Early in the project, I conducted six user interviews with people in the process of leaving one career in the hopes of chasing a new one. My research goals were to: understand users’ behavior behind changing careers, understand users’ pain points and preferences when using career-related sites or apps, understand what triggers users’ motivations to change careers, identify things users believe would be helpful in their career-changing process.

Based on the results of the user interviews, I learned users are wanting to change careers for a few strong reasons including pursuing a passion, financial stability, flexibility, and freedom. Users are interested in accessing video, in-person sessions, as well as chat features. They are also seeing networking opportunities and events. Users would like different tiers of mentorship and coaching. Some would prefer a one-time session while others are looking for long-term mentorship. All users mentioned they want a welcoming, non-intimidating experience.

The valuable insights were:

Focus the product on creating accessible opportunities for users to engage in conversations with their mentors.

Build trust. When users can connect with an individual in real dialogue it offers a personal way for users to gain information and readiness.

Craft the tone of the app so that it is professional yet welcoming.

Branding should be focused on the following: “Pursue a passion”; “Find your dream job”; “One-on-one mentorship”

Checking out the market..

I wanted to see what other products were out there for career mentorship? What are the market advantages? What are the opportunities? How can we compete? After completing an analysis including SWOT, Content Audit, and UX of MenteeMe and PushFar…

What did I discover?

There is room for improvement. Competitors show problems with usability, proficiency, and creativity. The UI is cluttered and confusing. I found a lack of personal connections between users and mentors. Both apps were immature and underdeveloped.

Once I had my user personas, I began to concept user journeys. One of the most important flows involves searching for new mentors and booking a session. Users will scroll these mentors, select one, find details, select a date and time, and confirm booking. I created an onboarding flow with a brief questionnaire helping to curate mentors. With the second user journey I focused on accepting the video call from the mentor.

Using Optimal Workshop I created an open card sort to test the app’s information architecture. Thirteen participants completed the task.

The results of the card sort led to several insights. Additionally, the appropriate location of scheduling and sessions, in relationship to mentors is now better understood. Users will go to Mentor Sessions to find upcoming bookings or their session history. They will be able to accept video calls here, as well as cancel or reschedule. To book a new session, users can either go to their Mentor page or Mentor Sessions.

Validating

Usability Testing

Moderated & Remote Testing was conducted on the mid-fidelity Expert Career Connect Prototype.

Six Participants, ages 23-45.

Findings

Assessing the testing data, I created affinity maps, seen here, and utilized a rainbow spreadsheet.

In order to test user preference of the UI, I generated an AB Test, suing Usability Hub. The test included a total of 70 participants.

Of the above screens, users preferred Screens 2 (60%-40% and 78%-22% respectively). They expressed appreciation for the “sleek, minimal, appealing” look. Participants also preferred screens that expressed mentorship. I interpret that to mean illustrations of people together.

Through testing, users expressed what they needed in a career mentoring app. They described what features they wanted and where they wanted those features to be. Users also shared their preferences regarding the look and feel of the app. They shared their experiences, frustrations, and confusions and offered suggestions for improvements.