Linda Rieublandou Portfolio

Career Start

Career Start is a database app that provides up-to-date information about today’s careers and industries.

ROLE

UX Researcher

UI/UX Designer

UX Researcher

UI/UX Designer

TOOLS

Figma

Google Docs

Adobe Photoshop

Figma

Google Docs

Adobe Photoshop

DATE/DURATION

Completed Jan 13, 2023

Duration 7 weeks

Completed Jan 13, 2023

Duration 7 weeks

The Problem Statement

Context

We will spend the majority of our lives working. Many of us will end up in careers we dislike or do not fit us. We are rushed to make these important career choices with little support and information.

Target

Career Start is a database app that provides accurate and up-to-date information on today’s jobs for people starting their career search. It removes the pain of scouring the web for information with an easy-to-use user interface.

My role was to research, design and test all user experiences and UIs related to this project.

Solution Overview - Main Features

Information Pages

Information on careers and industries laid out in an easy-to-read format.

Comprehensive Search

The ability to search for careers by industry or interests.

Connect with a Mentor

Connect with a professional in the career field of interest.

Research & Analysis

The goal for this project was to improve the career search experience. To get a better idea of what this looks like, I conducted secondary research to gain a better understanding of what career planning looks like in schools. To further confirm concretely my research findings, I conducted user interviews and competitive research.

User Interviews

I interviewed 5 people and asked them about their career planning experience. I asked them to specify what they didn’t like about the process. Everyone noted how difficult it was to find accurate information. When they did find good information, it was often taken from several resources.

Competitive Research

I found 4 non-profit and government-run career databases, all having similar search options, such as the searching via interests. While these websites were designed well, there was no mobile app or mobile-friendly site.

Goals

From the user interviews, the biggest pain point seems to be the lack of information. Here are some goals I had for this project:

Provide a space where accurate and current information on careers is available.
Provide an opportunity to connect with working professionals.

User Persona

To start answering the How Might We question, I identified 3 different user types - the student, the working professional, and the mentor.

I chose to use personas because it provided concrete and tangible experiences that allowed me to better empathize with the different needs of the various users.

User Flow

Once the users were defined, I started thinking about the user’s journey through the app. Designing user red routes helped to define which features were absolutely necessary, which helped to narrow down the minimum viable product (MVP).

Concepts, Sketching, Wireframes

After the basic user red routes were established, I started out with sketches for a basic idea of how the pages would look. Sketching helped visualize and solidify what the app could end up becoming. I confirmed the ease of the design with guerilla usability testing. I took the feedback from the testing and integrated them into the low fidelity wireframes I created using Figma. I continued to use Figma to iterate the designs.

Visual Design & Prototype

While I was sketching, I thought about what kind of visual design looks and feels like success. I chose dark blue and orange as my main colors because it reminded me of contrasting collegiate colors. The UI elements are pulled from Material 3 Design System (M3) for android devices. Other UI elements were designed to compliment the M3 Design System.

Style guide

Primary Colors

#205375

#FFFFFF

#FF7A29

Gray Colors

#000000

#484848

#D9D9D9

#F7F7F7

Secondary Colors

#4CAF50

#E54335

Typography

Roboto

32px

Roboto

32px

Heading 2

Roboto

24px

Roboto

24px

Heading 3

Roboto

17px

Roboto

17px

Heading 4

High Fidelity Designs

This is what the app looks like after putting the visuals into the basic wireframe.

Prototype

I created a prototype using the high fidelity designs. Piecing everything together really brought the app to life.

Link to Prototype: Career Start Prototype

I created a prototype using the high fidelity designs. Piecing everything together really brought the app to life.

Link to Prototype:

Career Start Prototype

Test: Validation, Usability, Feedback

I took my newly designed app into the real world for usability testing to see if my design addressed the users’ needs I learned from the research phase.

I conducted usability testing with 10 users, all who were in the midst of a career change or have gone through the career planning process.

These users were asked to gauge the ease-of-use of the app. I tested this by asking the users to complete the task of looking for information on a specific career and also the task of setting up a meeting with a mentor.

Nearly all users were able to complete the tasks without any help.

I took the feedback from the users who had trouble completing certain tasks and integrated them in the subsequent iteration of the app.

I took my newly designed app into the real world for usability testing to see if my design addressed the users’ needs I learned from the research phase.

I conducted usability testing with 10 users, all who were in the midst of a career change or have gone through the career planning process.

I took the feedback from the users who had trouble completing certain tasks and integrated them in the subsequent iteration of the app.

Challenges & Conclusion

Challenges

& Conclusion

Learnings

I learned about the design process that goes into end-to-end product development.
During user interviews, I was surprised by how all participants stated the importance of networking and growing their connections. This became a necessary feature in the MVP app design.
There were many challenges in the project, but the most difficult one came at the very beginning of the project. High school students didn’t want to be interviewed, and it was challenging because I envisioned making this app for them. After some consideration, I decided it was better to interview people with career planning experience.
While the whole project was a learning experience, I particularly liked analyzing the results from research and translating users’ experiences into design features in the app. It was challenging, yet very rewarding to see how positively users responded to the design.
I hit a lot of walls when it came to designing this app, but it was always the users that helped me find my way back to the drawing board. All of the users shared the same sentiment as a user named Soham, who said the app is a great idea and is something that is definitely needed.

I learned about the design process that goes into end-to-end product development.
During user interviews, I was surprised by how all participants stated the importance of networking and growing their connections. This became a necessary feature in the MVP app design.
There were many challenges in the project, but the most difficult one came at the very beginning of the project. High school students didn’t want to be interviewed, and it was challenging because I envisioned making this app for them. After some consideration, I decided it was better to interview people with career planning experience.
While the whole project was a learning experience, I particularly liked analyzing the results from research and translating users’ experiences into design features in the app. It was challenging, yet very rewarding to see how positively users responded to the design.
I hit a lot of walls when it came to designing this app, but it was always the users that helped me find my way back to the drawing board. All of the users shared the same sentiment as a user named Soham, who said the app is a great idea and is something that is definitely needed.

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Linda Rieublandou ⏤ 2023

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Linda Rieublandou ⏤ 2023

This website is best viewed on desktop