General Assembly Downtown Los Angeles

I took the «Introduction to Adobe Illustrator: Weekend Workshop» this past Saturday with Kim Cruickshank. I really enjoyed the experience. I found her to be very knowledgable and patient with the students. I feel like I have a good grasp on illustrator now. I still have more to learn as this was just an introduction to the program. I feel like I can navigate the program easily and will continue to build off of the foundation that Kim gave me. She broke down her instructions step by step so that I found it easy to learn the material. I have already recommended the workshop to friends and look forward to taking another class with General Assembly in the future.

I was one of the lucky few startup companies selected for the UXDI Client Project program of that started in July, 2015. As such, I was awarded 3 UX Design students to work with for approximately 3 weeks.
A bit about my project:
+ I am in the process of developing a fully customizable nutrition app for fitness professionals.
+ I had an existing UI design prior to the start of the program.
+ The scope of my project was very comprehensive — lots of functions and features that needed to be considered.
+ Beyond a fresh redesign, my primary goal with the student UX design team was to have them create a functional and attractive Fitness Professional dashboard, something that I did not have designed at the time.
From introduction to final presentation, I have been incredibly impressed with the level of expertise and attention to detail that was demonstrated by the 3 students. The students were receptive to my concept, conducted ample research to find out what my target demographic needs, shared great ideas, and helped to create an amazing collaborative experience. Moreover, they were very quick to respond to emails and interested in having weekly meetings.
Here is a summary of what I got out of the experience:
+ A very attractive and much more functional UI design that is ready for coding. Due to the research and surveys conducted, it feels alpha tested!
+ A new Fitness Professional dashboard that does everything that it needs to.
+ A great educational experience — better understanding of UI design, how user experience ties in, and how to assess and evaluate the needs, interests, and «pain points» of my target audience.
Moreover, I am now connected with 3 very talented UX designers — which I will likely be working with in the near future for updates.
Overall, I am incredibly grateful for the experience! This project has significantly helped push my nutrition app along in the development process. The UI that I have is ready for coding, bringing me one step closer to prototype and beta-​testing.
Special thanks to General Assembly for the amazing opportunity, and to my UX design team: Jon Whitmire, Chris Magcamit, Will Reid. You guys rock!

Our startup was one of the lucky ones chosen to participate as a pro bono recipient of UX services, a final project for the latest UX class at General Assembly LA. We were assigned three students, who set about applying the tools they had been taught in the weeks prior to the final project… The timing was perfect for us and their work product was exceptional (and two of the three are still working with us!). They conducted user research (frankly, more in depth than we would have conducted on our own), reaching out to more than 100 target users through multiple channels, and using multiple questionnaire and interview formats. We still refer back to their final report to justify product directions. They became part of our team, participating in daily meetings and learning first-​hand what it’s like to do early stage startup. I would recommend any startup to take part, as we did, and am impressed enough about their teaching approach, combining tools of the trade with practical clinic-​style training, to recommend their classes to anybody wanting to change career tracks.

I worked with GA in their UXDI Client Projects program for three weeks. Three amazing GA trained designers were able to conduct solid user research and product a clickable wireframe. I am very impress with their professionalism and how much they accomplished in such a short time frame. I highly recommend this program and thank you GA!

My startup was selected to participate in General Assembly’s UXDI Client Projects program, which allows their UX Design students to gain valuable experience working with a real client at no cost to the client. The designers are allowed to use this work for their portfolio, and the client can use the students’ work in their products if they wish.
Robyn Stark encouraged me to apply my startup to this program and it was a great decision. For 3 weeks I worked with a highly motivated team of 3 talented designers who provided me with valuable research, and ultimately, a clickable UX prototype that I could then use to secure investment.
My team worked really hard, and one of the designers eventually became an employee at the company. I would highly recommend other startups apply to this program.

I’m so happy General Assembly is in Downtown LA. I’ve taken a few classes and then ended up teaching an Instagram course! The GA crew is super supportive and go above and beyond to help with marketing the course. I also love how engaged they are with building a sense of community. We regularly team up with them to do events and it’s so easy to work with them. If you’re thinking about taking a class, teaching a course, or throwing event… talk to them asap!

Very challenging! I was teaching myself Javascript for a few months and my progress wasn’t as fast as I wanted it to be. I discovered General Assembly’s Web Development Immersive program and thought to myself that a classroom structure would help accelerate my learning. And boy, did it accelerate! It’s project based learning, so you learn by doing which was perfect for me. For anyone considering this program, I highly recommend picking up a beginner javascript/​ruby book before enrolling so you’re not super behind.

My wife and I just finished a «Learn to Fly a Drone» class that we signed up for at General Assembly (was hosted at Rhubarb Studios in Downtown LA); we had a blast, and left with a really solid understanding & hands-​on drone flying skills. I highly recommend GA classes!

