FreshStart
A career start for immigrants.
June - Aug 2023
How do immigrants find job opportunities and resources?
Immigrants often face numerous challenges when settling into a new country. Their pursuit of safety and an improved quality of life shouldn't come at the expense of their career.
I initiated this project during my Google certification journey as a UX Researcher and Designer. The objective was to develop a responsive web design that centers on connecting immigrants with the resources they need to kickstart their careers.
Problem:
Immigrants are unfamiliar with local jobs and lack the resources.
Goal:
Build a responsive website with a specialized job board and resource list.
Links:
Tools:
Figma, Google Suite
Understanding the User
User interviews
I conducted casual user interviews with 5 acquaintances. Due of time constraints, I opted to engage with international students rather than recent immigrants, as they still are able to identify common challenges immigrants might encounter despite being categorized as “non-immigrants”.
Most participants sees a high value in having a job board for immigrants and liked the application process to be as simple as possible. This is due to their frustration on visa status and language barrier when applying on a common job board.
User Persona
I created two user personas to fully understand and address different immigrant profiles that might use this feature.
Tommy is new to the country and is trying to find a job in construction. He is not fluent in English and have had a difficult time looking for a job around his neighborhood even though he has relevant experience.
Anna has been in the US for many years and is now looking for a career before going back to college. She is unfamiliar with visa processes and does not know why she is being rejected in all her applications.
Competitive Analysis
I looked at 3 big immigrant-focused websites: USA Hello, Immigrant Welcome Center, and Upwardly Global.
The main takeaway was that these websites provide career coaching programs and resources but no job boards. All of them points their user to a center nearby instead of giving immigrants the flexibility to explore on their own.
My notes on the 3 websites
Wearing the thinking cap
Crazy Eights
To ideate, I used the activity called Crazy Eights! This activity is when you fold a paper into 8 sections and speed-design 8 pages in 8 minutes. I like ideating like this because: one, it helps me come up with many different ideas in such a short time and two, it’s fun!
Excuse my mess - I only had 8 minutes!
Crazy 8’s exercise to help me come up with ideas
Lo-fi prototype
I used the mobile-first approach to create a mobile application before transitioning it into a responsive web design. This is because most users use their phones than computers, and that it’s easier to add features than remove them later on.
Wireframes for the home page, search page, job page, and application page
My lo-fi prototype
What do users think?
Usability Testing
I conducted an unmoderated usability study with 5 participants. I gave them a series of tasks to navigate the FreshStart app and recorded their actions and reactions.
Notes from the recording
Findings and Iterations
People liked the personalization of having their visa status tied to their account so they know if they’re eligible to apply for a job.
Every job will list the types of visa they require. There will also be a check mark next to your visa to show that you’re eligible.
People liked that the application process was very intuitive and efficient.
When you join FreshStart, the app will extract editable information from your resume. This way, the application process will only take less than a minute to complete.
Participants had privacy concerns about including their country in their profile.
before
We removed the “country” field and only included the user’s visa status to protect their privacy.
after
Refining the design
Mockups
I refined the design to more accurately represent the mobile app.
A pop-up appears when a user applies for a job
With a responsive design, any user will be able to easily access FreshStart whether that would be in the bus or on a desk. Our easy onboarding process helps smoothen the process of checking eligibility and submitting your resume.
Interact with my mobile view prototypes.
Interact with my desktop web prototype.
Profile page before and after
Home page before and after
My Hi-fi prototype with an onboarding process at the start
Responsive Design
Once I have the mobile app, I quickly changed the designs to fit a mobile-view website. Some differences are not having a menu bar at the bottom but instead a hamburger menu at the top left.
I also adapted the design into a laptop-view website by increasing font size, adding features, and changing some layouts. This would also be similar for a tablet size.
Mobile website
Mobile app
Desktop website
For the desktop view, there are some changes such as having an overlay when a user is applying for a job. This would allow users to easily go back to their previous page.
My Favorite part:
This was my first time making an onboarding experience for an app. I enjoyed working on that and having to look at the app blindly.
As a user, I often skip the onboarding sign in process and like to explore as a guest first, so I made sure to add that in. The goal was to not create any barriers for a user to apply for a job.
Takeaways
Don’t be afraid to change things. As I was designing the desktop view from the mobile, I realized it didn’t make sense to load an entire page for a single question as a user is applying for their job. So, I decided to make it an overlay even though it was not consistent with the mobile.
What would your user be using? As I was designing FreshStart, I had to ensure that I was constantly in the shoes of an immigrant. I decided that mobile phones would be the best way to start because an immigrant might not have a computer.
Final Thoughts
It felt really fulfilling designing for a good cause. As an international student, I and so many of my friends struggle with job search. It was either that we didn’t know about some visa regulation or that the posting would specify that they won’t accept us. I can’t imagine what an immigrant would need to go through.
I wanted to create a solution for something I see so often. As I mentioned at the start: someone who is seeking a better quality of life should not need to sacrifice their career.