The Problem

Many first-generation Filipino-Americans pursue careers that they ultimately decide they do not want to pursue resulting in wasted time, energy, and money.

The Solution

A mobile app that helps users discover careers that suit them by…

• Generating career suggestions unique to the user.

• Enabling users to obtain more information on careers that interest them.

• Providing users with the opportunity to find and speak with experts who work in fields or industries that interest them.

“80% of college students change their major at least once.”

— National Center For Education Statistics

I couldn’t help but wonder “why?”

I was shocked to learn just how many people change career trajectories during college. Having gone through this myself, I was curious to learn of other people’s reasons for switching majors. I learned that according to Frank., an organization dedicated to making college more affordable, the top reasons for switching majors that students have reported include:

• Their previous major did not have many job opportunities after graduation.

• They rushed into making their decision and did not evaluate all of their options.

• They wanted something with a more attractive compensation range.

• They ignored their true calling and were pressured into registering for their previous major. This usually happens if parents pressure their children into a particular career path that might not be right for them.

The Core Question

How do people who are choosing a career path for the first time come to their decision?

By understanding how people come to their career decisions, I can create a product that tells them everything they want to know before choosing their career paths.

The first thing I did was create a Research Plan to serve as my guide throughout the process. By doing this, I was able to keep my research on track to obtain the information that I was seeking.

Our Target Audience

Since the product I am designing seeks to serve people who are choosing their career paths for the first time, I had to ask myself: “At what point in life does a person generally decide on a career path for the first time?”

I narrowed our target audience down to:

• High school students.

• College students who have not committed to a career path yet.

What are Existing Career Prep Tools Up to?

I conducted a competitive analysis to form an understanding of what makes for a helpful career planning tool. Evaluating the competition would also give me a sense of how our product can stand out on the market. 

I learned through topic research that parents are an influential factor when a person is choosing a career path for the first time so, in addition to analyzing 3 direct competitors, I also analyzed parents as an indirect competitor.

By studying the strengths and weaknesses of the competition, I have concluded that my product can be helpful to our users and stand out on the market by:

• Presenting information in the form of comprehensible and manageable chunks.

• Having intuitive navigation and being user-friendly.

• Providing interactive content that holds users’ attention.

• Making users feel like the product genuinely cares about helping its users.

Time to Talk to People

Interviews are my favorite part of the research process because it is an opportunity to form meaningful connections with others!

Based on my secondary research findings, target audience, and, provisional personas …I figured that I would get the most useful insights by interviewing people who:

• Are nearing a point where they have to decide on a career path.

• Have experienced changing their career trajectory.

• Are parents of children who have switched career paths.

Our amazing group of interviewees consisted of…

Uncovering Common Goals

I created an affinity map to pinpoint any patterns in behavior, thoughts, or feelings amongst my interviewees. I learned that overlapping goals include:

• To obtain a job that is suited to their own interests and skills and that they will enjoy long-term.

• To get their parents’ support regardless of what career they decide to pursue.

• To choose a career path that would give them a variety of job opportunities.

• To get a job that is financially stable.

Reframing Our Goal

To design a product that will help first-generation Filipino-Americans choose a career that best suits them. This will lower the risk of them choosing careers that they later realize are not what they wish to pursue.

I had gone into this project with the intention of designing a product that serves people of all ethnic backgrounds; however, it was not until after conducting interviews and creating an affinity map that I realized all my interview participants were first-generation Filipino-Americans.

Taking into account that cultural influences may play a role in how my participants go about their career decisions, I decided to reframe my goal and design this product specifically for first-generation Filipino-Americans (for now).

Revisiting the Core Question

How do first-generation Filipino-Americans who are choosing a career path for the first time come to their decision?

After examining the responses of my interview participants, I have gathered that first-generation Filipino-Americans who are choosing a career path for the first time come to their decision based on the following influential factors:

• The feelings, opinions, and occupations of their parents; Familial obligation.

• Range of income they would be making.

• The environment they would be working in.

• The number of opportunities they would have.

• Their personal interests and passions.

• Their own skills and aptitude. 

Based on these influential factors, we can infer that at the heart of our users’ needs is to gain a thorough understanding of what to expect if they were to pursue a certain career.

Introducing Vicky Liwanag

Vicky is a first-generation Filipino-American who has just started her senior year of high school. She is looking to explore her career options but her school doesn’t offer any opportunities or guidance regarding career prep. She has always imagined herself pursuing a career in the science or medical fields but that is more so due to her parents’ influence; when she imagines herself working in science or medicine, she isn’t particularly excited about it.

Based on Vicky’s character and journey, I know that my product has to enable users to:

• Explore career options best suited to their skills and interests.

• Learn about the careers that interest them on a deeper and clearer level.

• Connect with people who can help them understand and obtain the careers they want to pursue.

• Present a strong case to their parents that will get them on board with the careers they choose to pursue, if necessary.

Learning How Users Organize Information

I conducted an in-person, open card sort with 7 female high school students, all between the ages of 14 and 17. As a group, they organized the cards I provided them into categories they created. Until this project, I had only conducted card sorts remotely and with one person at a time, so this was a new and engaging experience.

Establishing a Structure

I created a sitemap while using my card sort findings as a set of criteria to follow as I explored potential informational structures.

