Introducing Valulign:

Your Personalized Job Matching Companion

Valulign is a mobile app designed to revolutionize the job search process.

By seamlessly aligning professional aspirations with personal values, Valulign empowers job seekers to effortlessly connect with employers and industries that share their core beliefs.

Say goodbye to aimless job hunting – with Valulign, finding the ideal career match becomes a streamlined and fulfilling experience.

The intended user base includes:

Project Overview

The question was asked, how might we help job seekers discover industries or employers who align with personal beliefs and goals during the searching process?

The assumption was made that job seekers wanted to better align their values with that of an employer or industry.

Potential solutions included boosting job seeker self awareness via personal assessment to identify job compatibility, provide employer and industry data in the form of aggregated newsfeeds and company profiles with ratings, and promote peer to peer contributions such as responding to polls and submitting reviews.

Responsibilities involved empathy and curiosity, research and analytics, branding and visual design, prototyping and usability testing, and project management.

Research > Discover > Empathize > Define

Secondary Research

Pre-existing Data - Preexisting data was explored to find out how job seekers feel about current solutions and which are interested in value based job searching.

Heuristics Analysis of Industry Leaders - I selected 3 popular digital solutions matching the problem space and goals, and applied 3 of Nielson’s 10 heuristics of UI design.

Primary Research

Screener Survey - Next, I developed a screener survey to recruit potential participants for user interviews and received 23 responses. Over 95% met target age.

User Interview Objectives - I aimed to get to the root of questions regarding why job seekers were dissatisfied and if interested in values-based job matching.

Interview Methodology - I interviewed 5 users utilizing a semi-structured interview discussion guide for a period of 30-60 minutes with audio capture.

Research Synthesis & Artifacts

Affinity Map - After interviewing participants, I put their statements on separate, digital post-it notes and then organized the notes into themes.

Empathy Map - I created empathy maps to better understand users’ pain points and what motivates them as job seekers.

User Persona - I created a key market segment representation based upon the characteristics presented in the empathy map, weighed against the data gathered.

Jobs-To-Be-Done Statements - Main, related, emotional and social jobs to be done were identified to help uncover the underlying motivations and requirements.

How-Might-We Statements - I framed the problem space by formulating "How Might We" queries to transform pain points into opportunities.

Deliverables - (click on images to expand)

Explore > Design <> Prototype <> Test

Conceptualize

Idea Mashup (Brainstorm) - I used this method to foster creativity by combining diverse concepts and perspectives to innovate unique solutions.

User Stories - I formulated user stories rooted in characteristics of the persona and the functionalities anticipated in the MVP (minimal viable product).

Information Architecture - I crafted a site map and identified critical user pathways (red route user flows) to ensure content and navigation is well-organized.

Deliverables - (click on images to expand)

Explore & Design

Sketch Mockups & Guerilla Testing - I performed 5 guerilla usability tests using sketches to swiftly pinpoint and address usability concerns.

Wire Flows - I assembled wireframes and user flows to form wire flows to begin visualizing critical user pathways through which users would navigate.

Design System - I generated a mood board and style guide to facilitate the maintenance of design consistency and guarantee a familiar user experience.

High Fidelity Prototype V1 - I crafted high-fidelity designs and interconnected UI elements and frames, culminating in an interactive prototype ready for testing.

Deliverables - (click on images to expand)

Usability Testing

Round 1 - To identify usability challenges, I enlisted the participation of 10 individuals for a two-stage, moderated usability testing process, 5 participants each round.

Deliverables - (click on images to expand)

Iterative Design & Usability Testing

High Fidelity Prototype V2 - I iterated based on priority usability issues determined to be critical in nature and prepared the prototype for round 2 of testing.

Deliverables - (click on images to expand)

Lessons Learned

To arrive at solutions, it's imperative to first pinpoint the issues. It was the valuable insights from user interviews that provided a deeper comprehension of my intended users and their actions.

To ensure a user-centric outcome, test early and test frequently.

To prevent cognitive overload and friction, prioritize design consistency.