CLIENT

CareerRipple

The client, CareerRipple, is a website that helps individuals early in their career gain real world UX experiences.

WHAT IS CAREERRIPPLE AND ITS MISSION?

CareerRipple’s mission to make tech careers more accessible by creating opportunities for professional development through real-world projects to gain experience through cross-functional collaboration and mentorship.


CareerRipple supports the following tech roles:

  • Product Strategy

  • UX Design

  • UX Research

  • UX Writing

  • Web Development

WHO ARE OUR USERS?

HEURISTIC ANALYSIS OF CURRENT DESIGN

I presented my design to the team and client for feedback looking for any areas that could be improved further. This design was well received.

INFO

TEAM
Project Lead/Manager
UX Researchers (4)
UX Designers (6)
UX Writer

MY ROLE
UX Designer

TIMELINE
November 2023 - August 2024

TOOLS
Figma, Google Drive, Slack

Faced with the challenge of starting a career in tech without guidance on how to break into the industry, CareerRipple’s purpose is to eliminate barriers by offering project opportunities to early career professionals to expand their skillset, build their portfolio, and gain collaboration experience on a multidisciplinary team.

WHAT PROBLEMS DO I NEED TO SOLVE?

SOLUTION

Create A Project

  • Adding, editing, or deleting questions is made easy with the addition of a question bank.

  • Project leads can create applications with ease, including specific questions and preferred skills for each role.

  • This creates more organization and efficiency in finding candidates for a project.

Apply To A Project

  • Streamlined the ‘Apply to Project’ process applicants must complete by reducing the number of total questions applicants are required to answer

  • Because users are early in their career, this provides every applicant with the opportunity to gain real -world experience and expand their skillset

GENERATIVE RESEARCH

Before jumping into a solution, I first conducted a heuristic analysis of the current design to identify any usability issues that would affect a user’s experiences while using the website. Below are my findings for areas that would need to be improved:

Some Confusion Over Design

  • Confusion about how a question is selected and added. How would the dropdown appear?

Lack of Options

  • There is no ability to edit, delete, or save. How does one modify or delete questions?

Visual Design of Questions

  • Uncertainty over how the add questions section will look overall when selected

DESIGN ITERATIONS - CREATE NEW PROJECT

The current design of the ‘Create A New Project’ pages did not showcase how the question bank would appear once selected.

Because of this, I designed a drop-down list to showcase what questions were available to select. In addition, I included edit and delete icons options for project leads to select from to revise or remove questions.

Second Iteration

After presenting my previous solution to the design team and stakeholder, the overall response was that it could be improved upon further. I made the following changes:

  • Moved the typed in question to appear above input field - feedback from client

  • Removed previous icons, adding a plus icon to simplify options to select from

  • Added drop-down checkbox for skills section

Participants did not like this design due to the following:

Too Many Questions To Answer

  • Some applicants were confused why lengthy questions were needed to apply, made it seem like a job application

  • Wanted all questions to be on one page

  • Most participants said they were unsure of how much to write and concerned it
    would affect application

Create new project

All participants did not like the role specific question section because they found it to be redundant or unnecessary

  • Participants who had experience leading a project said they did not want to spend the time reading through application responses

  • Participants said they would review other submitted materials instead such as case studies, resumes, or portfolio websites

Based on the usability testing results, I iterated the design.

  • Reduced the number of questions needed to apply to the project

  • Simplified the application process

  • All questions are one page instead of several pages to prevent users from feeling overwhelmed

Based on the usability testing results, I iterated the design.

  • Moved roles section further up on the page to make role selection the first action

  • Simplified the project creation process by remove questions related to the role entirely. Makes the process easier for leads when searching for individuals to add to a project

  • Any additional questions for specific roles will be reserved for the interview

NEXT STEPS

First Iteration

Third Iteration

USABILITY TESTING

After completing the third iteration of designs and presenting it to the design team and client, it was time to conduct a usability test with participants.

The UX Research team reached out to on various online communities searching for participants with experience leading UX projects as well as individuals still early in their UX career.

There were a total of 8 participants. Testing was conducted on the ‘Create A Project’ and ‘Apply to Project’ pages.

USABILITY TESTING RESULTS & FINAL ITERATIONS

Apply to project

  • Create a low fidelity wireframe guide with step by step instructions for newcomers to follow when applying to CareerRipple

Thank you!