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AI Career Coaching Platform

Level Up Career Journey and Productivity with AI coaching

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My Role:

Project Management, User Research, Market Analysis, Brainstorming, Concept Sorting, Information Architecture, User Flow, UI Design, Prototyping, User Testing

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Achievement:

UX Design Award 2023 nominated ︎︎︎
Huawei UX Innovation Pioneer Award
15th User eXperience Design Award National Third Prize

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Period:

2 Months

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Key Problem
The job hunting process can be complex and daunting. For new graduates and job seekers, the process is overwhelming and time-wasting, including identifying career path, juggling across multiple apps, crafting application materials and more.

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Design Goal
How might we enable recent graduate to receive continuous career guidance with AI coach and seamlessly manage their career journey with less cognitive and emotional burden?

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Unique Selling Point
A project-oriented coaching platform consolidate all essential tools for career development into one space using AI coaching to guide the career with seamless conversation, efficient tracking and stress-free productivity.

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CareerUp AI Coach


The AI career coach primarily interacts with users through text input and output. Additionally, users have the option to select voice output for added convenience and focus.

To facilitate productive communication, we have incorporated a floating, robotic-like AI sphere that serves as the attention centre. In order to create an immersive and career-driven environment that enhances productivity, we made sure that the initial app background can be fully customized based on the users' job preferences.

With these thoughtful design elements, our app empowers users to make the most of their career journey and achieve their goals with ease.

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Efficiency for Career Management

CareerUp AI enhances user convenience and efficiency by consolidating all useful tools into a single screen.

Traditionally, users need to juggle across multiple apps, from Email to Web Browsers researching target opportunities and from Word to Excel tracking application processes.

By eliminating this frustrating process, we support users to seamlessly set their career goals, explore job opportunities and manage their applications within one space. Everything that is needed for job hunting is within users' reach.

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Seamless Job Hunt

With the assistant AI coach and our user-centric platform, we empower users to receive continuous guidance to focus on job hunting. CareerUp incorporates AI assistants to support immediate action to streamline the job hunting process which used to take a few days to accomplish.

• Talk with CareerUp conversational AI to discover your career interests and define the potential opportunities.
  
• Apply to the position immediately on our platform with the support of CareerUp AI Coach filling out the application.
  
• One-click to automatically save your application for easy status tracking and interview preparation.

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Career Database

We have designed the profile with a different purpose more than just a public “facebook” that showcases users' experiences and skills. Instead, our profile serves as a personal space where users can store their background data and work on improving their skills.

Think of it as a database that lets users store their past experiences, skills, and useful links to their web resources. With this information at their fingertips, users can easily create customised CVs for specific job opportunities. All they need to do is select their relevant past experiences and click to generate the CV.

The CareerUp AI coach is always by the side to help users tailor their CVs and prepare for upcoming interviews.

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Impact

After we completed the initial development of the product, we have sought feedback from target uers and industry experts to further improve it. We are also working on developing our first demo and conducting trial test with potential users in the coming month.

At the same time, we are actively participating in multiple design competitions, such as being nominated for the UX Design Award 2023 in “New Talent” category.

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How Users Say About Us

“I would really hope to have a tool like this. It will save me a lot of effort in applying hundreds of jobs everyday.”
—— Graduate Intern, London Marketing Firm

"The user flow is clear, and I had no trouble navigating through the journey. I easily clicked the prompt to proceed."
—— UX Design Graduate, Loughborough University

"I love idea that the AI provides coaching and subjective data to support my decision-making process. It's very insightful."
—— 2023 Graduate Student, UCL

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How Industry Expert Say About Us

"I absolutely adore this AI program! It's intuitive and empowers job seekers to quickly get up to speed. With a bit more focus on providing a detailed description of the functional points of the information architecture, this project will undoubtedly have an even more positive impact!"
—— UX designer, Google

"I am truly impressed by the clarity of the logic and the relevance of the selected topics in this project. It's evident that the team has put in a lot of effort. With a few more thoughtful walkthrough of the User Interface, this project is destined to make a significant positive impact!"
—— 交互设计师, 深圳某独角兽公司

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Research - Design Process

48% of unemployed job seekers said they are frustrated in their job search

52% say they’ve felt like they lost a piece of their identity during the job hunt process.

When it comes to navigating our career development journey, we often find ourselves juggling across multiple apps and platforms. This frustrating void leaves us feeling stressed and overwhelmed, lacking the necessary guidance and strategies to chart our professional path effectively.

The consequences are profound: a pervasive sense of being lost and directionless. Moreover, the arduous tasks of managing job applications and enduring rejections can take a toll on our confidence, potentially dampening our motivation to pursue our career aspirations with vigour. In light of these challenges, it becomes imperative to seek innovative solutions that empower individuals and alleviate the burdens associated with career management.

Market Analysis

We initially drew inspiration from industry reports and speeches focused on various aspects of developing one's career journey. This exploration of career development services enabled us to identify potential partnerships or integration opportunities that could enhance our own offering and provide a comprehensive solution to our target audience.

Competitor Analysis

Furthermore, delved into the topic by examining the existing competitors in the market, which provided us with a comprehensive understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, and strategies employed by key players in the industry. This analysis proved invaluable in identifying potential opportunities and uncovering gaps that could be exploited to gain a competitive advantage.

Key Opportunities

User Interview

To gather valuable insights and empathise with the target group, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 participants. These interviews were designed to explore various aspects of career development and understand the experiences, perspectives, and needs of individuals in relation to their career planning journey.

Key Objectives:

• Explore the resources that have been used for career planning
  
• Understand how our user assess preferred tools for career development
  
• Identify users’ frustrations with existing tools
  
• Understand users’ expectations with an AI-powered career coaching tool

Prioritising 

With the collected user insights in hand, we embarked on categorizing them based on similar topics, allowing us to identify recurring patterns and themes. Through a meticulous analysis, we were able to group these insights into 7 distinct themes that emerged from the data. These themes not only provided us with a structured overview of the user feedback but also highlighted potential opportunities for development. 

We established two evaluation metrics, one focused on improving user experience and the other on solving user problems, to effectively prioritise the qualitative user findings within our affinity mapping.

By assigning a high or low rating to each finding based on its impact on user experience and their potential to address user problems, we were able to identify areas that required immediate attention to enhance the overall user journey. It also enabled us to prioritise solutions that would have the greatest impact on resolving user pain points.

Value Proposition - Pain Points

Design Appoarch

Prototyping

In order to develop the prototype of our design concept, we followed a systematic approach that involved wireframing, creating low-fidelity prototypes, and eventually transitioning to high-fidelity prototypes. We began by wireframing, which allowed us to sketch out the basic structure and layout of the design concept. This helped us visualize the overall flow and arrangement of elements without getting caught up in the finer details.

User Testing

During the initial phase of development, we prioritize accessibility and usability in our low-fidelity prototype before advancing to a high-fidelity version. Our user testing procedure involves inviting target users to complete pre-designed tasks and interact with the product. We then collect users' feedback and analyze behavior heat maps to gain valuable insights. Utilizing this data, we create an iteration plan for further development, allowing us to make informed improvements based on user feedback and interaction patterns.

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