Context
This redesign challenge is part of the Kleiner Perkins Design Fellows 2023 Application. I was selected as a semi-finalist for completing this design challenge.
Introduction
Handshake is a college career network that helps students and recent graduates find their next opportunity. It is the #1 way college students find jobs, so for this design challenge, I will focus on helping students find their own community on this platform.
The Problem
How might we foster a sense of community among Handshake students?
Process
User Research
I conducted interviews with some students (bachelor's and master's), here is the list of the questions:
What are your purposes for using Handshake?
What are you looking for in terms of communities on Handshake?
What do you think Handshake could improve?
The insights I summarized from the responses:
1. I want to know who else applies for the job, getting to know the other applicants give me an edge in knowing how I compare in the marketplace and how I can effectively differentiate.
2. I hope there is a channel or a group discussion where students could discuss the timeline of the interview stage, common interview questions, offer show, etc.
3. It would be awesome to meet friends who are in the same majors as me, we could learn things from each other.
Persona
Base on the research data, I built a persona to better represent our target audience.
Let's meet Daisy!
Narrow down the problems
I reframed the problems based on the insights I gathered from the research stage.
1. Join a group channel for students who apply for the same job.
2. Communities for students who are studying the same majors, or new grads who work in the same industry.
Design
Wireframe
From the previous problem statement from the research stage, I began the design process by drawing wireframe in Figma, the main feature I designed is:
Add Community in the nav bar.
On this Community page, students could see different groups related to their majors or their career paths. If they don't like any groups that Handshake recommends, they could simply user the search bar above the groups. For instance, Daisy is a student studying Design at UCBerkely, when she lands on Community page, she will see groups like UX Design students, UX Design Internships, UX Design New Grads, etc.
High-fidelity
In this high-fidelity design, I created these UX communities for Daisy so that she could meet people who are in the same stage as her and learn from each other, find new UX Design internships opportunities, and make friends!
Usability Testing
I conducted usability testing after the high-fidelity design, I asked some of my friends to give feedback on my design. Here are what they said:
I love this whole community thing but I'm not sure I want to be in all the groups that Handshake recommends to me. It would be better I could choose which community to join, I feel like a join button on each community would help.
I hope it would be a star or favorite certain message feature, just in case I forget important messages.
Iteration
Based on the feedback from usability testing, I added a join button on each group so that Daisy could decide which group she wants to join.
Reflection
Designers shouldn't have personal bias and should always listen to the real voices of the users.
Validating decisions through usability testing is important.
