I had to completely distance myself and focus on what the users are saying.”

The programme introduces learners to research frameworks and testing methodologies that challenge them to listen first, analyse patterns, and let user feedback drive their decisions. It’s not just a change in tools, it’s a shift in mindset.

“Then later, you have to switch back on, defending the user in discussions with stakeholders like management or developers. That’s been really useful, and I think I’ve trained it quite well within the course.”

This human-centred approach is core to the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator. For many learners, including Anna, it becomes the foundation for how they approach not just design, but communication, leadership, and collaboration in a new career.

Practical, flexible learning that fits real-life

Anna also appreciated how the programme’s structure fit into her unpredictable and high-pressure schedule.

She used AI tools like ChatGPT to improve her user research and critical thinking – an approach encouraged by the course’s emphasis on real-world tools and AI literacy.

“I redrafted my questions about four times and then asked ChatGPT to identify leading questions and explain why. That feedback was excellent, and that’s how I finally understood what a leading question actually is.”

A journey made possible with support

In just a few months, Anna relocated internationally, closed a high-profile chapter in Brussels, retrained in a new discipline, and secured a job that combined her passions and skills.

The King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator supported Anna’s journey through its blend of structured learning, real-world application, personalised coaching, and community support – hallmarks of strong UX design course outcomes.

Ready to make your career change into UX design?

The King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator has helped learners around the world in making confident, strategic career moves into UX, service design, tech, and more.

Download the programme brochure to view the curriculum and UX project portfolios, and discover how alumni have successfully transitioned into impactful roles across industries.

Siobhán started her career as a software engineer. After seven years at her current company, she had the opportunity to move into a UX designer role. Looking to advance her skills in her new position, she tried a handful of online courses but found that she needed more structure and human interaction to keep her on track.

That’s when she discovered the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator.

The programme is really people-focused

“During one of my initial calls with my Enrolment Advisor, she told me about the support network I’d have. I hadn’t really thought much about career coaching. And I didn’t really know what a success manager was. But once they were explained to me, I really liked that they could help me with the course content and how to improve my career overall. Having someone to ask questions and help throughout the process is what clinched it for me, really. I’m really human-focused, so having that extra kind of personal touch was immensely helpful for me.”

You’ll be able to use your new skills fast

“I really had no clue when I started how to conduct UX research. Within the first six weeks, we were actually doing exactly that. I went from knowing nothing to carrying out my own research initiative in my company, which went really, really well. It ended up giving me a really good opportunity to move into a lead role because I had learned so much, and I had proven the value straight away. So really, it was immensely helpful straightaway for me.”

My Career Coach provided the right support for me

“My Career Coach was brilliant. For me, I needed to focus on soft skills, like how to stand up and present with confidence. Impostor Syndrome was a big thing for me, particularly at the very start of my career, because I was never really sure whether I was doing the right thing. I didn’t have the confidence to explain myself properly. Working with my coach helped me build up those skills in a way I couldn’t have imagined. It was very much tailored to me.”

Iryna, one of our learners on the King’s Product Management Career Accelerator, thought that she would have to start her career from scratch after closing her business and exploring a new path. Her Career Coach helped her see the value of her past experience and gave her the confidence boost she needed to apply for her dream position. Read her story here. 

You get a real sense of the job while working on the Employer Project

“We were responsible for designing a mobile app for one of Creative Navy’s clients. In the first week, we met the team and carried out some quick user research to understand who we were designing for and identify their problems. Then we moved onto mid-fidelity wireframes, which involved taking all the insights we got from our user research and putting together a few screens to demonstrate how we could solve the user’s problems. This project was then graded both by the client and Creative Navy. We got some amazing feedback from them about how we approached it, and they gave helpful advice on the changes we needed to make. The final result was a fully-fledged prototype and a full demonstration to Creative Navy at the end of the course, which went really well. It was a great experience.”

My Success Manager kept me on track 

“I had a one-on-one call with my Success Manager every week. It was like having my own support network all in one. Once, I was having a really hard time at work with a lot going on, which meant I wasn’t doing as much as I should have. She reached out to me saying, “Siobhan, are you okay? Is there anything we can do? How can we help you get through this and minimise your stress?” It was nice to have someone there to check in and make sure everything was okay. That was really helpful for me to keep me on track.”

UX is accessible to anyone

“All of the people in my group working on the Employer Project came from different backgrounds: We had graphic design, product management, psychology, fashion – they all had different aspects, but they approached the course the same way. They brought their previous experience in alongside everything that we’ve been doing as part of the course, which really helps to build up a portfolio – one of the most important things that you can have when you’re going into a UX career.”

This investment in my education was worth it

“With the progress I’ve made in my career over the last six months, in terms of the added responsibility and the ability to actually work properly in this industry, I think it’s going to pay for itself. At the end of the day, you get out of it what you put into it. I’ve tried to get as much out of it as I can. And I think it’s gone really well for me.”

We’re proud to have watched Siobhán’s confidence grow and the positive results this has had for her career. If you’d like to get a better idea of some of the practical work Siobhán did on the programme, take a look at this case study. 

You can also watch her Q&A with our Head of Enrolments here:

If you’re interested in exploring how the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator can help take you further in your career, take a look at the programme page.