Process

- Prospects can create their own profile
o The profile would include their bio, their resume, and their portfolio.
o Their portfolio would be visible to other prospects while their bio, resume, and other personal details would be private, only viewable by employers.

- Prospects can put in details relating to their job interests
o This would include location, hour requirements, position type, desired salary, and anything else they might deem important.

- Employers would then be able to search for keywords (ex. Package Design)
o This would bring up portfolio pieces that are relevant to the keyword.
o Employers would be able to refine their search through filters such as education or other important variables.

- Employers can click on any work they see to get more information
o This would take the Employer to the Prospects profile.
o They could then view work by the Prospect to learn more about them
o If the Employer likes what they see, they could add the Prospect to a list of potential candidates.

- Prospects could also search by keyword
o This will allow them to see what their peers are up to
o It will also serve as a great source of inspiration for them

Features

1. Allow Artists/Designers to showcase their portfolio
2. Allow Employers to scout for talent
3. Allow Employers to learn more about the individual
a. Ex. Resume, Bio, Website, Portfolio, etc
4. Allow Employers to post jobs, openings, and internships
5. Allow Artists/Designers to apply for said openings
6. Allow for a community atmosphere where Artists/Designers can discuss, compliment, or critique their work
7. Allow Artists/Designers to find inspiration by exploring the works being created by all of their peers in the field

Flowchart

While figuring out all the details of the app, it occured to me that I would need to different account types. Personal accounts for the average user looking for work, and employer accounts for businesses. With this in mind, I developed two seperate flow charts.

Personas

In order to decide how exactly the app should be layed out, I first created some detailed personas. I tried to base these personas off of real designers with real problems, being sure to pick those that might make me look for possible problems or special user needs.

Inspiration

To make the app more well rounded, and to make sure I was fully prepared going into it, I began to research similar apps. I knew going into this that certain features such as the nav, prfoiles, and searching would be of importance. With that in mind I looked at what other websites were doing with those features. I was sure to take note of sites I found employing them most successfully.

Wireframes

With all my research, goals, and ideas generated I could finally begin actually begin laying out the app. I started by sketching rough wireframes out by hand. Once I had a setup I was happy with, I began to create an interactive wireframe in UX-Pin.

User Testing

After completing an interactive wireframe for the app, I ran it through two rounds of user testing. I sat down with the users, observed their actions, and took not of how they progressed through the site.

1. One of the first problems I realized I had overlooked, was account management. I realized very quickly that in order for the app to be as efficient as possible, I was going to need a settings section. I decided that my settings would house the job requirements section as well as a feature allowing a user to quickly switch between accounts.Finding the job requirement settings was a common problem. The creation of a settings page helped clear up that situation.
2. A small hiccup I noticed throughout testing was the inbox/jobs page. Users often overlooked the tab, or were unsure of which tab to click. I attempted to rectify this by renaming the jobs tab to applications.
3. The search page proved to have some fault. While all users typically navigated their way through it, I did have a user or two click the wrong tabs. In general, it took users an extra second or two longer to select the appropriate tab than I would have hoped.
4. I forgot to add an enter button to my search screens.
5. When asked to add their friend on the app, some users clicked employers instead of designers on the search page. This is to be chalked up to bad wording in the testing script. Fixing this problem will be as simple as rewording the script to mention that their friend is in fact a user, not an employer.
6. Another small thing I realized to be missing was the addition of a post section under the job posts page.

Mockups

Based on the user testing, revisions to the interactive wireframe were made promptly. Only once all the problems had been addressed could I start to create interatctive mockups.