Roles
UX Researcher, Information Architect, Designer and Prototyper
Goal
Develop a product concept designed to help mid-career professionals find new careers and industries which align with their backgrounds.
Audience
Experienced professionals interested in changing careers or changing the industry they currently work in.
Challenge
Many experienced workers have trouble finding work in the current, hyper-competitive job market.
User Research
Research showed that the process of discovering new career paths is cumbersome and disjointed. Currently, there are many tools for leaning into your current trajectory. Options are limited, though, for tools that help you change direction in a clear, concise way.
For example, Jessie, one of our personas, found herself juggling multiple platforms for managing research, progress and potential jobs. However, none of the tools she used provided a straightforward process to generate new career or industry suggestions.
Designing the Solution
Knowing this, I began designing RoleIn, an AI-powered career change recommendation tool. To use it, users would simply upload their resumés. Then, RoleIn will provide suggestions for either new careers, or new industries to perform your current role, or both.
Storyboarding and Wireframing
I began the process with a big picture storyboard, that presented the potential of this product from a user’s perspective.
Next, I transformed core ideas for the tool to both paper and digital wireframes, which resulted in low fidelity prototypes used for rapid iterating.
User testing of the low-fidelity prototypes provided valuable feedback. Some users found the navigation challenging, and others noted missing features. These insights led to the incorporation of additional functionality and design tweaks to improve the overall experience.
Based on user feedback, I refined the low fidelity prototype into a high-fidelity prototype, which you can explore here. After conducting further user interviews and gathering insights from additional testing, I iterated on the design to address remaining pain points and enhance usability. The final high-fidelity prototype now reflects a clean user flow and includes features tailored to make searching for new career options and potential industries simple. The high-fidelity prototype showcases these improvements, ensuring a smoother and more efficient experience.
and resume editing capabilities
Conclusion
Finding yourself at a stage of your career where you’re not clear on what’s next is stressful and challenging. Many professions reach a point where their industries shift, and these professionals need to rethink how they are searching for jobs.
Working on RoleIn gave me a greater appreciation of this issue. It’s clear that a product like this one could help lessen the stress of people who find themselves in this position. I hope to have an opportunity to bring it to market soon.