Ascend: Career Development Platform UX Design
Project Length: 3 weeks
Role: User research, ideation, wireframes, prototyping
Ascend is a career development platform. Providing users with resources that create opportunities for personal and career growth.
You’ve done it! You finally got the job. Everything is going well but, you realize after some time that you want to take a different direction in your career. The thing is you feel established in your position and don’t know where to start with your new journey. It can feel very overwhelming.
Wanting to find that one career that fits our needs can sometimes feel like chasing the wind because it’s something that is ever-changing. For this very reason, transitioning into a new career should feel accessible and attainable.
Our solution to this problem was Ascend.
What did the people have to say?
Since we were creating a platform from scratch we had to learn more about our audience.
So we created a 9 question survey to get an understanding of how people found their jobs and whether they’ve thought about transitioning into another career.
The first question we focused on was “What device do you use to search for career listing/ job posts?”. Of the 41 responses, 58.5% of survey respondents said they preferred using a desktop.
This gave us a jump-off point for what platform Ascend would be introduced on.
After conducting 12 interviews we were able to narrow down what the struggles were behind transitioning into a new career. Three specific themes stood out, mentorship, skills, and uncertainty.
Mentorship
“I believe a mentor is critical to any career, at any stage.”
We found that mentorship was something that people really advocated for because it was something that has helped them in the past when entering a new field. They found that there was comfort in someone providing guidance. Despite people advocating for it, there were some critics. Mentioning that it can be somewhat intimidating reaching out to someone for a 1–1 meeting.
Skills
“I wasn’t sure which jobs my transferable skills would apply to”
People are coming into the job search with skills they already have from their previous experiences. The issue is they are unsure of what skills are transferable and are missing opportunities because of it. Not everyone knows certain skills are still applicable.
Uncertainty
“I’m nervous to start a career change because of the uncertainty of the path I will have to take”
A glaring theme throughout a lot of what we heard back was this cloud of uncertainty hovering over people’s heads. They were unsure of themselves and their next steps.
What was the problem?
User Flow
Now we had to look at how to approach these issues. So we discussed two paths considering the themes we had previously discussed.
The first path was, how might we help users gain insights into their new career path? Getting us thinking about seeking mentorship and resources to gain new skills.
Next, we had to ask, how might we ensure that users stay confident throughout the process? Knowing that users had a tendency to feel uncertain and underqualified based on their responses on the topic of career transitions.
The problem is that the user needs a way to gain insights into a new career path in order to determine a plan of action so that she can quickly and confidently transition into a new career.
How did we address the problem?
Our approach to a solution came through providing users with a personalized experience that would introduce them to the resources that could guide them in the right direction. In this particular user flow, we will be going through the process of signing up for a mentor session.
Through the user flow, we are able to see that they are met by an onboarding quiz after signing up. This quiz will add a personalized aspect, to provide users with a unique experience because not all paths are the same and it should be treated as such.
We then move into a tailored profile page that will serve as a hub for users to keep track of their progress. Having consistency was important, as it offered a sense of comfort for someone who might already be overwhelmed.
After selecting what job someone wants to seek mentorship within, they are met with a page of mentors. They then take the final step of signing up to see a mentor within the field they selected.
After conducting usability testing on our wireframes derived from our sketches, we found that users found the user flow to be straightforward. Meaning we had succeeded in making the process quick. Something that benefited users who typically found the career transition experience to be slow.
During the mentor sign-up process, users found the process to be seamless. They were excited to learn about the group mentor sessions as it offered an option other than the 1–1 session, which was sometimes seen as intimidating according to users during interviews.
Prototype
During this process, we ensured that the user knew where they were at all times. Making the path clear was key in creating comfort within the Ascend. The goal was to make the user feel confident when navigating the site. So we did this by keeping the layout minimalistic and focusing on the user being able to reach the content.