Building Tomorrow's UX Leaders

We started DatCore because we noticed something missing in traditional education - the practical skills that actually matter when you're designing real products for real people.

How We Got Here

Back in 2022, I was consulting for startups around Taipei and kept meeting the same problem. Fresh graduates would join design teams with impressive portfolios, but they'd struggle with things like user research protocols or designing for accessibility standards.

The gap between what schools taught and what companies needed was huge. So we decided to build something different - an education program that focuses on the messy, collaborative reality of UX work.

Today, we work with over 50 companies across Taiwan to understand exactly what skills they're looking for, then we build our curriculum around those real needs.

Modern workspace showing collaborative design process with multiple screens and design materials

Real-World Focus

Every project in our program comes from actual client work. You'll solve real problems for real companies, not hypothetical case studies that look good in a portfolio.

Team collaboration session with UX professionals reviewing design prototypes

Industry Mentorship

Our instructors currently work at companies like ASUS, Cathay Financial, and various tech startups. They bring today's challenges directly into the classroom.

Meet Our Team

We're a mix of educators, practitioners, and former hiring managers who understand both sides of the UX equation.

Keiji Nakamura, Program Director at DatCore, reviewing student design work

Keiji Nakamura

Program Director & Lead Instructor

Keiji spent eight years leading design teams at various Taipei startups before joining us full-time in 2024. He's particularly good at teaching the soft skills that textbooks skip - like how to present research findings to skeptical stakeholders.

What students appreciate most about his approach is how he breaks down complex design systems into manageable pieces. He's also our go-to person for anything related to mobile-first design patterns.

Practical Learning

We believe the best way to learn UX is by doing actual UX work, not by memorizing design principles.

Industry Connection

Our curriculum changes based on what's happening in Taiwan's tech industry right now, not what was popular five years ago.

Honest Feedback

We'll tell you exactly where your work needs improvement, just like a real design critique at a tech company.

What Makes Our Approach Different

Most UX programs focus on individual skills. We focus on how those skills work together in a real product development cycle.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

You'll work directly with developers and product managers throughout your projects. This mirrors how UX actually works in companies - it's never just designers in a room.

We invite engineering and business students from other programs to join specific project phases, so you learn to communicate design decisions across different disciplines.

Taiwan Market Context

Understanding local user behavior is crucial for UX work here. We teach research methods that work well with Taiwanese users, plus cultural considerations that international design guides often miss.

You'll also learn about Taiwan's specific accessibility requirements and how local companies typically structure their design teams.

Students working on user research analysis with sticky notes and journey maps Collaborative design session showing wireframes and prototypes on large monitors

Ready to Start Your UX Journey?

Our next comprehensive program begins in September 2025. We're currently accepting applications for the fall cohort, which will focus on mobile app design and user research methodologies.

Get Program Details