Role:
UX Designer (3 UX Designers, 1 Content Strategist)
Timeline:
February 2023
Type:
Western Founders Network Design Sprint
Skills:
UX research, Product Design, User Flow, Prototyping, Usability Testing
🤨 Problem
Moving to a new country is difficult. New Canadians often feel lost in the unfamiliar labour market. These difficulties are often compounded for gender minorities who may face even greater obstacles when it comes to securing work.
✅ Solution
Grapevine, an application that connects gender minorities newcomers in Canada with mentors that can help guide them through the job searching process!
Solution Overview
Grapevine connects newcomers with mentors and helping them kick start their professional career in Canada.
Mentorship & Networking
Creates meaningful network and connections
Becoming familiar with occupational language
Finding jobs through networking
Immigrant-friendly job postings & Resources
Finds jobs that match their skills
Eligible job postings that help offer "Canadian Experience" asked by employers
Resources offer more learning about Canadian Profession etiquette and application process tips
Gamification to support the journey
Introduce levels and streaks to encourage daily engagement
Break down tasks into smaller, achievable to-dos
But, how did we get from our problem to the solution?
User Research
Lack of connection is making the job search more difficult.
We first decode different pain points from the prompt about a newcomer in Canada struggles to find a job despite their qualifications. We sought out 4 main problems from the given story.
Lack of connections
Difficulty finding job postings
Employers neglecting foreign education
Language and cultural adjustments
🔍 The deeper roots: Women and gender minority face more difficulty in job search.
To explore more about the underlying problems, we looked into different articles, stats and personal stories both online and though primary users interview. Here are out key insights:
Immigrant women with children are assumed to prioritize family over career, but the same is not expected of immigrant men.
2 in 5 immigrants reported lower paying jobs since immigrating.
I have 3 years of engineering experience and have sent 100+ job applications with no interviews. Some say it's about connections, but as a new immigrant, I have few. I'm social and not shy. Am I doing something wrong?
Tara, 31
“You are bombarded with that message — ‘hey, go home, take care of your kids.’ A guy across from my desk who has a child the same age as my kids will not get any of those messages.”
Dina, 29
Our team going through our research findings together
Ideation
⚡️This can’t just be another LinkedIn.
We started by checking out what’s already out there, exploring similar products to see what they’re doing well and where they’re falling short.
From there, we dug into where we could make a real difference. We identify different design opportunities and did a feature brainstorming session.
Once we had explored our potential solutions, we started to think more practically. We did a prioritization grid to see what ideas are feasible in the given 48 hours sprint.
Road Block #1
👩 Mentor? Who would want to be a job search coach?
Since we have landed on a mentorship & networking application, we were initially skeptical about mentor sign-up incentives. However, the success of ADPList demonstrated a strong willingness among people to help others, especially if they had been in similar situations.
Our research findings also suggest that people are willing to mentor when they see value in giving back, expanding their network, or improving their own leadership skills.
Having faced the challenges of immigrating and job hunting, I want to help others who are going through the same difficulties.I can recall one heart-to-heart talk with a woman who didn’t feel ready to go through a job interview. I've been on that end and I want to give back to the woman I was 12 years ago.
Persaud, 48
Flow
2 Main user flows to focus on both the mentee and mentor.
Since we are developing a networking app where both mentees and mentors are users, we thought it would be effective to display two separate flows - one for the mentee and one for the mentor. This will make sure that each user has a tailored experience based on their role.
Iteration #1
What goes on the navigation bar?
We went through a couple navigation tab iteration during our wireframing process. Two key tab that should be included are Home and Networking since networking are the core of this application.
We also took out the Job tab out from the mentor flow as it is not beneficial to them.
After our user testing, we learned that having Messages in the navigation bar is more beneficial to users as meaningful conversation starts with a conversation.
Iteration #2
Readjusted the buttons to increase touch area
Increasing touch size by reducing the numbers of button, increase touch space with padding and nested filter under the "Filter" icon.
Iteration #3
Increased job cards touch area
We learned that there is no need for the touch space of the card to be that small. Even without the button, users will promptly click on the card and thus, we should make the entire card a touch area.
Iteration #4
Improved UX copy to promote genuine connection
Lastly, we changed the UX copy on our mentor card to a more friendly language!
Considerations
We make sure our app is accessible, inclusive, and respects privacy, so everyone can feel comfortable using it.
We ensure AAA accessibility standards on all screens, be transparent about why we are collecting certain information such as ZIP code and include an inclusive onboarding process.
Considerations
What I've learned
Coming up with a design system early on
Given that it was a 48-hour hackathon, having a fully developed design system might not have been feasible or necessary, but establishing the basics would have helped ensure consistency and saved time when refining the final product. We spent more time than we initially wanted to refine our screens.
The magic of collaboration!
Working in teams with 4 other designers who are in different timezones was a challenge. However, it was fun and very fulfilling. We learned how to communicate effectively and bounce ideas of each other quickly! We also learn a ton on how we would go about breaking down tasks and collaborating.