Project overview
The product:
JOBArts is a job search service for collage graduates particularly focuses on creative positions in major companies. Since the target users are relativery young, the app and the website are visual-orientated to help users job hunting process make easier.
Project duration:
June 2022
The problem:
Art and design college graduates struggled to find job in companies compaere to university garduates. They have variety of skills but tend to fail in the early stage of job hunting process because most of job search website is heavily text-based.
The goal:
Design an app that will reduce art and design college graduates’ stress on online job hunting process.
Responsibilities:
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs, determining information architecture, and responsive design.
My role:
UX designer leading the app and responsive website design from conception to delivery
Understanding the user
●User research
●Personas
●Problem statements
●User journey maps
●Ideation
User research: summary
I focused on art and design college graduates to conduct research. Because they are more struggling to find job in companies compaere to university garduates. They have rich skills but tend to fail in the early stage of job hunting process because most of job search website is heavily text-based. They cannot show their works. There are several websites for creative workers, but those are not applicable for students and graduates.
Persona
Jun is a art student soon to be graduate from his college. He is currently hunting his first job, but struggling and getting tired about it. He believes that his ability to draw is demanded in major companies.
User journey map
To identify potential pain points and ways to improve Lisa's experience using the site, I created a user journey map.
Problem Statement
Jun is an art student soon to graduate from college looking for a opportunity in companies who needs more visual-orientated job search websites and apps because they can reduce stress from heaviliy text-based early stage job application via website.
Ideation
I did a quick ideation exercise to come up with ideas for how to address gaps identified in the journey map. My focus was specifically on quick application system by app.
Starting the design
●Paper wireframes
●Digital wireframes
●Low-fidelity prototype
●Usability studies
Paper wireframes
In the next step, I sketched paper wireframes for my app, keeping in mind the user pain points related to navigation, browsing, and find directions.
Digital wireframes
After ideating and drafting some paper wireframes, I created the initial designs for the JOBArts app. These designs focused on quick application system and visual-orientated layout.
Low-fidelity prototype
To prepare for usability testing, I created a low-fidelity prototype that connected the user flow of job search and application completion.
>View low-fidelity prototype
Usability study: parameters
Study type: Unmoderated usability study
Participants: 5 participants
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Location: Japan, remote
Length: 20-30 minutes
Findings
1 Inbox
People addressed that inbox (notification) would be easily overwhelmed
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2 Navigation
People had difficulty on navigation and search result page
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3 More feature
People wanted to have more feature such as calendar and company infos
Refining the design
●Mockups
●High-fidelity prototype
●Accessibility
Mockups
Before/after usability study
Based on the insights from the usability study, I made changes to improve the inbox organization by adding a screen to categorize the messages by sender.
Before/after usability study
I added texts under the icons and a hamburger menu button. Another the changes I made was to place while rectangular on the hero image so that the texts is readable.
Before/after usability study
In addition, I modified the results page to scrolling style from pressing arrows.
Before/after usability study
For additional features, I created schedule button and message button. So that the users can add events on the calendar.
High-fidelity prototype
The high-fidelity prototype followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype, including design changes made after the usability study.
>View high-fidelity prototype
Accessibility considerations
1
Clear labels for interactive elements that can be read by screen readers.
2
Higher contrast design system and visuals that can be recognized by people from various background
Responsive Design
●Information architecture
●Responsive design
Sitemap
With the app designs completed, I started work on designing the responsive website. I used sitemap to guide the organizational structure of each screen’s design to ensure a cohesive and consistent experience across devices.
Responsive designs
The designs for screen size variation included mobile, tablet, and desktop. I optimized the designs to fit specific user needs of each device and screen size.
Going forward
●Takeaways
●Next steps
Takeways
Impact:
Users shared that the app reduced stress to do job hunting. One quote from peer feedback was that “the JOBArts app is visually pleasing and that is truly encoulaging the college graduates’ career.”
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What I learned:
I learned that even though the problem I was trying to solve was a big one, diligently going through each step of the design process and aligning with specific user needs helped me come up with solutions that were both feasible and useful.
Next steps
Conduct research on how successful the app is in reaching the goal to help art college graduates.
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Add more educational resources for users to prepare for the job application and interviews.
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Consider more simultaneous features between app and website