WHAT

Analysis

why

To make sense of huge amount of data generated from primary and secondary research

how

Did experience and thematic analysis to find out possible solutions to problems and designed a navigation structure for the application.

Experience analysis

The following activities were performed as a part of experience analysis.

Problem-solving : The existing mental models derived from secondary research and solutions were brainstormed for the user problems.
Solution recommendation : The unique linear flows were identified and listed in detail in this stage.

Experience threading : The whole experience of users was threaded in this stage by referring to all listed unique ideal flows and necessary peripheral flows. While all the flows are collated , they are getting mapped as per-condition flows, ideal flows and post-condition flows to make sure that threading of experience is complete.

Thematic Analysis

The following activities were performed in thematic analysis.

Affinity Mapping : All ideal flows identified in the experience analysis were listed and main menu items were provided with labels. Hierarchy of the information was established by defining a navigation system.

Navigation prototype testing : A navigation prototype with all the navigation labels was shared with the participants on a zoom session. The participants validated the prototype and provided insights about the possible improvement in the navigation of the app.

WHAT

Wireframes

why

To sketch out the structure of complete app with basic details before jumping into visual designs. It helped identify basic issues with flows and layout of basic features.

how

Made wireframes for each main section that solved a particular problem by listing out all functionality details. Detailed steps to reach that screen were also listed.

Guide my

Career

Helping people make better career decisions

A UX Case study

Guide my

Career

Helping people make better career decisions

A UX Case study

Guide my

Career

Mobile application for students and working professionals

Expected to help users in making career decisions

Offers solutions to questions like

What career to choose?

What to study for a selected career?

How to grow in a chosen career?

The Solution

View Designs

WHAT

Market Research

why

To understand and gain a deeper understanding of the problem

how

Read and collected data from differnet sources on the internet

WHAT

Primary Research

why

To gain insights and understand audience behavior, needs, preferences, and experiences with career guidance products and services.

how

Conducted 3 different surveys and interviewed 11 users to gain insights about their pain points and challenges.

THE PROCESS

The following activities were conduced as a part of Primary research.

Qualitative Influential Attributes (QIAs) Survey
This survey was conducted to validate the behaviors, habits, aptitudes and attitudes of audience identified during secondary research.

Exploratory Survey
This activity was done to validate the finding of secondary research and generate user response data that is utilized in the formation of user groups

User Study & User Group Formation
This study was done to collate and evaluate user response data received form surveys to form user groups based on similarities and patterns in user responses.

User Interview and outcomes
User interviews were conducted to discover qualitative insights about user attitudes, beliefs, desires and experiences. Interview recordings were analyzed for deriving the user problems.

Causal Survey
This survey was conducted to validate the user problems derived from the user interviews. Insights from the survey responses were further studied and Interpretations were made.

The Problem

More than 90% of Indian households have limited or no access to Career Guidance.

“

”

Let me illustrate the problem with a short story about Hrithik.

Hrithik Kapoor

Hrithik, a 12th class student is enrolled in engineering entrance coaching which he hates.His father wants him to become a chemical engineer like him and do a government job. Hrithik thinks he does not belong to engineering field.

He is passionate about art, sketching things and building model aero planes. But he does not know what to do with his passion and choose a career that offers some interesting work for him.

Due to lack of guidance and influence of his parents, Hrithik had to study chemical engineering despite his lack of interest in the field.

The prototype is fully clickable.
Try it!

Prototype

Onboarding

The early versions of onboarding included 3 screens only that showcased the 3 major features of the application including career discovery, exploration and advice.

During usability test, 2 out of 5 users faced difficulty while deciding what section they wanted to explore when they did not had any idea about their careers.

So the onboarding screens were increased to 7 with a questionnaire to guide the user based on what the user had in mind while using the app the for the first time.

Latest Onboarding

After several iterations, it was realized based on feedback from design mentor that onboarding was quit long for the new user. So a new shorter onboarding was designed that included 3 screens showing the major offerings of the application.

Mentors section

The first draft for mentor home screen included a CTA for viewing mentors along with links to popular career fields.

The design of mentor section was optimized by listing professional fields at the top. This was expected to improve experience for users who were searching mentors from a specific field.

First draft

Latest design

It was discovered during the usability study that users wanted to see mentors with different level of experience.

I introduced a new tab at the top to sort the mentors based on experience.

First draft

Latest design

Mentor’s profile

About section

Review section

Career news

The first draft included a blog section where the user can read articles related to career on various topics.

After several iterations. I realised that a career news section is expected to be more engaging for the users as compared to a blog section.

A user is more likely to check recent updates about careers than checking on occasional articles on the blog.

