Case Study:
Jobseeker
Experience
RiseKit is a workforce development platform connecting jobseekers with right training, resources, and opportunities at the right time.
How we help young jobseekers find a path forward with a system that speaks their language?
The Team
I led design for this project in collaboration with a product manager and the head of product.
Timeline and Tools
The project was completed in 8 weeks. We conducted remote ideation and synthesis workshops in Miro, leveraged Vercel for rapid concept generation and prototyping, and used Figma as the primary design tool to carry designs from wireframes to high-fidelity mockups.
My Role
User Research and Synthesis
I moderated user interviews with our clients in the form of a conversation about their current work flow, goals, and pain points. I also synthesized the qualitative data collected through these interviews into insights to guide the direction of the design.Product Marketing
I coined narrative langage that shaped the delivery of this user experience, identifying and leveraging key phrases from the user research to establish product terminology that resonated with our research participants’ goals for the user experience. Wireframing and High-Fidelity Mockups
I created every stage of the designs for this project in Figma, using our generated concepts as a reference to draft the inital wireframes, the initial set of MVP designs, and the final iterative high-fidelity mockups after collecting user feedback.Targeting the Job Hunt
Opportunity Youth Usertype
This redesign focused on a user type we call opportunity youth: young adults ages 18–24 who were currently enrolled in or had recently completed workforce program.
Every instance of friction in the career navigator’s workflow increases the risk that a client will fall through the cracks. The tools that career navigators use daily should remove obstacles from their workflow, not create new ones.
Distrust in Platforms
Going into this project, we were aware of the palpable hostility and distrust that exists between young, under-employed jobseekers and the job application
What Do You Want To Do When You Grow Up?
Setting Goals in Crisis
The standard onboarding approach asks someone to describe what they want before they have any sense of what's available. It turns a moment of potential into a dead end.
Gathering Research Insights
- D.C., Opportunity Youth research Participant
User Research
We conducted user interviews with 40 prospective uses representing the opportunity youth user typein in other words, young adults ages 18–24 who were currently enrolled in programs with our nonprofit partners.
Interviews were structured as open-but-guided conversations, focusing on the topic of building and maintaining client relationships, and tools used in daily workflow. Here’s what we learned:
Young people lack Next Steps, not Motivation
Our research particpants were self-aware and ambitious.Life gets in the way
Transportation, childcare, unstable housing, and unexpected emergencies were the things that interrupted progress most often.People Build Trust, Platforms Can Undermine It
Their skepticism toward digital tools was real and rational. A platform that felt impersonal, extractive, or like "just another form to fill out" would face instant resistance.Open Communication With Career Navigator
Easy to start a conversation with a career navifator and ask questions about anything on the app....Forging a Design Path
Defining the Problem
With our synthesis of user research, we developed our problem statement:
Approaching the Solution
We also established four design principles to inform the direction of this user design:
