To begin, I wanted to understand the frustrations students face, and what attracts them to certain opportunities over others. In understanding this, my design could address their pain points, while presenting roles in an appealing and informative way.
Key goals:
✔️ Identify key frustrations in the application process.
✔️ Identify what factors attract young professionals to fashion jobs.
To identify these points of frustration and attraction, I knew that observing students as they apply for jobs, on sites they normally use (such as Fashion Workie and BoF careers), would be key.
Scenario: “You are looking for a fashion job for yourself on this website. If you find a role you like, apply as you usually would. During the process, speak freely about what you're thinking, and what steps you're taking.”
🙅 Users do not trust that job websites will help them.
“I always check the company’s actual website to make sure it’s still live.”
🙅 Users feel that job sites are inaccurate at matching them with roles.
“These sites are horrible at matching you with anything!”
🙅 Users find job descriptions confusing, particularly in regards to seniority.
“As a graduate, how are you supposed to have two years of experience?”
✔️ Users were drawn to postings that leveraged existing skills!
“What here would align with my current skills?”
✔️ Users were drawn to brands first before specific role titles.
“I find it difficult because I’m not looking for a specific role, but a brand that resonates.”
To begin designing, I sketched the key screens that I believe are central to cultivating user trust, understanding and confidence. Through solving these problems, users can be connected with the right role sooner, instead of engaging in a loop that makes them want to give up.
Considering that our users struggled to find relevant jobs during their search, I first addressed creating a personalized onboarding experience. In doing this, users will be provided with a relevant feed as soon as possible.
Users struggled to understand job postings, and felt they saw recommendations that were not relevant. Through specific job descriptions, and explanations as to why jobs are recommended to them, users can better understand the fashion careers space.
Combining a lack of understanding with a brand-first approach, it is evident that users lack confidence in what roles entail, and what roles would be suitable to them. To build their confidence, Your Fashion Career features fashion company ratings and educational articles.
To determine next steps, I always look back to the initial goals I set for the project. While this app concept is ongoing, I know
that I set achieved my objectives because...
How I achieved my goals so far:
✔️ Identify key frustrations in the application process.
Users became stuck in a continuous loop of searching due to their brand-first approach and inaccurate job recommendations.
🩹 Solution: Provide users with a personalized onboarding process, company-specific peer feedback, and tailored educational content.
✔️ Identify what factors attract young professionals to fashion jobs.
Users are heavily brand-driven in their search, and think primarily about skills they already have (rather than what they want to learn).
🩹 Solution: Provider deeper insights into what it’s really like to work at certain fashion companies, and show users if that specific role would leverage their strengths while providing room to grow.
Going forward, the below steps need to be taken to make Your Fashion Career a reality:
✔️ Algorithm logic for onboarding quiz
✔️ Algorithm logic for company values
✔️ Testing on application flow in MVP
✔️ Testing on social interaction flow and messaging
✔️ Testing on iPad, creating web app experience
