Soft Skills for Designers
5 Thursdays, 9/21 - 10/26 (No class 10/12) 6:00p - 9:00p PT, $425
Instructor: Emily Parcell, Founder, Human-Centered Leader

Employers don’t just care about your technical abilities. They also want to know if you’re a great collaborator, a level-headed recipient of criticism, an efficient time manager, and someone who can get their ideas across a conference table or a Zoom call — in other words, all the things you’ll learn to be better at in this class.

Other Classes Coming Soon at SVC

Figma Fundamentals
2 Saturdays, 9/23 & 9/30, 9:30a - 1:00p PT, $325
Instructor: Michael Ortlieb, Head of Design, Data Mgmt., JP Morgan Chase

It’s hard to find a design team today that doesn’t rely on Figma for prototyping, whiteboarding, and collaborating. So, if you’ve been putting off learning this “must-know” industry standard, wait no more. You’ll be ready to roll with Figma after just two half-day sessions.

UX Writing for Product Designers
2 Wednesdays, 10/4 & 10/11, 10:00a - 1:00p PT, $325
Instructor: Torrey Podmajersky, Author, Strategic Writing for UX

If your team has never had a UX writer, or you've lost your Content Designer through cut-backs, the burden of getting the words right now falls on the designer. This workshop provides a grounding for Product Designers (and Interaction Designers, UX Designers, etc.) to develop the UX writing skills to make the words complement the designs and meet your team’s business goals.

Copywriting Fundamentals
5 Thursdays, 10/5 - 11/2, 9:00a - 10:30a PT, $325
Instructor: Larry Asher, Creative Director/Copywriter, Worker Bees

If you’ve been thrown into the role of copywriter — whether for web content, social media, ads, or what have you — and you’ve never learned the essentials, now’s the time. In five very efficient morning sessions, we’ll take you through the basic principles and steer you in the direction of writing that gets noticed and prompts action.

FREE: Using AI for Better Design Systems
Wednesday, 10/11, 7:00p - 8:00p PT, Free
Instructor: Felix Chandran, UX Architect, NeuralRays AI

As design systems grow in complexity, there’s a role for some assistance from artificial intelligence engines. AI doesn’t replace humans but can do some of the routine and mind-numbing tasks, such as design pattern recognition, generating predefined components, and automatically updating systems and flagging inconsistencies. Join us for this one-hour free intro.

UX Writing 1: Fundamentals
5 Tuesdays, 10/17 - 11/14, 6:00p - 9:00p PT, $425
Instructor: Tracy Fontaine, Staff Content Designer, Navan

Anything you read on a website or app that isn’t trying to sell you something was crafted by a UX writer. Navigation, calls-to-action, instructional copy, and error messages all need to be written for clarity and for creating happy users — the focus of this hands-on, portfolio-boosting class.

Better Presentations
2 Wednesdays, 10/18 & 10/25, 10:00a - 1:00p PT, $325
Instructor: Larry Asher, Creative Director, Worker Bees

If you’ve spent any time in the business world you might wonder why so many presentations and PowerPoints are so bad. Did the presenters not think about their objectives? Were the slides too cluttered to comprehend? Did the speaker’s nervousness get in the way of communication? These are all things we can fix with a little guidance and practice — like the kind you’ll get in this workshop.

Intro to UX Design
2 Saturdays, 10/28 & 11/4, 10:00a - 1:00p PT, $325
Instructor: Julia DeBari, Lead UX Designer, AgentSync

Even in the current economy, there are still thousands of postings for careers in UX Design. Around 8 percent of them, surprisingly, are for entry-level jobs, that (according to Glassdoor) pay an average of $95k. So, it’s understandable that people who are good at logic, spatial organization, and helping others, might like to learn more about this field and its career opportunities.