I took the Web Development class this year and it was great. I learned a lot from my instructors who were always available for help. There was a lot of support from fellow classmates and the staff. I did not have a computer science or tech background before coming in but I did have a passion for the growing scene. This GA location might be better for you if you’re coming from the East side of LA or Orange County.
Parking is not an issue. There is an affordable monthly payment plan and plenty of free street parking after 6.

GA in DTLA is awesome! Great campus and awesome events. Miki is creating a wonderful atmosphere for startups, but also providing the community an arm to help build up the tech scene downtown. I’ve gone to a number of events, and recommended a couple of friends for the UX classes. I live downtown, and have biked to their location or taken the dash. Pretty easy to get to, and their location has a lot to offer with other cool stuff as well.

I took the Product Management class at the downtown location. Finding parking was quite easy and the building in which classes are located are decent. This class from GA gets five stars because it opened me up to a completely new school of thought. I don’t think traditional schools have this type of flexibility with teaching styles. What we did in there is definitely different from any class I’ve ever taken. It was hard form me to pull the trigger because GA classes are quite costly. However, after going through the class with some awesome instructors and classmates I think it’s quite worth it. Once you’re in, GA does a great job of opening doors. It’s up to you how much you make of those opportunities.

I’ve attended several GA DTLA events & classes and have enjoyed them all. They’re great with working with the community and their team members are always friendly and helpful.

I took the Part Time UX class last year. It really enjoyed the class especially the final project. Since I don’t have a design background, prototyping did not come easiest to me. I did get a lot out of the user research we had to do for our final project. I’ve since done a few user research studies as a contractor.
They also provide scholarships for some class — be sure to apply! I was able to get one and it helped offset the cost of the class.
The staff is great and Miki and her team are doing an awesome job raising awareness of the eastside tech scene.

I just completed the Product Management course at General Assembly’s downtown campus. It was taught by Cauri Jaye and Ryan Prust.
I have been out of college for 14 years and have done some amazing things since then, professionally speaking. But in the past few years, I had been looking to add to my education and skill set. I had contemplated doing a Six Sigma cert but decided instead to take the GA class and I am extremely glad I made that decision. I often refer to it as one of the best decisions I’ve made in the last few years. In fact, towards the end of the class I started a new job in Consumer Products with one of the movie studios in LA. This class helped to give me the knowledge to land the job.
I met Cauri at the free infosession and his love of product combined with his passion for teaching was very apparent. I went to the infosession to possibly learn coding or digital marketing, but after hearing him discuss product concepts, I knew this was the class to take… the class to begin with GA. And I certainly will be taking more.
In the 10 weeks (which goes by fast) of class, we learned many important and current concepts related to all things product. How to work with others efficiently, Business Model Canvas, Empathy Mapping and Personas, how to validate your assumption of your product, ideation, Lean and Agile Methodologies, how to pitch and present your ideas to VCs/​investors/​users, among so many other concepts and practices. You don’t just learn tech, you are surrounded by it.
Aside from the course topics, you are put in a room with other students that are just as curious and just as passionate about this topic. I have made so many great connections and friends that continue to help each other after class has ended. I have some classmates coming over next weekend to help empathy map, user workflow and build a design studio for my concept!
My experience at GA was amazing. I cannot say enough positive things about it.

I worked with GA to host an event for the community over here in OC. They are the greatest people to work with. Seriously. It was the smoothest, most fun event I’ve organized and we had over 200 people attend.
I’m often over at GA for events, classes, etc. I always leave feeling like I’ve had a positive experience and learned something new.
Highly recommend GA. Wish there was one closer to me.

This is a great place to learn cutting edge skills, attend tech events, and build your professional network. Plus everyone is super friendly and knowledgeable, and the space is conducive to creative thinking.

As a student and President of LavaLab, I was constantly looking for amazing partners to support our educational events. Across the board, GA has been incredibly supportive in event space and outreach helping us drive incredible attendance rates to our off campus events. The team was also incredible helpful.
Also, this space is amazing! Excited to see GA blossom over the many years to come.

I teach a marketing class with General Assembly and have attended numerous events at their Downtown L.A. location. The environment is collaborative and the team is super-​helpful. Miki was behind the downtown launch of GA, and is a superstar. They are building a great tech community and environment for the city!

GA is a great place to learn a new skill. I teach the intro to Adobe Illustrator class at the Santa Monica campus and students always tell me how much they’ve learned in only a daylong workshop. Half of my students are looking to further their career, and others are starting up their own business. GA is pretty selective about reaching out to WORKING industry professionals to teach their classes. So you’re never learning outdated information that can’t be applied in the field.

The lady bathrooms are hard to find! They’re in the dark by the elevator :)
This is a cool little space! They had a few classrooms. We had a fun Social Media Club of LA event, and I hope to come back. It’s next to tons of other trendy workspaces, right by a train stop, too.