Relaunch is a comprehensive tool to help anyone looking to take their skills in a new direction. A holistic and comprehensive approach allows users to find and follow a career path that is not only compatible with their personality and needs but is also sustainable according to market patterns.
This project was an opportunity to apply my understanding of the core concepts of user experience design toward the creation of a compelling digital user experience.
I chose to address the problem space of professionals in Canada looking to transition to another career. My ultimate goal was to provide anyone looking to switch careers with all the tools to discover and take action to make the career transition.
With unemployment rates at record highs and having experienced my own difficulties in discovering a career transition, I knew this problem space needed attention and a streamlined digital solution.
The solution for this problem space is relaunch, a native mobile application that makes the process of switching careers more efficient and cohesive with a comprehensive toolbox.
2020 was the year of layoffs as COVID-19 impacted several industries harder than others. Many unemployed Canadians were left to ask if their career or industry no longer offered reliable employment, unveiling an opportunity to change careers. Alternatively, many layoffs may have led to a sparked opportunity to made a desired career change to build existing skills in a new industry or role.
Those affected by this problem space are young professionals with various motivations for switching careers, such as career dissatisfaction or poor industry sustainability - aggravated significantly by COVID-19.
Individuals under the age of 40 are more than twice as likely to consider a job or career change when compared to those over the age of 50 so my target user is aged 20 to 40 years old.
I considered all the assumptions I was making for this design project to determine what I thought could be true. By mapping my assumptions based on risk and ability to validate I was able to prioritize assumptions and guide my research to validate them.
I believe that young professionals considering pivoting to a new career will benefit from customized guidance that combines external job market trends with personalized personality assessment.
How Might We highlight job opportunities for young professionals so they have the necessary information and guidance to select a sustainable and suitable path?
My secondary research provided insights into the current landscape for career switches, demonstrating that my target demographic is indeed seeking a career switch due to record-high unemployment rates. With many unemployed and long, drawn-out planning periods involved there is an opportunity for intervention.
35%
of Canadians
7.5%
Unemployment Rate
11 Months
of planning
are considering switching careers or have contemplated doing so.
for Canada in 2020, which is a record high in history.
is the average time spent planning for a career change.
Very limited digital solutions exist exclusively to mature Canadian professionals seeking guidance in their career switch. Existing solutions cater to the UK or US-based audience and do not have insights into external market forces, rather focusing solely on personality assessments.
Solutions for each area of the problem space do exist, but the user must visit resources on different mediums to access them. For example, government websites have job outlook reports but a user must cross-reference them with another career resource.
I conducted interviews with seven Canadians between the ages of 20 and 40 who were making a career transition. This helped to confirm assumptions made as well as collect insights including pain points, frustrations, behaviours, motivators and goals.
I also distributed an online survey to my network with screening questions to ensure my respondents fit my target demographic. This survey was helpful in identifying how job switchers currently do research and make decisions on changing careers.
The most relevant findings that emerged include:
The persona Daniel Hassan was developed by compiling interview and research insights, reflecting on the target users' pain points, goals, and behaviours.
The persona acted as a reference point throughout the design process to ensure all design decisions were user-centred.
I mapped the user's current experience of finding, selecting and takes the steps to switch into another career in the form of an experience map. This allowed me to identify the user's pain points and turn them into opportunities.
I used two tools to develop a value proposition for my product - a Value Proposition Canvas and Priority Mapping. These helped to identify the core functionality and features of my solution.
Our career pivoting service helps unemployed young professionals who want to determine the best career fit by eliminating incomplete toolboxes and supporting customized, high-quality career matching.
Based on the key opportunities identified in my research and Experience Map, I began to define the core functionality and features of my digital product by authoring over 30 user stories. The user stories helped to prioritize tasks to identify where to perform a design intervention.
The following Workflow Diagram illustrates the progressive distilling from the overarching theme to user stories and ultimately tasks which will translate into designs.
The core epic - an identified theme from user stories - that I selected was Discovery as it reflects the product value proposition the most.
The core user story that best responds to my design challenge is: As a pivoting young professional I want to explore compatible career options, so that I can efficiently discover those that best fit my needs.
Based on these I will expand on the task of Career Matching to focus on in my designs.
User interviews and secondary research revealed that the biggest need for intervention within the problem space is assistance with finding the appropriate job to pivot into.
