Design Your Life. Own Your Journey.
What is Life Design?
Life Design is a creative, action-oriented approach to planning your life, career, and learning journey. Rooted in design thinking, it encourages you to explore possibilities, test ideas, and design a life that reflects your values, goals, and strengths. Life Design doesn’t aim for a perfect plan—it helps you confidently move forward through change, challenge, and opportunity.
This approach is especially powerful for adult learners who are navigating transitions, managing responsibilities, and seeking personal or professional growth. Life Design helps you reframe uncertainty, uncover what matters most, and move toward it with purpose.
Whether you’re returning to school, changing careers, or figuring out what’s next, Life Design provides a framework to align your life with what matters most to you.
What Are the Designing U Courses?
Designing U is a flexible course series from the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s (UNO) Division of Continuing Studies, designed to support adult learners at key transition points in their education and careers. These courses are grounded in Life Design principles and focus on self-discovery, intentional decision-making, and real-world application. Each course can stand alone and offers hands-on, project-based learning focused on reflection, creativity, and action.
The Designing U Course Series Includes:
APLD 3310: Designing U: Maverick Mindset For students transitioning into UNO—focuses on confidence, resilience, and building a sense of belonging.
Best for: New UNO students, especially adult learners and transfer students.
Focus: Building a strong foundation for academic, personal, and social success at UNO.
This course helps students make a confident transition into the university experience. Through self-discovery, goal setting, and engagement with campus resources, students develop what we call the Maverick Mindset—a resilient, curious, and intentional way of approaching challenges.
APLD 3300: Designing U: Learning + Life For learners balancing school, work, and life—emphasizes lifelong learning, adaptability, and personal growth.
Best for: Working adults, military-affiliated students, and anyone balancing education with other responsibilities.
Focus: Cultivating lifelong learning, adaptability, and purpose.
This course supports students in designing lives that balance academic, personal, and professional priorities. Using tools like life maps, odyssey planning, and prototyping, students gain clarity on their values and build confidence in navigating change and complexity.
APLD 3330 Designing U: Career + Transitions For those preparing for what’s next—centers on career planning, personal branding, and navigating major life changes.
Best for: Students nearing graduation, mid-career professionals, or anyone preparing for a significant life or career shift.
Focus: Managing transitions and designing fulfilling career paths.
This course provides strategies for career exploration, personal branding, and managing both expected and unexpected changes. Students create professional materials (résumés, online profiles), conduct networking interviews, and build a personal “transition toolkit” to help them adapt and thrive.
Why Take a Designing U Course?
Each course is hands-on, modular, and built around the Maverick Mindset, which promotes curiosity, resilience, adaptability, self-awareness, collaboration, and purpose. These courses provide a space to explore your next steps – without the pressure to have it all figured out.
By using real-life challenges as the foundation for learning, Designing U helps you create your own roadmap for success – academically, professionally, and personally.
Designing U courses are:
- Practical & Personalized: Use real-life experiences to create customized plans for your future.
- Supportive & Inclusive: Connect with peers and faculty who understand adult learner needs.
- Flexible & Action-Oriented: Start where you are and choose the course that matches your goals.
- Empowering: Build the confidence, clarity, and skills to design your next chapter—on your terms.