Education and Career Coach

Project Highlights:

This project kicked off with a dedicated week focused on team building and a thorough analysis of the problem space. Our multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team collaborated with SPARCK to design "CareerUp," a digital service aimed at empowering students in their educational and career journeys. We tackled the challenges students face in navigating career options and securing fulfilling employment, while also prioritizing the establishment of effective teamwork, communication, and a shared understanding of the project goals.

Key highlights of this project include:

• Dedicated initial focus on team building and understanding the project's scope.

• Design of three initial design concepts, evaluated and refined using the KANO model.

• Design and conceptualization of the CareerUp app, a service covering real job information, mini-jobs/career simulations, and a future career mapping system.

• Promotional video showcasing the CareerUp app's features and benefits.

• Emphasis on effective team collaboration, communication, and reflection.

Throughout this project, I played a key role in the research, ideation, and design phases, while also contributing to team collaboration and project management activities.

Introduction:

The Education and Career Coach project was an eight-week endeavor undertaken by our multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team in collaboration with SPARCK. SPARCK's focus is on using service design to help organizations and individuals navigate complex change. Our team was tasked with designing a digital service to address the challenges faced by students in navigating their education and career paths, ultimately aiming to empower them to make informed decisions about their future.

The project followed a user-centered design approach, emphasizing a comprehensive design process that included research, ideation, and iterative development. Recognizing the importance of a strong team foundation, we dedicated the first week to team-building activities and a thorough analysis of the problem space. This initial phase focused on understanding our diverse skills and interests, establishing effective communication strategies, and defining our working principles.

Throughout the project, we maintained a focus on delivering a solution that aligned with both user needs and SPARCK's goals and values, emphasizing a collaborative and evidence-based design process.

Team Formation and Collaboration:

The first week of the project was dedicated to establishing a strong foundation for effective teamwork and collaboration. Our multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team engaged in various activities to achieve this, recognizing that a cohesive team dynamic was crucial for the project's success.

Team Building and Initial Activities:

• We began with icebreaker activities, such as "Monster Making" and "GIF Party," to foster a comfortable and creative environment where team members could express themselves and get to know each other's personalities and working styles.   

• These activities helped us appreciate the diverse skills and perspectives within the team, setting the stage for effective collaboration throughout the project.   

• We also established team principles to guide our interactions, including communication norms, working hours, and meeting schedules.   

• Initial discussions focused on individual strengths, weaknesses, and expectations for the project, allowing us to understand how best to leverage each member's capabilities.   

Collaboration Tools and Strategies:

• To facilitate team organization and workflow, we primarily used Miro as our collaborative workspace.

• Miro served as a central hub for:

  • Planning activities and tracking progress

  • Sharing research findings and design ideas

  • Conducting retrospective meetings and reflections

  • Managing project-related information

• For weekly reflections and feedback, we utilized Padlet, a tool that allowed us to share our thoughts and provide peer feedback.

• To ensure equitable distribution of tasks and responsibilities, we implemented a rotating role system. At the start of each week, we would:

  • Identify the necessary roles for the week's deliverables.

  • Allow team members to volunteer for roles based on their skills and comfort levels.

  • Engage in open discussion to assign any remaining roles, prioritizing the team's overall needs.

Reflections on Teamwork:

• Throughout the project, we emphasized open communication, active listening, and mutual support.

• We regularly reflected on our team dynamics, using retrospective techniques to identify areas for improvement and celebrate successes.

• We acknowledged and addressed differences in communication styles, working paces, and individual needs to foster a positive and productive environment.

Understanding the Challenge:

To effectively address the project brief, our team focused on understanding the core challenges faced by students in navigating their education and career paths. This involved analyzing the problem space, defining our target audience, and considering the perspectives of key stakeholders.

Understanding SPARCK and the Problem Space:

Our initial discussions with SPARCK focused on their role: to guide us through the design process, provide feedback, and oversee our progress. The project brief tasked us with designing a digital service to address the difficulties students encounter in career planning, information access, and the transition from education to employment.