I have therefore chosen to focus on the above-mentioned core epic, user story and task in order to optimize and streamline the process of finding a suitable career to pursue.
The following task flow diagram has our persona, Daniel, on the desired path within our digital solution. In this task flow, he is discovering potential careers to investigate and look into further. In this scenario, Daniel has already completed the compatibility testing within the app and is moving into exploration.
After determining the specific functionality that my target end-user would expect from my digital product I sourced User Interface Inspiration to begin developing interface components through sketching.
With my UI inspiration and task flow in mind, I began to develop screen-based interactivity and interface components through sketching and ideation, always considering my persona Daniel.
From my sketches, I developed mid-fidelity wireframes for iOS in Figma. In order to begin testing with users, I added interactivity to the prototype.
Improving usability by testing and iteration on designs.
I followed the iterative design process to ensure all functionality was sound before designing in high fidelity.
Using my mid-fidelity prototype I conducted two rounds of user testing before transitioning to high-fidelity product designs. I provided testers with tasks and scenarios to put the product to the test. The testing provided practical, real-time feedback that I mapped out to determine priority for implementation before incorporating it into the design.
The following are some highlights for feedback that were applied to the iterations of the design:
Improving usability by testing and iteration on designs.
The next development of my digital product included creating a visual identity for my brand. This process involved identifying key brand values & descriptors and compiling them into a moodboard. This then allowed me to extract a colour palette and begin developing the UI of my digital product. I also continued to draw UI inspiration to apply to my high-fidelity mockups.
After brainstorming potential names I chose the brand name ‘Relaunch’ as I find it highlights my mission to give unemployed Canadian professionals a means to launch into a second (or even third or fourth) career. I also found the name to be pleasant as well as flexible when it comes to branding and marketing.
After performing an audit of competitor logos and logos of existing companies named ‘Relaunch’ I sketched various wordmarks with the intention to stand out from competitors by being unique and identifiable.
Ultimately I selected the following logo and application icon based on my own preference and feedback I received. This wordmark is the most professional and memorable with good flexibility.
The icon is quite simple, clean and professional. The negative space of the geometric shapes creates an arrow that symbolizes a new direction when changing careers.
The following report includes a more detailed exploration of the visual identity for this project.
I developed a comprehensive iOS mobile application User Interface library. The library serves as a reference point and ensures the design elements remain consistent throughout.
See it all in action with the high fidelity interactive prototype that was designed and stitched in Figma.
I designed a device-agnostic marketing website that is responsive to both desktop and mobile viewports. This was an important element to design as it is one of the initial means for a user to discover and download my digital product. This website provided an opportunity to establish and develop the brand’s voice and key brand narrative to tell an evocative story through visual design principles.
After consideration and strategizing on how to maximize my reach in a way that makes the most sense for my user I chose to design my product for Desktop. My research shows that users use their phone more than their desktop for personal tasks, however, I feel this is an important viewport to include for the user to accomplish what they need to do on relaunch.
I genuinely believe the final product of relaunch will have an impact on the employment and careers industry to give professionals with existing skill-sets the swift ability to make a career transition with one easy-to-use toolbox that does the heavy lifting. Getting laid off or no longer finding satisfaction in one's career has a major effect on a person's quality of life and I believe this product has the potential to help.
Once relaunch is developed and launched in the Canadian market we will be able to see the real impact on the community and its value for the target user.
I also appreciated the value of usability testing to flush out any experience issues I couldn't anticipate myself during the design process. Having the user interact with the product in a natural way was critical and was pivotal in how I arrived at my final product.
The design of relaunch from exploration to high fidelity prototype on iOS and desktop has been an extremely fulfilling experience with many learnings and key takeaways.
Throughout this project, I learned the difficulty of removing self-bias from a design when you fit the target demographic. I constantly had to check in and ensure that my design decisions were being made from my persona Daniel's perspective and not my own.
Our next steps are to tackle the product backlog which includes various deliverables that are prioritized based on their impact. A major priority is developing the other task flows within the app, such as interacting with the community or completing assessments.
Furthermore, I believe there are infinite possibilities to expand on the capabilities of relaunch to add features such as mentorship matching and smart resume writing for various job descriptions.
Additionally, I would like to expand the platform integration to include Android and tablet to ensure we are available to all potential users.