First draft

Latest design

Key learnings

Time management and Prioritization matters

The initial months of the project were challenging, as I had to balance a full-time job and family responsibilities alongside the project. Steady progress was elusive until I enhanced my time management skills and prioritized the project. By dedicating early mornings and weekends to the project, I was able to successfully complete it.

Time management and Prioritization matters

Side projects amplify skill development

Working on a side project can be highly rewarding, offering opportunities to learn diverse skills. I gained experience with tools ranging from interview transcribing to animation. Developing survey and interview questions honed my communication and writing abilities. Additionally, my networking and persuasion skills improved as I convinced participants to join the study.

Contact

Home screen

The home screen of first draft was designed to include all the different sections/features of the app.

Different CTA’s were provided for the users to navigate to various solutions that appealed to them.

The latest home screen design was arrived after several iterations and feedback from mentor.

I optimized the home screen so that user can view all features of the app in the first fold itself.

A new section that covered all the major offerings of the app was introduced in the first fold.

This section was expected to reduce confusion among user about the first steps to be taken when they arrive on the home screen for the first time.

JOB TRENDS

The Evolution of Job Search: From Newspaper Classifieds to Online

17 March

Pooja Sharma

NEW CAREERS

Future of engineering: Trends and opportunities for BTech students

19 March

Balaji Srinivas

INDUSTRY EVENTS

Tata Punch gets all the limelight in the recent EV expo

20 March

Ankita Tiwari

NEW CAREERS

The future of work: Advantages of pursuing a career in AI

21 March

Tarun Karthikeyan

Rajat Sinha

Software engineer

Google

Anika Banerjee

AI architect

Vikram Singh

Asst. Manager

Bhavna Sharma

Project manager

Reliance Jio

Improved the mentor section by showing the company name more prominently and improved the design of cards

Introduced the career news section instead of blogs to increase engagement with users.

When a user returns to home screen after completing assessment

When a user returns to home screen without completing the assessment

Career Assessment

The first draft for the career assessment home screen included brief description about the career assessment section.

It was discovered during the usability studies that participants found the assessment too long and they did not understand the need for every section.

I improved the introduction screen to educate the user better about how is the assessment section is structured and what each section will accomplish.

First draft

Latest design

Different assessment sections

The complete career assessment was divided into four different sections. Images and illustrations were used for providing clear context to the user.

Assessment Results

The initial design of results screen showed only a congratulatory message with different CTAs for viewing results and career recommendations.

I optimized the design by providing only 1 CTA. The copy was made more interesting by including the name public figure to create interest in user to click and check results.

3rd design iteration

Latest design

Explore careers

The first draft of the explore career section included two horizontal sliders for emerging and all careers. This design did not appealed visually and was following a similar pattern.

I optimized the Explore section by using smaller card sizes to provide more information to user in the first fold.

Similar illustrations were used to maintain visual balance.

All career section was optimized by listing all career options on the screen which were earlier provided in the horizontal carousal.

First draft

Latest design

The individual career section had lot of text and the links to specific career paths had limited affordance.

The design was optimized by having a video in the overview and link style buttons were used for better affordance.

First draft

Latest design

During usability study, one of participants expressed the need to view mentors related to a particular career path in the section itself.

The design was optimized by presenting all information on the same screen. The user could reach any section by scrolling or clicking on the tabs at the top.

A floating button along with a tool tip was introduced so that users can approach professionals related to any particular field and get some career advice.

First draft

Latest design

User profile

The other major purpose of providing a user profile section along with storing the user details was to offer personalization to the users by offering them different recommendations based on their assessment results, education and professional qualifications.

Feature lock was introduced to prompt the user to complete their profile.

Users can access and modify the their online sessions from the profile section.

Lets create excellent products!

Email me

vikassethi2007@gmail.com

96546 65889

Twitter (X)

Medium

vsdesigns.com

Lets create excellent products!

Email me

vikassethi2007@gmail.com

96546 65889

Twitter (X)

Medium

vsdesigns.com

Guide my

Career

Helping people make better career decisions

The Problem

More than 90% of Indian households have limited or no access to Career Guidance

Let me illustrate the problem with a short story about Hrithik.

Hrithik Kapoor

Hrithik, a 12th class student is enrolled in engineering entrance coaching which he hates.

His father wants him to become a chemical engineer like him and do a government job. Hrithik thinks he does not belong to engineering field.

He is passionate about art, sketching things and building model aero planes. But he does not know what to do with his passion and choose a career that offers some interesting work for him.

Due to lack of guidance and influence of his parents, Hrithik had to study chemical engineering despite his lack of interest in the field.

