Context
My Role
I was the sole designer on the team and worked closely with 3 developers and a product manager over the course of a semester. We had weekly standup sessions and bi-weekly hour long work sessions during the later stages.
Problem
SPRINT (Summer/Semester Projects for Research, Internship, Teaching) serves as the umbrella application for funded experiential learning opportunities at Brown University. The original format for finding internships was a large word document (left), but the large amount of listings made it difficult to search through and apply for internships. Dean came to us with a rough prototype that was created using airtable (right) and wanted a platform that would allow students to easily locate, manage, get info for, and apply to SPRINT opportunities.
User Research
After familiarizing myself with the problem space, I set out to find out how real people around me approached internship hunting. I conducted a dozen user interviews, asking students around campus to find out:
- Are you currently looking for job/internship opporunities?
- What platforms do you use to find internships?
- What platform do you use most often to find internships? Why?
- What factors do you consider the most when looking for an internship?
- What industry are you looking to work in?
Based on my user research I found that Linkedin and Handshake were used most often by Brown students when looking for internships. Additionally, information like industry, salary, location, and time were important factors to students.
Competitor
Analysis
Students I interviewed mentioned that they liked that you can get email alerts for job and how easy it was to look through the job descriptions.
Handshake
Handshake was a platform that our college promoted since it allows you to sign on through your school profile. The platform primarily offers opportunities targeted towards college students and allowed students to easily see if you fit the requirements for a job listing.
User Personas
I created two user personas to guide my ideation process. One student Florentin is looking for very specific internships, while the other student Horacio is just browsing the platform.
Ideation
After reviewing my research, I knew that I wanted to create a platform where filtering and searching was a priority. I started designing very rough wireframe sketches on paper before going into Figma to create the digital wireframes.
After I had a clearer picture of what the scope of the project was, the team and I decided which features we had time to implement for this semester and which ones to hold off on. For example, we wanted to send automated emails of new opportunities based on a user's saved jobs, but decided that it should be implemented later down the line.
Moodboard
I wanted to emulate a clean, yet fun design that allowed users to easily view the most important details of a listing upfront.
Iteration #1
I started off with designing the search page since that would be one of the main features. I decided to go with the two-column design to allow for easy access to a variety of filter options. At this point, the developers on the team and I started brainstorming the appropriate database structures to store all the information needed on the frontend as well.
Iteration #2
After some more refinements I conducted some simple user tests to see if the search feature was easy to navigate. The overall feedback I received was that it was straightforward to use the search and filter. However, there were two actionable insights I gained:
- The results felt visually cluttered
- Many people did not engage with the homepage even though I had intended it for it to be a place for exploration
Iteration #3
In order to improve readability and increase engagement I:
- Removed all unnecessary icons
- Used one font throughout the platform
- Reorganized the hierarchy of the job listing component
- Allowed for more whitespace in the overall design
Final Designs
After a couple more rounds of feedback, I handed off my designs to the developers! I am proud of the designs I ended up creating and it was satisfying to watch the project come together from conception to deployment.
Design 1
Login and Homepage
Explore the latest research opportunities on campus!
Design 2
Search and Filter
Easily filter through hundreds of listings to find the right fit for you.
Design 3
Save Jobs
Save any opportunity and go back to apply once you are ready.
Design 4
Create a Listing
Easily create and preview a new student job.
Next Steps
While it was daunting when I first approached the project, I've definitely learned a lot and grown as a designer! The development team is currently working on implementing the new designs. Next steps for me include:
- Working on transferring the platform to mobile
- Would love to further user test the platform after deployment