Designing CareerUp — UX case study
As someone who started her career through self-study, I realize that I have slower development than other people out there. I think it is because I have some difficulties in figuring out what is more important and nobody to discuss.
Then, I met Mufti, he also needs someone to discuss his career. But, it is difficult to find someone who experienced and willing to share. In fact, many of our friends face the same problem.
Having a good career is the dream of many people. There are those who already know what they have to do to get there, however not a few are still confused and don’t even know where to start. It is also difficult to meet experts in the same field to discuss.
In this project, We want to help those people (and us) to find experts in certain fields, so we can discuss career planning and development with ease.
Design Process
We used this design process for the project.
1. Emphatize
Planning
Before designing the project, we began with brainstorming to find the topics related to career and divided it into two key ideas: career planning and development, and consultation. We decide to ask questions to our users to understand their consultation behavior.
- When the last time you did a career consultation?
- Who is the person you consult with?
- What do you consider when looking for a person to consult?
- How do you plan to meet that person?
- What are your concerns when you want to consult?
- Are you having trouble finding the right person?
- How do you feel after the consultation?
Interview
Mufti and I interviewed 3 students / fresh graduates and 3 professionals. The participants were in their 17s to 40s and had consulted on career planning. Because the answers we got were quite general, so we had to specify the problem we wanted to focus on.
2. Define
After doing the research, we collected information and discovered new insights from participants. We synthesized and group them based on the similarity used Affinity Diagram.
Now, we have 6 Design Mandates which are the action items for our observation problems. These are the main features that will be implemented on the app.
- Users can search for counselors who are experts in a particular field
- Give recommendation counselor based on their career
- Users can plan a schedule with the counselor
- Allow user to choose the date, schedule, duration, or method that fit them
- Use the digital payment
3. Ideate
Concept Model
We use the concept model as a visual representation of our idea. We find this method really helps us understand the app, also as a guideline of product scope.
User Jobs and User Flow
Before design the screens, we created User Jobs and User Flow to help us visualize the user’s movement through the app from the start point through to the final destination.
4. Prototype
Wireframe
We made the wireframes based on the concept model and user flow.
Hi-Fi Prototype
When creating the UI, we added and change some pieces like choose method payment and condition when payment is successful.
Result
User searching for a counselor
The app shows recommended counselors on the homepage based on user’s preference. User also can search other experts by keyword and filter. Counselor profile includes counselor information, their work experience, and achievements.
User creates a consultation schedule and makes payments
The app allows a user to create a consultation schedule by filling in the date, time, duration, and method based on their own preferences. In the end, user can choose the payment method to complete the process.
5. Validate
Usability Testing
We conducted an online usability test to validate the design with 6 participants are 3 students / fresh graduates and 3 professionals. We aimed to find out how they interact and think on this app. There are tasks that they need to do:
- User search for a UI/UX Designer expert named Tri Nugraha
- User creates a consultation schedule with him
- User makes payment. There are 2 conditions: success and failure.
Overall, all of the participants did the tasks easily and had only minor problems. We found some things that can be improve based on respondents’ experience and their feedback. Here are the key findings:
- Some participants didn’t understand that the “Cari Ahlinya” means to find a counselor.
With small button isn’t enough to take user’s attention to click this button. Some respondents directly go to Konsultasi menu on the bottom navigation.
- Users able to set their own filter while searching counselors
Respondents need a way to optimize their filtering because they want to find a counselor that fit with their references.
- Price is one of the top priority
On the search result page, the app gives the user multiple counselors to consideration. It is very typical of a user to compare prices while selecting a counselor.
- Total consultation and review are important things before selecting a counselor
Users can find out information about other user’s experiences based on their online reviews. That’s why online reviews can influence users purchasing decisions.
- A respondent thinks to change or cancel the schedule.
Some respondents asked whether they could change or cancel the schedule. In case they have other things to do on that day.
- The reminder checkbox is hard to select
Some respondents need more time while selecting the checkbox because the size is small.
Iteration
Give it more space
We improved the section by making the button bigger and removed the illustration. So, it can be noticed immediately by the user while accessing the homepage.
Optimize filtering function & counselor information
Filtering helps users to find what they are looking for by narrow down the search results to match their preferences.
We improved the filtering function by creating some categories based on user’s needs like Biaya Konsultasi, Keahlian, Topik, Rating dan Metode Konsultasi.
Provide useful and credible information
The main idea is to improve user’s experience on searching for a counselor by added online review and consultation records on the counselor’s page.
To make it much easier, we created a new tab for online review. So user doesn’t need to scroll all the way to read the review.
Make alert message findable & checkbox is accessible
User is unable to change or cancel the schedule because we want to keep the professionalism with the counselor.
By adding a warning message on the top, user can understand the situation and make an informed decision in creating a consultation schedule.
What I learned
In this project, I learned to use the Affinity Diagram and Concept Model as a method in my design process. I found that these methods are useful and help me gain a better understanding of the app.
This is my first time to conduct usability testing with users. I learned to create scenarios for them and observe their behaviors. I also learned to create prototypes with InvisionApp and exciting to explore another prototyping app. I learned a lot of new things from this project.
Thanks for reading my story! I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback. You can find me on LinkedIn. Cheers!✨
