Conceptualizing Careerfinder, a career and mentorship platform for youth, based on research and input from volunteers while utilizing the design thinking process.
📋 Overview
Without a mentor or role model that one can look up to, the work force can be discouraging and intimidating. Society has many obstacles inhibiting young people from not only pursuing but also finding their dreams.
When children have mentors and people they can relate to, they feel more included, empowered, and encouraged to follow their dreams. Careerfinder is an application that provides a space for youth to be exposed to careers that they typically would not know about in their current environment. The application aids youth in building a supportive system of people that they can relate to in the career force, and be mentored by.
Empathize
The Problem Youth need to see representation in the workforce for them to be encouraged to pursue careers that can be otherwise seen as unattainable.
Define
❓How might we
👍 The Solution
→ centering youth in the process of user research to understand their perspectives & needs.
→ designing a prototype that is user friendly, intuitive, safe, and visually appealing.
Ideate
🤝🏽 Interview Session
For my data collection method, I interviewed elementary aged students.I was curious to see if their interests and hobbies linked to potential career options that they would consider for themselves.
My interviews allowed me to gain insight on the mind of a child. Kids don’t always understand that anything can be a job and turned into a career. From my interviews, it is now clear to me that early exposure to possible careers and participating in activities that could be developed into jobs is vital for youth finding careers that they are passionate about.
Youth Interview Notes📒 Design Methodology
I created a session plan to find out how children would react to having an opportunity to meet, discuss, and learn from people with jobs that they may not know a lot of information about. For my design session, I worked with two children and three adults , which participated as the mentors and educators. My design session worked effectively and gave me insight to how it would work if carried out in a real world situation.
Session PlanPrototype
📱 The Application
This application allows users to find careers and mentors based on their interests, preferred education level, and desired salary. It is for youth to meet, discuss, and shadow people in their area to learn about career options. Users can attend sessions in-person, online, or prerecorded that give them a glimpse into that career. Youth can input their preferred education level, income, and interests. Filters for the location, date, and time for sessions are also available.
🗒 Sketching & Mid Fidelity
I created a rough sketch and low-fidelity prototype and tested it among peers and interviewees. I received feedback on the initial prototype based on five critique sessions.
Sketch Feedback: I added in a drop-down menu to provide user's with option but prevent excessive text while signing up. I changed the layout from a grid to a vertical layout to increase usability and organization, and added a "Keep Browsing" on the exit page to provide improved navigation.
Mid-Fidelity Feedback: I introduced location, time, and date features to allow for users to better navigate and filter through results. I added a "saved sessions" page for users to organize interests before checkout, as well as a messaging system as a safe communication source for mentors and users.
🧱 Component Library
🙌 High Fidelity
Assessment
💬 The Platform
Advantages: This design can feature unlimited of careers. Because there are virtual sessions, there is no limit to the careers on the app that users can explore.
Disadvantages: The app is free, so the mentor system would be volunteer based. Another disadvantage is safety - children need to be aware of stranger danger, online and in- person.
Requirements: With this design, users can use the app as frequently as possible, a variety of mentors, and small session sizes. It is accessible for all users, and easy to navigate.
Feedback: I tested out the app prototype with two children, ages 8 and 10, by giving them the virtual prototype and seeing how intuitive the actions were for them. Although they were able to properly use the app, the initial color palette (orange and yellow) caused confusion as to what call to actions were. With this feedback, I changed the colors to blue and yellow for a greater contrast and more intuitive actions. I also made cartoon avatars instead of real photos to make the app have a more play and creative theme. This made the app more inviting for the participants.