A concept web app that aims to eliminate barriers keeping people from exploring and pursuing new careers by providing educational resources and support.
Overview
Each year 32% of Americans make a dramatic career change. Pivvot is a platform that helps job seekers network with working professionals, to gain insight on the day-to-day skills and requirements in their desired role. Because there are an innumerous amount of pathways and career options to choose from, job seekers spend many long hours searching through countless websites and videos for career options. Often left feeling overwhelmed and unable to feel confident in a decision.
Team
Zachary Jasper
Holly Shapnick
Diana Barreto
My Role
Research Prototyping UI Design
Duration
1 Month Sprint
Because there are an innumerous amount of career pathways to choose from, job seekers are left feeling overwhelmed and unable to feel confident in a decision.
Pivvot is a product that aims to eliminate barriers keeping people from exploring and pursuing new careers by providing educational resources and support.
Research: Round 1
We conducted an online survey of 123 participants asking about their learning habits and career journey in the past 12 months. With the data collected from the survey, we narrowed down participants into two groups:
Group 1: “Job seekers currently transitioning careers” - Allows us to gain insight into their experiences and where they are in their journey.
Group 2: “Working professionals currently in their dream career” - Helping us understand how they identified their ideal career and the journey to get there.
Research: Round 2
We began a second round of research. Reaching out to interview participants of each group to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences on their career paths. I led interviews of participants in Group 1 while my partners interviewed participants of Group 2. From our Group 1 & Group 2 interviews, I discovered pain points job seekers repeatedly encountered which allowed me to direct the product development on what features our platform should offer users.
Difficulty knowing where to begin.
Lack of community support.
Emotional and financial hardship while transitioning.
Problem
As a lifelong learner, job seekers need a platform to develop new career skills and locate meaningful resources, because it can be overwhelming to narrow down career options.
How might we:
Create a platform that helps narrow down career pathways and promotes community and networking support for job seekers looking to switch professions.
Solution
Pivvot - a product that aims to eliminate barriers keeping people from exploring and pursuing new careers by providing educational resources and support.
Key solutions:
Provide a variety of learning options to tap into each job seekers unique learning style.
Provide an element of community engagement and social collaboration.
Site Map
Through user research we narrowed down what four navigation categories our platform should offer job seekers: Learning, Community, Events, and Profile.
Although it may appear straightforward at first, deciding what features should be present in the global navigation bar was actually not so simple. I conducted an open and closed card sort to determine how and where we should organize sections of the Pivvot website to best serve our users. I did this because there were conflicting ideas on the team about where our sections on the site should be found.
The First group is like Miller. Yearning to make a career change, but feeling overwhelmed and not quite sure what career path to pursue and seeking a tool to help narrow down possible career options.
The Second group is like Melissa. She is looking to network and level up her skills to advance in her career. She is also interested in the potential to mentor other new talent breaking into her industry.
Building the focus around job seekers and working professionals needs, I identified two key groups of people looking for support.
Onboarding page
Because participants had a wide variety of learning styles and preferences, we created a brief personality questionnaire during the onboarding process. This works to tailor suggestions on users homepage as well as their journey through Pivvot to best serve each individuals needs.
It was apparent that everyone we interviewed was pursuing some sort of continued learning, whether it was to better their skills and job prospects or to help up mentor new talent. After ideating preliminary sketches of the steps job seekers would take on their journey through Pivvot; we began development on the first round of features of the prototypes.
Forums Page
All interviewees expressed a lack of community support during their job hunt and wanted an element of social engagement. Many wanted a community to collaborate and gain valuable feedback and discussion, connect with a mentor or mentee to develop an industry network, as well as attend informational to understand more of the wider economy and job market for their desired field.
Webinar and Videos page
From Low-Fi to Hi-Fi prototypes we narrowed down what features Pivvot needs in order to best aide job seekers and working professionals.
Low Fidelity
Homepage
Mid Fidelity
High Fidelity
Low Fidelity
Mid Fidelity
High Fidelity
Low Fidelity
Mid Fidelity
High Fidelity
Low Fidelity
Mid Fidelity
High Fidelity
To construct the final UI style guide for Pivvot I aimed to stick to images and colors that were welcoming and calming. Research suggests that green and blue were most associated with these feelings. Green symbolizes new growth and a fresh beginning. With the name “Pivvot” coming about by considering how users themselves are pivoting career trajectories.
To establish signature brand imagery we steered away from the usual blue that most other career platforms follow, deciding to go with a green color scheme for the interface design.
Developing a visual brand and design system
Colors
Buttons & Icons
We created custom illustrations to feature throughout Pivvot to provide a relaxed and relatable atmosphere. The illustrations feature characters going through similar emotions and experiences as our job seekers.
Header & Footer
Illustrations
Usability Testing & Results
Insight 1
1. Home page
Improved navigation through Pivvot by 85% by removing distracting elements during key moments in our site. During usability tests participants went straight for the sign up button, completely neglecting the “User Questionnaire” needed to customize their experience.
Home Page
Before
Insight 2
Questionnaire Page
Before
After
Insight 3
2. Onboarding questionnaire
3. Completion page
Reduced survey drop off by 30% by showing clear and expected progress markers for users.
Completion of Questionnaire
Repositioned the “sign up” and moved the “What are your goals” buttons to the top of the page for immediate visibility.
Added a “Back” button and “Progress Monitoring” meter so users know how far along they are in the quiz.
After
Improved the user flow for ALL participants by adding a “completion page”. Users were confused by immediately being thrown into the Explore page after the “User Questionnaire”.
Added a “completion page” to notify users that they had completed the “User Questionnaire.” Also explaining what to expect on the next page.
I discovered three key areas to focus on improving the final prototype. Based on user feedback on our first round of testing, 60% of participants found navigating the Pivvot onboarding process unclear.
Changed buttons to grayscale to highlight areas we wanted users to interact with.
Replaced the global navigation allowing users to focus on the task at hand.
Conclusion
Together we developed a successful project that improved user navigation by 85%, reduced questionnaire survey drop off by 30%, and improved user flow for ALL participants using Pivvot. When creating this web application we put in plenty of research, from interviews to card sorts, to tree jack testing to pin point what struggles job seekers are experiencing. Whenever we had creative and development differences or felt unsure about a feature, we always referred back to the research and data we had collected to focus on what users needed most. Overall it was an absolute pleasure working with Diana and Holly.
Thanks for reading!
Head on over to my other projects to check out more of my work!
Let’s Get in Touch!
Have an idea for an awesome project?
Need a UX Designer for an innovative solution?
Fill out the form on the right side to get in touch!