Horizon
Overview
As part of Google’s immersive UX certificate program, my prompt for the project is to design a tool to help first-generation immigrants start a new career.
Process
Empathize
- Market Research
- Competitive Analysis
- User Interviews
- Empathy Maps
Define
- Personas
- User Journey Maps
Ideate
- User Flow DiagramWireframes
- Low-Fidelity Prototype
- Usability Tests
Refine
- High-Fidelity Mockups
- High-Fidelity Prototype
Evaluate
- Usability Studies
Business Problem
Many people were dissatisfied with their careers.
The pandemic had made many people reconsider their life. According to a recent survey, many respondents expressed strong dissatisfaction with their careers. Some even have taken the action of seeking jobs with more growth opportunities.
With almost 4 in 25 US workers being foreign-born, many immigrants are likely in the same position.
Many available career resources were a collection of articles.
After exploring three different career resources - career blog, job board resource, and government-sponsored career site - it seems like these resources mainly provide articles to address specific job seeker needs.
Challenge
How would I design a tool to help immigrants find a desired career?
Understanding the Users
There was a wide range of education levels among foreign-born workers.
A 2018 research indicated that the educational levels varied among US immigrants from different regions. Immigrants from Mexico were 25% of the total immigrant population, and over half of them did not have a high school diploma. Similarly, a little under half (47%) of immigrants from Central America did not have a high school diploma. On the contrary, over 75% of immigrants from other regions have a high school diploma.
Many immigrants felt that their career options were limited.
Through interviewing 5 matching people, I discovered that they would love a better job, but they had no idea what they could do to obtain one.
Time
People felt that they did not have enough time to accomplish any big task.
Daunting
Many people expressed that they felt overwhelmed by just thinking about their futures.
Based on the research and the interviews, I identified the two main types of users.
While Interviewees crave better opportunities, they are intimidated to start planning.
Mateo is a busy delivery driver who needs easy-to-access resources for career development because he doesn’t have time to research.
I do not have the time and energy to research or plan my career change after work.
Li Ling is a retail sales associate who needs guidance on career development because she isn’t satisfied with her current job.
My job is repetitive and not fulfilling. I hope that I can have a better one.
Revisiting the Prompt
Users needed more guidance on career development.
The feedback received through research made it very clear that users would be open and willing to advance to their career path if they had access to an easy-to-follow guide.
Iterating the Solution
User flow diagram helped me narrow down the needed elements to address the user needs.
To ensure an intuitive experience, I explored the possible user actions with user flow diagram before any wireframes.
Getting the entry point right was critical to make the planning process approachable.
Based on the interviews, career planning was too much to handle for many users. Thus, clearing all possible obstacles from the entry point was my primary focus.
Language Option: Users could explore their career options in their preferred languages.
Career Assessment: The assessment provided additional guidance to users who were undecided about their careers.
Trending Careers: These trending careers could be sorted differently, which allowed users to get a general sense of the career options.
Guides for Landing Jobs: Detailed guides on the different steps of the employment process prepared users to land their desired jobs.
Image-based assessment minimized the impact of the language barrier and education gaps.
The primary users were from many different regions, and their education levels varied. For a more accessible assessment, keeping it short and simple was necessary.
Low fidelity prototype revealed the major missteps of the design.
Through remote unmoderated usability tests with 5 people, I learned that participants thought the app was a job board as well due to the poor word choices. Additionally, most participants were discouraged to proceed due to the account requirement.
Furthermore, few participants expressed that they felt the results weren't believable, likely because of the lack of direct connection between their answer and the report.
Users needed some clarification on the app's functionality.
In addition to the removal of the account requirement, I added a splash screen with a short copy under the new logo to set user expectations.
Correlation is necessary for persuasion.
To help users see the impact of their selections, I added a chart to visualize their assessment performances.
High fidelity prototype provided the needed reevaluation on the new adjustments.
In the second round of remote unmoderated usability tests, participants responded very positively to the whole experience and wished that they had access to this app when they were in school.
The layout of the web version is adjusted to better respond to the visitors' needs.
While the app focuses on getting users started with planning their careers with assessment, I shifted the focus to career exploration on the web version since visitors would likely be actively planning already.
Final Result
An intuitive career planner that improved satisfaction ratings from medium to high in the final usability study.
A quote from user feedback
Not only immigrants, I think all people would benefit from this app, especially the high school and college students.
Learnings
I learned that even though the problem I was trying to solve was to a specific group of people, the design ended up being a solid solution for all users.
The next steps for this project would be designing the remaining screens and finishing the web page conversion of other screens.
Thanks for taking the time to review my work. If you have a project opportunity or design feedback, please feel free to send me an email: