TechKnow
Role: UX Designer, Researcher
Scope : An educational web platform to transition people from ward 7th and 8th, D.C into dream tech careers
The Office of the Chief of Technology Officer in DC (OCTO) challenged my UX team to provide resources to increase employment, highlight careers that go unnoticed, and supply mentorship to guide users towards their desired career path .
We knew we wanted to eliminate barriers that keep people from pursuing jobs that are of interest or best fit them. We also wanted to enable them to explore pathways and help them plan courses toward new careers.
How might we help residents better understand their skills and passions, and connect them with possible career paths they never knew existed?
Project Timeline
Research
We began this project by accessing the audience in D.C and pinpointing our users. The population of D.C is predominantly Black/African American and most Ward 7 residents do not have a college degree . Ultimately we found that while African Americans make up the vast majority of the population they are often paid significantly less than white counterparts, averaging below 50K.
Competitors lack mentorship opportunities and affordability
After discovering our user base, we were able to start deciphering and comparing trends in other career websites that had similar missions to ours .These websites generally consisted of a career quiz and both classes and workshops.
We noticed that they lacked free or low cost mentorship, career coaching and scholarships available; all crucial resources to our user demographic.
My Team and I decided a website would be more effective for our users because they tend not to have access to the expensive Mac products or smart phones necessary for a mobile app. We also know that people tend to make big decisions on bigger devices.
Tech careers break barriers
The median range for tech wages in D.C is $114,304, that’s 41% higher than the median state wage in 2020. According to Indeed tech makes up 4/10 of the top roles Gen Z is interested in; data and cyber security being the top roles. Tech practically remained unaffected by the pandemic.
[there should be another line here about how you don’t need a college degree for tech. Then,
“For these reasons, pursuing a tech career is the best strategy for our users.” ]
Below is an affinity map displaying trends from the 17 interviews we held and notes we took from them.
Key Quotes
Rapid Design and Prototyping
We prioritized must-have features before the design phase to stick to only making components necessary for the MVP design.
For the design and prototyping stage, we used animation storyboarding in our design studio. Make it/break it — were we make quick variations of a page and break it down, keeping only components we all agree on for prototype
Personas
Key Features
We conducted 5 usability tests on our lo-fi prototype. User testing revealed our original way to search for mentors was overwhelming. We were giving users too much information at once. So we broke this search page down into two steps. First- pick your field THEN pick your career
After speaking to an actual tech mentor we learned that a ‘live chat’ was not the right platform to discuss serious topics like career paths. In his words, “Talks like that are better with someone’s undivided attention.” So we opted for an appointment feature instead of the chat bot.
We wanted our users to see all the different types of careers that go into one product. Now users can click into each job profile to learn more.
Mood/Style Guide
Component Library
Finished Product
Bringing delight into the design visuals for the users experience of accomplishment on finding the right fit at the end of taking TechKnows career quiz.
This is career overview profile , orienting the user on important elements involved in the users career choice; including information like stats , requirements to attain the job and what the job entails .
Testing Plan
Unmoderated testing on User zoom using criteria below
Moderated testing on User Flows
Moderated testing of components and features
Revising based on feedback often
Userzoom.com Testing Questions and Answers
Considering this site is for helping people find jobs in tech, is there anything you think is missing from the home page?
-“More clear on which & all sites I can get into Tech in” ,
- “No”
Write any opinions and suggestions here:
-”I feel like the Site can help. Just need more personal information to help guide them but definitely help in the right way.”
-”I love the idea and I think it’s something that will benefit someone looking into getting into a new role.”
Rate how you feel about the LOOK of the quiz : 1, 4
Rate how you feel about the NAVIGATION of the quiz : 3, 5
How do you feel about the ANIMATION on the results page: 4,5
Overall I thought the IDEA for the site was :4 ,5
The information presented was : 3,4
Next Steps
Find more scholarship partners.
Build out additional features and validating.
Add professional coaching to resources.
Expand scope to larger area.