The Solution

Guide my

Career

Mobile application for students and working professionals

Expected to help users in making career decisions

Offers solutions to questions like

What career to choose?

What to study for a selected career?

How to grow in a chosen career?

View Designs

WHAT

Market Research

why

To understand and gain a deeper understanding of the problem

how

Read and collected data from differnet sources on the internet

Market size

40 Crores

Youth Population

30 Lakhs

Graduate students per year

Market problems

92% Indian

families have limited career guidance from schools and institutions

93% students

are just aware of just 7 career options

1:3000

Student : counsellor ratio is way less than international standard of 1:250

86% Indian

parents are concerned about the choice of the higher education

Current and future impact of problem

75%

of employers find it difficult to hire the right talent

No Jobs

47%

Youth unemployable

24.5 Crore

Talent surplus by 2030

51%

Youth face difficulty due to lack of career guidance

8.5 Crore

Talent deficit by 2030

WHAT

Secondary Research

why

To gain greater understanding target audience, competing products & services and mental models of existing users.

how

Conducted demographic study, comparative study and mental model analysis.

Research insights

There is no collaborative platform existing today that can connect students, professionals, and counselors for knowledge sharing and cooperation.

There is an absence of any feature where students and early-stage professionals can experience different occupations through short assignments and internships.

There is no feature available in existing apps that list industry professionals who can mentor people about their areas of expertise.

WHAT

User Interviews

why

To gain qualitative insights user attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. To understand the exact pain points of users related to career guidance.

how

Conducted online structured interviews with participants and recorded the interviews for further study.

I managed to interview only 11 users out of 16 users who agreed as some people did not show up and some had other urgent issues at the time.

After deep study of user interview recordings, key user problems related to the business case were identified. Some major user problems identified are as follows.

User problems

Difficulty in transitioning to a new skill

Difficulty in determining the important career skills

Uncertainty and confusion in identifying personal interests and aligning them with skills

Uncertainty regarding personal passion and interest in any field.

Influence of family and external expectations on decision-making related to careers.

Limited understanding of the rapidly changing skill requirements

Challenges in sustaining and improving skills to stay competitive

Lack of career guidance and mentorship in their career.

Limited research , lack of awareness and comprehensive information about career options.

WHAT

Analysis

why

To make sense of huge amount of data generated from primary and secondary research

how

Did experience and thematic analysis to find out possible solutions to problems and designed a navigation structure for the application.

Experience analysis

The following activities were performed as a part of experience analysis.

Problem solving : The existing mental models derived from secondary research and solutions were brainstormed for the user problems.

Solution recommendation : The unique linear flows were identified and listed in detail in this stage.

Experience Analysis 1

Root cause 1

Lack of self-awareness and clarity in personal interests

User problem set 1

BEH

a) Uncertainty regarding personal passion and interest in any field.

Current mental model

Career assessment

Click on CTA on the landing page.

Click on get started CTA on solutions page.

Click on get started on Assessment page.

Enter mobile number and proceed to assessment page and click get started.

Read instructions and start the test.

Pick a test language.

Answer the top challenge question.

Answer the most valuable questions.

Read instructions before test and proceed to assessment dashboard.

Choose language on assessment dashboard and start the part 1 assessment.

Answer the practice and assessment questions on the different parts of assessment.

Proceed to book a counseling session after the test completion.

Read counseling session guidelines and pick up three different time slots for session.

Buy the counseling plan.

Proposed Solutions

EA1/RC1/UP1/a

Career assessment-Beginner

BEH

Correction

Select career assessment on homepage.

Enter personal details if not registered.

Read instructions for assessment and start assessment.

Complete different parts of assessment.

Book a counseling session by selecting a suitable date and time.

Complete payment and get a session confirmation on email.

EA1/RC1/UP1/a

Interest and Personality assessment

BEH

New

Click on start assessment.

Enter personal details if not registered.

Read instruction and start self reflection exercise.

Answer subjective questions in self reflection exercise.

Read instruction and start Interest assessment.

Complete interest assessment.

Read instruction and start Personality assessment.

Complete personality assessment.

Get partial assessment results and Book a complete evaluation session with expert.

Receive session confirmation email.

Experience threading : The whole experience of users was threaded in this stage by referring to all listed unique ideal flows and necessary peripheral flows. While all the flows are collated , they are getting mapped as pre-condition flows, ideal flows and post-condition flows to make sure that threading of experience is complete.

