Creating opportunities and guidance for creatives— a UX Case Study
Project Overview
Introduction
I had a great opportunity to participate in the Adobe Creative Jam, which was hosted by General Assembly(GA) and Adobe in New York City. The challenge was completed online which I found to be an odd and wonderful experience as this was the first time that I have worked on a project in this circumstance. During the kick-off meeting for the event, I was able to learn the basics of Adobe XD which was taught by Jamie Nuzbach, Strategic Development Manager at Adobe.
The Challenge
Design a third-party mobile app to help under-represented creatives access to hiring opportunities, showcases, communities, and/or other resources that ultimately empower them and allow them to thrive. The duration of the challenge was from 27th - 30th Aug.
My role
The team consisted of me and two other UX Designers.
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Team-Leader, coordinating the team through Zoom & Trello
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User Survey, Google Survey
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User Interview, Zoom
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Competitor Analysis, Google Sheets
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Gathering and analysing data through Affinity Mapping, Zoom & Adobe XD
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Facilitated a Design Workshop, Zoom & Adobe XD
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Low-High Fidelity Prototypes, Adobe XD
Results
My team and I designed a mobile app that allowed female migrants to feel empowered, which we abbreviated as F.E.M. The mobile app can allow users to:
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Find their mentors that reflect their needs
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Keep up-to-date with new technology and trends through events
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Gain different perspective and knowledge by joining communities
PROJECT
Design Challenge
WHAT
Mobile App
WHEN
Aug - Sept 2020
TIME
3 Day Challenge
Design Process
Process
As a team we decided to use the Double-Diamond UX process to help guide the workflow of the project.
Day 1 - Research & Analysis
User Survey
We conducted a user survey online targeted at female BIPOC/BAME creatives, to ask them about their experience in using today’s platform to search for opportunities. The screener survey resulted in 22 creatives which produced the below results:
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13/22 creatives prefer to use LinkedIn to find opportunities.
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Most creatives have said that LinkedIn was an easy app to use in terms of looking for jobs, applying and networking.
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"Feedback" and "Response" is lacking in many platforms which many creatives need.
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Many job posts/recruiters have been inaccurate about the role they are hiring and require many years experience which turn away potential young creatives.
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4/22 creatives have mentioned that native language has been an obstacle when looking.
User Interviews
Due to time restrictions, my team and I were able to conduct 3 user interviews. A summary of the problems that we found from what the users have said:
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“I wish there were more mentors that reflect me."
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"if you never have feedback about what you send (positive or negative) is like throwing a bottle into the ocean and hoping for someone to read your message."
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"It would be of value to know how the skills I've honed over the years would fit into the big brand world, how to get there or, at the very least, how to create opportunities from what I have."
Competitor Analysis
I have looked at different platforms and compared them to find what features could be implemented in our mobile app, which I have found the following:
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Most have Messaging to allow easier networking
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Most host events/communities
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Few had Courses provided to help creatives learn
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None had mentors to provide guidance
Affinity Mapping
In order to find a solution to the problem, my team and I collected together user’s quotes from the user interviews and organised them into groups then analysed what was the most common. Here are the following trends we found:
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Mentors and guidance are needed for those with low confidence.
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Networking and gaining feedback gives empowerment.
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Being part of the community will allow connections and creative ideas to thrive.
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Not being native in a language can be seen as a disadvantage.
Day 2 - Ideation & Design
Design Workshop
After gathering all the user research, I decided to facilitate an online design workshop with my team to think about how we were going to solve the problems that female BIPOC/BAME creatives are having. At the end of the workshop activity, we have designed our solutions around mentorship and we developed the idea of having questionnaires to get mentors that best match the user’s needs.
User Flow
I created 2 proposed user flows to get a rough idea of how the process for the creatives to get from A-to-B while using the mobile app. At first, my team and I liked the idea of having content provided to users with different levels of information but this left us wondering what content should be displayed. Instead, we chose the path that leads users to get what they want the easiest.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Using the user flow as a base, this helped the skeleton of the final design of how we layed out the questionnaire.
Visual Identity
We made a moodboard to illustrate the colours that we could use, which we have decided together that the colour green was the best fit for creatives as it represented growth, inspiration and achievement.
High-Fidelity Prototype
As our main target audience was female BIPOC/BAME creatives, my team and I wanted the mobile app to include migrants as well since creatives are always on the move from country to country, which can be quite daunting at first. Therefore, the name of the app will be F.E.M (Female.Empower.Migrants).
Conclusion
Outcomes:
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Questionnaire - finding the right mentor/event/community that reflects the user’s needs.
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Messaging - networking with people to find opportunities and guidance.
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Engagement - created a tone that welcomes creatives from all over the world while offering great opportunities and guidance.
Future Considerations:
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On-boarding - show users what F.E.M stands for and how the app will help.
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Profile - help both beginners and experts show what they are capable of and what they struggle to help find the right guidance.
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Need to do Usability Testing on High-Fidelity Prototype.
What I learnt:
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Being the leader for the first time and facilitating a workshop online was challenging. I think having more opportunities like these moments will help me grow as a designer and a better problem solver.
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Learnt the basics of Adobe XD to produce wireframes and prototypes.