Target Audience:

Our primary target audience was students, including both undergraduate and postgraduate individuals. We recognized that this demographic faces specific challenges in:

• Exploring career options

• Accessing relevant information

• Developing necessary skills

Stakeholder Analysis:

Beyond students, we identified key stakeholders who would interact with or be impacted by the digital service:

• Educational institutions

• Employers

• Career advisors

Design Approach:

Our design process for the Education and Career Coach project was structured around a user-centered approach, emphasizing iterative development and continuous reflection. We adapted the double diamond design process to guide our workflow, ensuring a balance between user needs and project constraints.

Key Methodologies and Tools:

Double Diamond: We utilized a modified version of the double diamond design process to structure our project, moving through phases of Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.

User Research: Primary research, including user interviews, was conducted to gain a deep understanding of student needs and pain points. Secondary research supplemented this by providing a broader context of the challenges within the education and career landscape.

Ideation Techniques: We employed various ideation techniques, including "How Might We" questions and bodystorming, to generate a wide range of potential solutions.

Persona Development: We created user personas to represent key user groups, helping us to empathize with their needs and design targeted solutions.

User Journey Mapping: User journey maps visualized the user experience, highlighting pain points and opportunities for improvement.

KANO Model: The KANO model was used to prioritize features based on their potential to satisfy and delight users.

Prototyping: We created prototypes to test and refine our design concepts, gathering user feedback to inform iterative improvements.

Reflection: Regular team reflections using tools like Padlet and retrospective techniques helped us to improve our collaboration and design process.

Emphasis on Iteration and User Feedback:

Throughout the design process, we prioritized iteration and user feedback, constantly refining our concepts based on research findings and user testing. This iterative approach ensured that our final design was grounded in user needs and aligned with the project goals.

Concept Development:

Our concept development process involved a series of iterative steps, moving from initial insights to refined design directions. We employed various techniques to generate, evaluate, and prioritize ideas, ensuring alignment with both user needs and project goals.

Ideation and Idea Refinement:

• We began by generating a wide range of ideas based on the key insights derived from our user research.

• "How Might We" (HMW) questions were used to frame design challenges and encourage creative solutions.

• We then evaluated these ideas using SPARCK's responsible innovation lenses to ensure ethical and sustainable design considerations.

• Ideas were further prioritized based on their potential impact and feasibility.

Concept Exploration:

• We explored three initial design concepts, each addressing different user pain points related to career exploration and development.

• These concepts included:

  • A "Tinder for jobs" style interface for quick job matching.

  • Gamified career-related learning simulations.

  • A career vlogging platform for students to share job experiences.

• Bodystorming was used to visualize and test these concepts, allowing us to understand their potential user interactions and challenges.

Final Concept Selection:

• Through a process of evaluation and refinement, incorporating user feedback gathered through surveys and KANO model analysis, we converged on a single app concept.

• This final concept, "CareerUp," integrated three key dimensions:

  • Real job information

  • Mini-jobs/career simulations/"daily match"

  • Future career mapping system

Our Solution, CareerUp:

Leveraging the insights from our research and concept development, we designed CareerUp, a digital service aimed at empowering students to confidently navigate their educational and career journeys. CareerUp was conceived as a comprehensive platform addressing the core challenges of career exploration, skill development, and informed decision-making.

Key Features and Functionality:

CareerUp's design focused on delivering value through three primary dimensions:

• Real Job Information: The platform provides access to up-to-date and relevant job market data, including industry trends, required skills, and typical career progression paths. This feature aims to demystify the job search process and equip students with actionable insights.

• Mini-Jobs/Career Simulations: To provide practical experience and a taste of different professions, CareerUp incorporates "mini-jobs" and career simulations. These interactive modules allow students to engage with typical tasks and scenarios associated with various roles, helping them assess their interests and aptitudes in a low-stakes environment. A "daily match" feature suggests relevant mini-jobs based on user profiles and preferences.

• Future Career Mapping System: This feature enables students to visualize potential career trajectories and understand the steps needed to reach their desired professional goals. It provides guidance on necessary educational qualifications, skill acquisition, and experiential learning opportunities.

User Experience and Interface Design:

The user interface of CareerUp was designed with clarity, intuitiveness, and engagement in mind. We focused on creating a seamless user journey from initial exploration to detailed career planning. The visual design prioritizes accessibility and ease of navigation, ensuring that students can quickly find the information and tools they need.

Addressing User Needs:

CareerUp directly addresses the pain points identified during our research by:

• Reducing information overload through curated and relevant content.

• Building confidence through experiential learning and practical simulations.

