UX Job site
Developing a job site focused on helping job seekers on the Autism Spectrum find new opportunities.
The Problem
The unemployment rate for people on the Autism Spectrum is at an all-time high of 85%.
For this reason, it was decided to create a site that would focus on their needs and desires. Our site prototype was geared towards connecting people on the Autism Spectrum with suitable training with features like interview practice and networking events.
Key Goal
To create a better experience for mid-functioning individuals on the autism spectrum looking for work.
My Role
For this project, I took on the role of User Researcher
I handled a large portion of UX research on this project. Deliverables included user research, SWOT Analysis, wireframes, interactive prototypes for the web version of the platform.
Understanding the user
Our users were looking for a simple, easy-to-use site that wouldn’t overwhelm them when using it.
Throughout our research, we focused on interviewing multiple potential users who were on the Autism Spectrum and seeking opportunities. We found one of the biggest pain points was the lack of proper training that was specialized towards helping them get past the often difficult in-person interview portion. As such, we opted to expand our approach from a simple job site to a platform that also offers interview practice and networking with other people and organizations that are more receptive to Autistic Individuals.
Through these interviews, we were able to get a qualitative feel for what job seekers on the spectrum need from the job-seeking process. Oftentimes job sites are focused on just providing posts where people can apply to. As such, it was great to have our interviews show that we can improve on what our users need by changing our scope.
Breaking down the process
For this project, we used many research methods to acquire data and help formulate our strategy.
Methods used include:
User Interviews
Personas and Empathy Maps
User testing
Card Sort
User Journeys
RESEARCH METHODS
User Interviews
The user interviews I conducted were extremely informative pieces of research throughout the whole process. I interviewed 10 individuals impacted by the issue, including job seekers on the spectrum to family members and volunteers that work alongside them, to find out what was most important to all of them.
Card Sort
We had many terms that we had to include in our sitemap and a lot of the terms could fit in many different areas. We used the card sort to gain user insight on where they thought the terms made sense and used their feedback to create our groupings.
Personas and Empathy Maps
Using 3 of the key interviews; we created personas based on ideal users and charted their thought processes through empathy maps.
User Testing
We used a low-fi wireframe and had users explore the layout to see how it felt. From there we made updates as necessary and performed a second test with additional users to see if the changes improved performance.
User Journeys
Based on previous user testing we opted to plot out a user journey for our focused users based on some of their thoughts. We covered their likely actions, thoughts, emotions, pain points, and opportunities through the job searching process. This allowed us to better determine what issues would be more meaningful to focus on for our users.
Documentation
Included below is the full documentation of the project. This includes all research done, wireframes, and a link to the interactive prototype at the end.