Career Navigator
Career and educational guidance platform – Powered by Whiteshield.
Overview
The job market is rapidly changing due to technological, social, environmental, and health trends, posing challenges for students and universities. The Career Navigator helps students and institutions adapt to these shifts, uncover opportunities, and align current skills with job market demands.
My Role:
As a key member of the design team for Career Navigator, I was tasked to lead the design process from ideation and research to wireframing and high-fidelity design, employing a user-centric approach to deliver a seamless and impactful user experience.
The Challenge
The main challenge was to design an interface capable of presenting a vast amount of data in an intuitive and uncluttered manner for both students and university coordinators. Throughout the process, my priority was to ensure that the user experience remained not only functional but also visually appealing. The result is a platform that effectively balances complexity with user-friendliness, making it accessible and easy to navigate for all users.
Ideation and Research
In the project's early stages, I worked with the research team to integrate insights from competitor analysis, user interviews, and market studies. We mapped user journeys, defined business and functional requirements, established platform architecture, and created user personas. This collaborative effort provided a thorough understanding of user needs, guiding our design process and uncovering opportunities for creating personalised user experiences. We identified two main user groups: Students and University Coordinators.
Problem Statement – Students
Students lack a user-friendly platform that provides personalised guidance on career options, making it challenging for them to identify and pursue suitable opportunities. They require a solution that presents relevant data in a clear and accessible manner, empowering them to make informed decisions about their academic and professional pursuits.
Problem Statement – University Coordinators
University coordinators grapple with the task of ensuring that their academic programs remain relevant and responsive to industry needs. They need a solution that enables them to align academic offerings with industry demands effectively, ensuring that students receive the education and skills necessary to succeed in their chosen career paths.
Wireframing
Armed with insights gathered from the research phase, I transitioned to the wireframing stage, sketching out the platform’s architecture and key features. Iterating rapidly based on feedback from stakeholders, I refined the wireframes to ensure intuitive navigation and seamless user flows.
Hi-Fidelity Design
For the Career Navigator project, I aimed to maintain a balance between simplicity and functionality in the high-fidelity designs. Despite the complexity of the platform, I focused on creating a design where every visual detail had a logical purpose to enhance usability. This approach ensured that the platform not only looked appealing but also provided a seamless user experience.
Results
The Career Navigator project effectively met the needs of students and university coordinators by offering an easy-to-use platform for career advice and program management. Students can now easily find personalised career guidance, while coordinators can better align academic programs with industry needs. The platform attracted significant interest and positive feedback from universities during the MVP demos, with many eagerly pre-registering for the official release, highlighting its anticipated value and impact.