The most interesting insight from the card sort was that participants took chronology into account while grouping. This insight influenced the placement of the primary destination options that make up the navigation bar; I ordered the options – Explore, Experience, Connect, and Plan – based on when they would occur in relation to each other during the career-choosing process.

A challenge that I faced as I created this sitemap was confusing actions with content. It was because of this that the first draft of this sitemap was full of unnecessary labels. The sitemap got trimmed down a lot once I got the hang of differentiating content from actions.

Framing Our Challenge

Before diving into ideating, I took the insights I’ve gathered and generated “How Might We…?” questions that will ensure we are designing for the right problems.

• How might we help users find careers that are suited to them?

• How might we enable users to explore and understand their career options?

• How might we help users get their parents to support whatever career they choose?

Designing the Flow

​​Keeping our HMW questions in mind, I sketched out several key screens then digitized them in Figma to create low-fidelity wireframes. Using these wireframes, I explored potential flows and created more low-fi wireframes to fill in the gaps as I went along. The flow consists of:

• Creating an account. I designed the sign-up process to be short and straightforward so that users can quickly start exploring their career options.

• Taking a career quiz. The purpose of the career quiz is to help users find careers suited to them based on the responses they provide.  

• Learning more about a certain career option. This portion of the flow helps users gain an initial understanding of a certain career so they can decide for themselves if it is a career that is right for them.

• Browsing experts in a certain field and booking a session to speak with a certain expert. Giving users the ability to speak with experts within a field or industry that interests them enables them to gain an even deeper understanding of a certain career.

Branding & Visual Identity

Before diving into branding and visual design, I asked myself “How do I want our users to feel when they are engaging with our product?”

I decided that I want users to feel enthusiastic and open-minded as they explore their career options. At the same time, I want them to find the app uplifting and supportive. Enthusiastic, Open-minded, Uplifting, and Supportive were the attributes that I designed the brand around.

The biggest challenge I faced when creating the brand identity was naming our product. Coming up with a name for a product or company is my Achilles heel when it comes to branding. After extensive brainstorming, I ultimately chose the name Embrighten which means to make brighter. Being that my app provides guidance, seeks to uplift users, and aims to inspire enthusiasm, I felt that “Embrighten” was a fitting name for my product.

Validating the Design

I performed two rounds of usability testing with the same 3 participants. The first round of testing was conducted with my low-fidelity prototype. The purpose of this initial round was to pinpoint any kinks, bugs, or areas of confusion that I could eliminate before creating a mid-fidelity prototype.

With the feedback I received from my participants after the first round of testing, I moved on to creating a mid-fidelity prototype. I made the appropriate changes and added more detail including color and actual text. From there I moved on to the second round of testing.

Test Objectives

• Test for how easily and efficiently the user can accomplish their tasks.

• Determine if the transitions between tasks make sense to the user.

Tasks

• Task 1: Create an account and take a career quiz to receive career suggestions unique to you.

• Task 2: Receive your list of career suggestions and look into Audio Engineering in more detail.

• Task 3: Find an Audio Engineer expert and book a session with them.

Results

For both rounds of usability tests….

• 100% direct success rate for both rounds of user testing

• All participants were able to complete each task within 1 minute.

• An average number of 3 misclicks in the first round of testing and 0 misclicks in the second.

• Each participant described the flow as straightforward and stated that the transitions felt sensical.

Identifying Areas for Improvement

To uncover patterns among the insights I gained from my test participants, I wrote down each of my findings on separate notes and began grouping similar ones.

Considering how hefty my affinity maps were with both positive and negative feedback in previous projects, I was shocked to find myself with a scarce affinity map that consisted of more commendations than complaints. It took me a second to realize that this was a good thing being that it meant my usability testers had very few issues with my app and an overall positive experience engaging with it.

If I were to go back and redo the Testing phase, I would have treated my test results from the first and second rounds of testing as separate sets of data. If I had done this, I would have had data that clearly expressed how my product changed and improved from one version to the next. Instead, I had taken my findings from both rounds of user tests and compiled them into a single affinity map.

This was my first time conducting more than one round of usability tests for a single project so this was a new and valuable learning experience for me.

Priority Revisions

After identifying the issues that needed to be addressed, I proceeded to make the appropriate revisions.

• Give users the option to edit their quiz responses. I had initially given users the option to review their quiz answers without the ability to edit them. However, after my test participants insisted that they would want to be able to change their answers, I replaced the option to review their responses with the option to edit them. They would still be able to review their answers as they edit.

• Show the company and years of experience of each expert. In the mid-fidelity prototype, when users browse through experts to connect with, they are able to see where the expert is located and their position title. My test participants, however, expressed that knowing the company that an expert works for and their years of experience is more important to them.

• Add more information on salary, internship opportunities, and the career path of each career. Participants want to be given more information on certain subjects when reading into a career. For example, they’d like to see more information on compensation, the schooling the career would require, companies that hire for this career, and so on. Based on this feedback, I added their desired information onto the Details section and organized them into tabs that the user can toggle through. Doing this provides the user with the information they want while presenting it in an organized way.

Next Steps

I designed this app for first-generation Filipino-Americans, however, struggling with choosing a career is an issue that people experience across all ethnic groups which is why I would like to take Embrighten further by expanding its target audience beyond solely first-generation Filipino-Americans. I would start by conducting more research, this time with a more diverse group of research participants.