As part of our UX/UI Design Course, Alessandra was able to work on an existing app, Fledglink, which also allowed her to build her UX portfolio.
About Alessandra
After working for many years as a graphic designer and art director in design companies and communication firms, I decided to pursue a career in user experience. I am interested in working on products and services that can improve people’s life. And hopefully I’ll be able to use my new skills and knowledge for that purpose. Research has been always at the centre of my work, where I can observe behaviours and patterns to create services and design work that could impact and improve people’s experience in an intuitive way.
Project: Fledglink
Me and my team worked on an existing app, Fledglink, dedicated to teenagers looking for jobs on internships. Our challenge was improving the features on the app, like job search and increase the number of completed digital cvs, job applications through the app, and increase the number of connections. After a qualitative research we realised what were the main problems, and then keeping our users in mind we managed to re-organise the main features on the app in an intuitive way, it was very satisfying to observe the difference during the usability test.
Problem Statement
Fledglink is intended to find suitable jobs for teenagers. We have observed that the service isn’t meeting these goals due to the organization of the content and difficult language.This is causing teenagers to be unable to use the app properly and therefore to look for outside help.We might improve this service so that our users are more successful in completing a digital cv, increase number of applications, connections and clicks on features like attitudinal tests.
User Personas
Journey Map
Minimum Viable Product
Keeping constantly in mind our user needs, we decided to start from what was the first action the user should have taken in order to use the service offered to its full potential: First, basic information needed to be filled in during the sign-up stage, to have a bespoke homepage. Second, we re-organised and prioritised the main features on the homepage (cv, network, blog and attitudinal tests), to be more visible, accordingly to our users’ needs and what the app is offering. Last, we simplified the language on the app that created difficulties during the qualitative research.
Prototype
Keeping in mind the needs of our users’, for the prototype we used an iPhone 6, as most of the teenagers cannot afford the latest mobile model. Based on the paper wireframes, we created a digital low-fi prototype and conducted three users tests
Insights
The majority of users found the app easy to use, with useful features and relevant information. They liked that they could connect with other people. We added more functions and modified it accordingly to what we observed during the usability test.
By examples they were concerned about privacy so we added the option ‘privacy settings’ to their profile where they decide what other people can see. Then we noticed how they responded to certain icons, by example we used a heart icon to save a job or a feature from the blog, but that icon was understood as a rating icon like on Instagram, eventually we changed that icon with a bookmark.
Student Testimonial
When I attended the course I already read books and articles and did a three days bootcamp but during my UX/UI Design Course at UX Academy I had the chance to practice in depth the entire process and understand clearly the principles to apply in a future job. Plus there was a chance to step out of my work routine and be more aware of soft skills which are very important in a team work.
Click here to see the full prototype.
Whether you want to start a career in UX, or just diversify your skillset in general, UX Academy has several courses available to suit your needs. Get the chance to work on real life projects and build your UX portfolio when you join UX Academy.