• Providing a structured approach to career planning, making the process less daunting.

• Fostering informed decision-making by offering clear pathways and data-driven insights.

Impact and Outcomes:

The development of CareerUp culminated in a well-defined digital service concept that directly addressed the identified challenges in student career navigation. Our work, while conducted within an academic framework, yielded significant outcomes in terms of user validation, strategic alignment, and the potential for positive impact.

User Validation and Potential:

• Meeting User Needs: Through iterative user feedback and validation cycles, CareerUp's features were refined to genuinely meet student needs for comprehensive information, practical experience, and structured future planning. Positive reception during usability testing phases indicated a strong potential for user adoption and satisfaction.

• Problem-Solution Fit: The proposed solution effectively bridges the gap between students' aspirations and the complexities of the job market, providing clear pathways and actionable tools.

Strategic Alignment with SPARCK's Vision:

• Service Design Principles in Practice: CareerUp exemplifies SPARCK's focus on leveraging service design to navigate complex change. It offers a tangible demonstration of how design thinking can create meaningful, user-centered solutions in the education and career development space.

• Balancing Innovation and Practicality: The concept balanced innovative features like "mini-jobs" with practical considerations for real-world applicability, showcasing a thoughtful approach to problem-solving within project constraints.

Key Deliverables and Learnings:

• We produced a comprehensive set of design artifacts, including:

  • Detailed user personas and journey maps

  • Low to high-fidelity prototypes of the CareerUp application

  • A feature prioritization matrix (utilizing the KANO model)

  • A strategic roadmap outlining future development opportunities

• This project served as a robust case study in applying user-centered design methodologies to a complex, real-world problem. It reinforced the value of thorough research, iterative development, and continuous user validation in shaping effective UX solutions.

Reflection:

This project was a significant learning experience, offering me valuable insights into the practical application of service design principles within a collaborative, real-world context. Reflecting on the journey, I gained a deeper appreciation for both the intricacies of user experience design and the dynamics of effective teamwork, especially under tight deadlines.

Key Learnings and Growth:

• Navigating Complexity: The project honed my ability to tackle ambiguous problems, particularly in understanding the multifaceted challenges students face in career navigation. I learned to systematically break down complex issues into manageable parts, moving from broad research to targeted design solutions.

• Empathy in Practice: Engaging directly with users through interviews and usability testing reinforced the critical importance of empathy in design. Understanding diverse student perspectives and pain points was fundamental to crafting a solution that genuinely resonated with their needs.

• Iterative Design Mindset: I gained hands-on experience with the iterative nature of the design process. This involved continuously refining ideas, prototypes, and solutions based on feedback, recognizing that the first idea is rarely the best one. This approach taught me the value of adaptability and persistence.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Applying tools like the KANO model for feature prioritization highlighted the importance of data-driven decisions in design. It showed me how to strategically balance user desirability with feasibility and impact.

Collaborative Insights & Overcoming Challenges:

Working in a multi-disciplinary team, comprising individuals from slightly different UX design streams, was incredibly enriching, though not without its challenges. We learned that effective collaboration required deliberate effort and mutual understanding.

• Adapting to Diversity: Navigating varied cultural backgrounds, personal commitments, and individual working styles, especially given our status as international postgraduate students with tight deadlines and a concurrent dissertation, required significant adaptability from everyone. There were inherent complexities in synchronizing our efforts and finding common ground.

• Proactive Communication & Accommodation: While there was no explicit negativity, we actively learned to bridge potential divides by fostering open communication and a willingness to accommodate each other's needs. Our shared proficiency in English and a collective commitment to the project's success were crucial in ensuring smooth progress. We prioritized understanding each other's specific processes and preferred tools for reflection, often adjusting our individual approaches for the benefit of the team.

• Resilience Under Pressure: Juggling this demanding project alongside our dissertation and personal lives underscored the importance of resilience and effective time management. Our team's commitment to setting realistic work hours and leveraging collaborative tools like Miro for logistics and weekly reflections were key to managing productivity and morale throughout.

Overall Reflection:

This project solidified my understanding of the end-to-end UX design process, from problem discovery to solution validation. Critically, it also provided invaluable lessons in navigating the nuances of team dynamics and stakeholder expectations under real-world constraints, preparing me for similar challenges in future professional roles.