Susana Passinhas

“During my 8 week UXAF course, Susana was supportive as well as challenging, especially when it came to my design decisions. Through feedback, she helped me to understand the importance of consistency in my work and encouraged me to look further afield for creative inspiration. I felt as though her academic background and real world experiences gave me a good insight into the world of UX. I enjoyed my time on the foundations course, and part of this was down to the good experience of mentorship with Susana. Her enthusiasm for UX clearly showed and made me feel positive about my progression into UX/UI.”

“I had a great experience with Susana as my mentor during Foundations. She was kind and encouraging, and she always came prepared with well-informed answers to my questions from her years of personal experience working in the design industry. She was able to identify my strengths even as a beginning designer and offer me personalized feedback and advice on how to amplify those strengths. Every session I had with her was fruitful and I will be taking the lessons I took from her with me into UX Academy and beyond.”

“She was an excellent mentor, so kind, knowledgeable and passionate. Her feedback was always on point, she kept me thinking, learning and ultimately helped me to believe in myself. Through a few short weeks I was able to learn and grow so much as a designer and can now confidently continue my journey into the UX Academy. I couldn't have done it without her mentorship!”

“I wouldn't have excelled as much as I did without Susana! She genuinely cared to check every detail of my work and put incredible effort into not only improving my design and research skills, but reframing my mindset as a designer. She gave me tools and confidence that are priceless and I am so thankful I got to go on this journey with her.”

“Susana was always well prepared and consistently gave detailed, constructive feedback, whether it be through commenting on project submissions or mentor session calls. During call sessions, she made sure all assignments and any questions I had were discussed and answered. She was encouraging, respectful, and professional in the way she gave feedback. While she provided feedback and resources, she also encouraged me to have confidence and trust in making my own design decisions, helping me grow as an UX designer and as an individual. Furthermore, she had a lot of availability and was flexible with scheduling calls and communicating with feedback about submitted assignments. UXA has been my first time learning about the field of UX/UI design and I am glad that I was able to learn from Susana. Her care and support for success has made my UXA experience extremely valuable.”

“She is absolutely brilliant when it comes to her knowledge in UX / UI but also in design as a whole. On a technical note, she is exceptional at explaining UX / UI concepts. Susana is also a natural at teaching. I really felt cared about with my progress and she would boost my confidence and motivate me when I needed it the most. I love her style of critique, she's very thorough, respectful and very clear when it comes to giving feedback. On a professional level, she's the most organized! She schedules our sessions in advance, shows up on time and replies / communicates always in a timely fashion. I can say without hesitation, she was the best part of my UXA experience.”

“I have had a wonderful experience working with Susana Passinhas as my UXA mentor. She is a highly skilled UX designer with a deep understanding of the principles of user-centered design. She also has a strong visual design background which shows in all of her feedback and work. In addition to her technical skills, Susana is also an excellent communicator and teacher. She is gifted in explaining complex concepts in a clear and practical way that goes beyond academic teachings and obviously draws deeply from her years of hands-on experience. Susana is passionate about helping students learn and grow. She is also a patient and encouraging mentor- she was very supportive and flexible. She is always very organized with planning and a clear communicator on her expectations and availability. As I near the end of my program, I would most definitely consider Susana’s mentorship the most beneficial aspect of my experience enrolling in UXA. Susana always gave me very clear feedback and often went above and beyond UXA’s project goals and made sure I understood what would be expected of me in a real-world working environment. She is clearly invested in my development as a designer and I would enthusiastically recommend her to any DL student.”

“Susana was my mentor for UX Foundations and I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to Designlab! I credit her for a lot of my visual design growth because of how patient she was and how clearly she explained her feedback. She really made me feel prepared to go into UX Academy and I brought a lot of her advice with me as I completed UXA. Now I'm close to graduating Designlab and I think she was a big help in getting me here!”

“I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for my UX Foundation mentor Susanna’s invaluable guidance and support throughout my UXF journey. She inspires me with her constant encouragement and optimism. I enjoy working and achieving goals with her.”

“I had Susana Passinhas as my mentor for Foundations and about 2 weeks of Academy before I withdrew. I wanted to say that she was an incredible mentor that was so warm and attentive from the beginning. I was incredibly nervous before starting Foundations because I had come from an entirely different background and made a complete pivot to design. I was also nervous about the time difference since I am in California while she is based in Barcelona. From the first meeting, her main points of conversation in the session were focused on getting to know me, learning what I wanted to gain from the program and mentorship, and comforting me about the uncertain job market. I was immediately put at ease. Since then, she was consistently supportive and her criticism/feedback was plentiful yet encouraging. She would explain why she thought a specific element could use iterating, but always included positive feedback and smiley faces so I would never feel discouraged. She made me feel as if she wanted me to grow for the better, and specifically told me that (as long as I was okay with it) she was going to push me to do my best. I felt motivated under her mentorship, and she made me happy to work hard on every assignment. Also, the time difference was never something I even thought about since after our first meeting. Susana provided feedback so promptly and set up meetings well in advance that it was never an issue. For the final Foundations 10-hour project, what I really liked is that she did not just "approve" my assignment just to be done with it. She thoroughly analyzed my project so that she would ensure that it would be a high quality project to be assessed by the Academy admissions team. Susana even met with me on a Saturday evening during her time so that I could submit the project on time. She made sure I was learning throughout the iteration process and that I was submitting something I was ultimately proud of. When I started UXA, I was assigned a different mentor, which I was more than okay with. I was open-minded about being under a new mentorship and attended a few meetings before realizing that Susana's approach to mentoring was the best fit for me. As soon as I switched from my original UXA mentor to Susana, it was like night and day. Susana always sent meeting links/Google event invitations far ahead of the meeting time, and showed up on time. She used every minute of a session productively and never made me feel as if our sessions were rushed. Susana was always professional but had a warmness that made me feel like I did not have to hold back on insecurities about my skills. It was nice to not only get to know the UX field, but herself as a mentor as well. Overall, I would recommend Susana as a mentor to anyone! I unfortunately had to withdraw from the program, but loved my time in the program, a large part due to the mentorship.”