About the project
As of August 2020, the youth unemployment rate was double that of the general population, and the rate of depression and anxiety symptoms in youth had soared.
I wanted to try and give hope and purpose to young people who are unable to attend school, have lost work, or have lost hope of finding work.
The problem
How can I help young people find work?
The design process
I used design thinking methodology to guide my project. This involved:
- User surveys and interviews
- User research analysis, affinity diagram
- User personas
- Journey maps
- Task analysis, user flows
- Competitors research, heuristic analysis
- Defining user needs and pain points
- Site map
- Low-fidelity wireframes
- Mid-fidelity wireframes
- Mid-fidelity working prototype
- Usability testing
- Refining the high-fidelity working prototype
Tools used
Quantitative research
I started by reaching out to young people on Reddit and Facebook groups with a survey.
My goals were to find out:
- Age, area (urban, suburban, rural), gender, living situation
- Source of income
- Financial stability
- Whether, how, and why they are looking for work
- How the pandemic has effected this
- Their difficulties and frustrations
Qualitative research
Unfortunately, despite collecting 60 survey responses and over 10 email addresses, none of the participants responded to requests for interview.
I collated the qualitative information from the survey responses into two affinity maps.
Competitor research and analysis
I researched several companies that offer solutions to traditional job seeking and posting websites.
User personas
I created 2 user personas using the data collected from my research.
Journey maps
I made journey maps for each persona, based on some trends I saw in the job hunting experience during the research phase.
Task analysis and user flows
User needs and pain points
I defined the main point points discovered during my research, and used the competitor research to find ways of addressing these issues.
Main functionality and site map
I began by brainstorming some vital functionality for my website. I then turned this information into a site map.
Product name
I brainstormed potential product names, using my research of competing services and relevant keywords.
Low-fidelity wireframes
I used Balsamiq to create low-fidelity wireframes of the main pages for job seekers.
Mid-fidelity prototype
I used Figma to create a mid-fidelity prototype of the site’s main task flows for job seekers.
User testing
After testing my prototype for basic functionality, I planned how to execute user testing.
My main goals were:
- Is it functional?
- Is it easy to navigate?
- Does it address the pain points identified by my research?
- 30th August – 1st September
- Online/remote
- Online Figma prototype (PC browser)
- Participants: people who fit the demographics and use cases identified in the research phase
- Apply for a job
- Book a mentor meeting
- Add skills to your profile
- Google survey with short and long-form answers
- Success/failure rate of task completion
- Errors
- Overall satisfaction ranking
- Qualitative feedback, suggestions
100%
Task success
0
Errors
Feedback
I collated the qualitative feedback into a chart, prioritised by severity.
High-fidelity prototype
I used the feedback received during my user testing to guide my final prototype design.
Logo and branding
I brainstormed some logos and palettes based on color theory and the nature of my target demographic.
Landing and home
Challenges and lessons
It was difficult to reach a diverse range of users to survey within my target demographic. Research had to be conducted remotely, with limited social media options via which to post a request for respondents, and I often got banned or had by post deleted by group admins.
Ideally a more effective way to reach this demographic would have been through targeted ads on other social media apps, though this method would have been expensive, and still not guarantee any of them would respond to a request to interview.
