When we set out to create The New Digital School, our goal was twofold.
→ Firstly, we wanted to offer a new learning alternative to anyone starting a career in UX. This was a response to the disconnect between academia and how digital design was applied at the time.
→ Secondly, we aimed to use this as an experiment to see how we could create a high-quality and efficient learning experience in general. This was based on our past experiences with optimising higher education.
Although it started as a project to improve learning efficiency, it soon became clear that it had significant personal and social impact in the people at and around the school.
From the early days of setting up a new school studio inside a fish market to teaching online during post-pandemic times, we always made a conscious effort to document as much of our work as possible. Now, we want to share our knowledge with others, hoping it will be useful.
This document will not cover everything you need to run a similar school but it includes reports from our experiments, lessons learned, and intimate reports that you probably won’t find elsewhere. I hope you find some value in it.
— Tiago Pedras
In The story, you’ll find a detailed summary of the years before and while the TNDS programs ran. You’ll also find lessons and relevant articles in chronological order that you click in to better understand the reality at the time.
You can also look through all the lessons, articles and more in these pages.
As I wrote this, I realised I no longer believe UX bootcamps or similar programs to be viable or beneficial for our field. At least not right now and in their most common form.
It's not just new designers or researchers that are needed, but rather better recruitment processes, more/better internship programs, and new ways to help individuals gain confidence when starting a new career.