Learn UX design with me

Vera Kravchuk

Designer, Author, Speaker, Lead Instructor

Role

Lead Product Designer

Vera Kravchuk
Founder

Of UX Design school

About me

The first thing you should know about me is design isn’t just my job – it’s who I am.

In addition to working full-time, I have created the first UX design course content in Australia in 2015, and the first UI design course in Australia in 2019. Both went on to serve as foundations and evolve into degrees at universities.

I have taught at Academy Xi, Sydney Community College, launched The UX Philosophy, and upskilled entire teams within organisations.

My articles have been featured at industry blogs such as UXMastery and UX Matters, while my talks have been live streamed across different continents (sponsored by Freelancer.com).

I don’t do design because I have to – I do it because I believe it’s the surest way to change the world. After all, everything around us was designed at some point.

Teaching UX, UI, and Product Design since 2017

I have been the lead instructor for part-time UX Design courses at Academy Xi since 2017. In addition, I have developed UI design course content, taught full-time students as a guest lecturer, mentored students and helped them secure roles in the industry.

I have developed a custom introductory UX design course for Sydney Community College, which I have been teaching since 2018.

In 2020 I have created and launched a very different UX & Product design program, which led to students who lost their jobs secure UX roles within 3 months after graduation, despite the global pandemic. Graduates went on to lead projects and teams, and are now making impact in many large organisations, including government.

Post-it notes
Class of 2019 - group picture

Experience

I have worked in the industry since 2013, and have gained a lot of experince in the following areas:

Mobile apps

I have created a variety of mobile apps - working with both startups and large global organisations.

Software

Working on very complex cloud-based Saas projects has taught me a lot.

Websites

From simple corporate websites, to blogs with thousands of pages, I have designed them all.

Courses

Yes, I have designed courses! And written content for what is now used to teach UX and UI design in Australia.

UI

While UX is what makes products effective, it certainly helps if UI looks the part.

Workshops

The most effective workshops are not found online, they are designed, just like any other product.

My Specialities

Every designer has something that makes them different. Here’s what I’ve been told makes me different:

I am not just good at taking a complex problem and breaking it into simple components, I enjoy it. When problems are simple, solutions become boring.

I always look at the problem I am solving as a small part of a bigger picture. This allows me to solve it in different, and unexpected way.

I was the first one to start creating purely digital magazines, create accessibility guidelines, and teach UX, UI, and product design.

What People are Saying

Don’t take my word for it though, here’s what others are saying:

5/5
"I had the pleasure of working alongside Vera during the part-time UX design course at Academy XI. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor to learn from. Vera's passion for teaching and practicing UX design is evident from the second you meet her. She's a knowledgeable, yet humble and approachable professional. She empowers the students to perform at their best. I had the privilege to see her magic work in a short period of 10 weeks and see the group of students flourish, taking their project and personal development to the next level, delivering outstanding presentations and projects at the end of the course. Vera's teaching methodology stood out to me. She adapts the content to the UX industry real needs, making the learning experience a lot more valuable and closer to what the students will face in the market once they leave the campus. She brings her experience as a practitioner and a teacher, iterating her own methodology at each intake and continuously improving the students' experience."
Cimara Carneiro
Service Designer
5/5
"Absolutely fearless in all aspects of her work. Always embracing challenges. I have never met a more driven individual with the ability to rally others the way Vera does. The talents she possess can't be taught."
Shant Safarian
Design Director
5/5
"Having an active practitioner in the UX industry teaching you is already valuable to any student but someone who is also immensely passionate about Design and the unexplored territories such as Design Ethics is a gift. Vera is not only passionate about design, but teaching design and helping young designers change the world for the better — being an advocate for good design and upholding the standards of design for the betterment of our industry."
Stephen Kung
Product Designer and past student
5/5
"Vera is a remarkably talented, hard-working individual who would make a valuable colleague and employee for any organisation. In my past few years at Universal Magazines, Vera has grown substantially in the areas of design, user experience and front-end coding. She has experienced growth not only from the projects she has engaged with but also through her tireless commitment to seek further education in these subjects. I have worked with her on countless projects, most notably on the development of our first entirely-digital magazine, homeINSPIRE, and the redesign of our largest website, Complete Home. In the digital magazines project, Vera provided much needed advice on the subject of user experience, researching other digital magazines available and testing how they worked – and how we could improve ours. Her designs for this were also unique and appealing, perfect for the subject matter. In the redevelopment of Complete Home, Vera was a vital team member. From the research she provided in areas of design, user experience and our competitors to her passionate views on the direction of the project to the user testing she ran, the end product is a direct result of Vera’s expertise and hard-work. Her work in designing the website then coding the entire front end was a huge endeavour considering the size of the website, and the launch itself has been an ongoing success. I would thoroughly recommend Vera Kravchuk for any design or user experience based role. She is a valuable team member, a hard worker and a delight to work with."
Lauren Farquhar
Senior Product Manager
5/5
"I rarely come across real mentors, teachers and professionals who stand out like Vera. Her enthusiasm and curiosity about everything around her are tremendous and it helped the team achieve phenomenal goals. She always provided insightful ways to make us to get the concept clearly, being always open to discuss ideas and suggestions. She is a great listener. I learnt not only a lot about UX design, process and design thinking from her, but also how crucial is to have human needs at heart. I was impressed by Vera’s ability to motivate us and consistently helping us to maintain the focus on the problem, we ended up in being able to deal with even the toughest challenge thanks to her, she is absolutely a great mentor and a leader. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Vera on both a professional and personal level, and being mentored by her it’s a rare opportunity to have! She is an amazing talent with a strong work ethic to learn from. I could't be thankful enough for her lessons and I wish everyone could had more teachers and team leader like Vera!"
Elisa Borinato
Past student

Are you ready to work together?