Pre-condition flow(s)

Ideal flow(s)

Post condition flow(s)

View/edit profile page

Career assessment-Beginner

Interest and Personality assessment

View assessment report

View recommended career clusters

Career Explorer

View Career paths

View profile recommendations

Skill Recommendation & Transition roadmap

View career tools

Career Information System

Search a career/job role

View Career paths

Find a skill

Learn a skill

Assess a skill

Skill learning Roadmap

Course listing & Rating

Curated learning materials

View/edit profile page

Interest and Personality assessment

Find a mentor

View mentor recommendations

View mentor profile

Rate a mentor

Get a Personal Mentor

Manage meetings

Reschedule meetings

Cancel a meeting

Find a skill

Explore a skill

Bookmark a skill

Curated learning materials

Course listing & Rating

Search a course

View/share a course

Learn a skill

Assess a skill

Skill learning Roadmap

Project based Learning

View skill report

Career Information System

Find a skill

Learn a skill

Project based Learning

View a Project

View/Edit project roadmap

Upload a Project

Curated learning materials

Course listing & Rating

Search a course

View/share a course

Career assessment-Beginner

Career Assessment-Intermediate/Advanced

Interest and Personality assessment

View assessment report

Skill Recommendation & Transition roadmap

Find a mentor

Get a Personal Mentor

Manage meetings

View Career paths

Find a skill

Learn a skill

Assess a skill

Career Information System

Find a skill

Curated learning materials

View assessment report

Course listing & Rating

Search a course

View/share a course

Thematic Analysis

The following activities were performed in thematic analysis.

Affinity Mapping : All ideal flows identified in the experience analysis were listed and main menu items were provided with labels. Hierarchy of the information was established by defining a navigation system.

Labels

User Problem

Business case

Reasoning

Blog

Insufficient literacy about employment laws impacting career decisions & salary negotiation and Limited understanding of rapidly changing skill requirements.

Education and Skill awareness

Blog will be accessible to all users. No sign-up will be required for the users to access information in the blog except for some premium content that will be accessible only after user signs up.

Profile

All problems

All business cases

This is an important section and will be accessible to user from the home screen. User will have to provide personal details to complete this section. Also user will acess all personalized recommendations in the profile section.

Self awareness guide

External influences and opinions creating confusion and uncertainty in career decision-making, requiring guidance in filtering and evaluating external opinions.

Career awareness

This section will be available to user on the home screen. This will further provide access to self awareness exercises and career tools. This section is important and need to appear on home screen as user may not ready for other features such as career assessment. They can acess this feature and solve their issues related to career decisions and guidance.

Career Information system

Limited research , lack of awareness and comprehensive information about career options.

Career awareness

This section will is highly important and will appear on the home screen. This will provide all information to users related to careers solving the problem of lack of awareness and limited information about career options.

Start career guide

Challenges in job search and transition from college to work.

Career guidance

This section is important and wil be availael on home screen. This will provide help to users who need help in job search and start of their careers.

Career assessment

Uncertainty regarding personal passion and interest in any field.

Career guidance

This section will appear on home screen as this will form the core part of solution offered to users.This section will furthet provide access to assessment tools that will help the user identify their interest and gain awareness.

Help

All problems

All business cases

The help section is important for providing better services to the user. If user is facing any issue or they are not able to find anything . then they can access this section and get some help.

Navigation prototype testing : A navigation prototype with all the navigation labels was shared with the participants on a zoom session. The participants validated the prototype and provided insights about the possible improvement in the navigation of the app.

Onboarding

The early versions of onboarding included 3 screens only that showcased the 3 major features of the application including career discovery, exploration and advice.

During usability test, 2 out of 5 users faced difficulty while deciding what section they wanted to explore when they did not had any idea about their careers.

So the onboarding screens were increased to 7 with a questionnaire to guide the user based on what the user had in mind while using the app the for the first time.

7 Onboarding screens revised after usability test

Latest Onboarding

Home screen

The home screen of first draft was designed to include all the different sections/features of the app.

Different CTA’s were provided for the users to navigate to various solutions that appealed to them.

The latest home screen design was arrived after several iterations and feedback from mentor.

I optimized the home screen so that user can view all features of the app in the first fold itself.

Latest design

When a user returns to home screen after completing assessment

When a user returns to home screen without completing the assessment

Career Assessment

The first draft for the career assessment home screen included brief description about the career assessment section.

It was discovered during the usability studies that participants found the assessment too long and they did not understand the need for every section.

I improved the introduction screen to educate the user better about how is the assessment section is structured and what each section will accomplish.

Different assessment sections

The complete career assessment was divided into four different sections.

Images and illustrations were used for providing clear context to the user.

Assessment Results

The initial design of results screen showed only a congratulatory message with different CTAs for viewing results and career recommendations.

I optimized the design by providing only 1 CTA. The copy was made more interesting by including the name public figure to create interest in user to click and check results.