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YEAR:
2022
TIME FRAME:
10 weeks
CLASS:
COGS 122: Start-up Studio
WHAT I DID:
User Research, Prototyping, Branding, User Testing, UI Design
TOOLS USED:
Figma, Photoshop, Kickstarter, Premier, Slides, Slack
SIZE OF GROUP:
5 people
As college students ourselves that are close to graduation, the topic of job-hunting and going on interviews was already on our minds. Interviews are incredibly important part as a way for companies to evaluate how good of a candidate someone is and how well they fit into the company’s goal and culture.
Our goal is to help interviewees have more access to interview preparation and be able to conduct mock interviews to improve how they actually conduct themselves in interviews and also help interviewers in sharing the knowledge they have gained with newer interviewees.
In order to see what types of problems there were in the current landscape of society, we analyzed the social, economic and technologic states of society. The following were our results of that:
Practicing interviews with friends and family
People have limited time to interact with others due to busy schedules
People seek advice from others for interview preparation
People looking for employment are willing to pay for additional interview practice and feedback
Business models for interview prep vary in both price and pricing model.
Some are as cheap as $29/month to $80/month while other can cost thousands of dollars
People using online video software (like Zoom) for interviews and online school due to the pandemic
People utilize the internet to research the main ideals of the company to prepare for upcoming interviews
Practicing interviews with friends and family
People have limited time to interact with others due to busy schedules
People seek advice from others for interview preparation
People looking for employment are willing to pay for additional interview practice and feedback
Many interview prep services and resources have been created for this need
Business models for interview prep vary in both price and pricing model.
Some are as cheap as $29/month to $80/month
Others can reach up to thousands of dollars per month or year.
People using online video software (like Zoom) for interviews and online school due to the pandemic
People utilize the internet to research the main ideals of the company to prepare for upcoming interviews
We created an initial Value Flow Diagram to visually show how users prepare for interviews currently vs with our new idea. When looking at the diagram, applicants use college to gain a baseline knowledge for the career you are looking into. You then utilize the internet by accessing forums, interview prep websites and company websites in order to get a better understanding for the company itself.
In our updated version, we wanted to provide a way for experts in the field currently to be involved that would offer an opportunity for their efforts to be compensated.
We also had to look at the current competitors in the current landscape and we settled on Wyzant, ExpertWired and Upwork. Based on the how all the current competitors operate, there are no services that allow for users to help other users prepare for specific kinds of interviews. The closest thing to our ideal product was Wzyant which is more of a tutoring service and allowed users to make their own rates, etc.
We aim to help people prepare and gain confidence for their interviews by connecting them with professionals that have gone through the process.
Intermingle would connect professionals with interviewees to help them prepare for specific, upcoming job interviews with mock interviews and career coaching. Some other aspects the app would offer include:
People looking for employment and want to improve their interviewing skills to increase their chance of securing jobs and internships.
People with interview experience who are looking to benefit from sharing this information
Backgrounds: college students, new graduates, people entering new industries, people trying to enter the workforce, employees of large companies
When it came to branding, we had to create logos that would represent our company. This went through many logo changes as well as name changes from the likes of Outerview with an outerspace theme to Role Models with a more role-playing theme. But we felt like the core idea of what our company provided was lost so we went back to the drawing board and came up with the name Intermingle.
We ended up incorporating certain ideas from all aspects of the branding process such as embedding the logo within the name, the dual color setup and the tie design in order to get the final design we have now. Based off this brand we created, we also had to craft a Kickstarter page with rewards.(We never made the Kickstarter live but we had to make one for the assignment)
For the lofi prototype, we wanted to incorporate the main features of our potential app idea. This included creating both the screens for interviewees and interviewers in order to either add or take away features based on feedback. We also wanted to make sure to not polish the prototype too much with the use of very minimal color in order for users to give us feedback on the core features we were trying to implement. The core features we wanted to test were:
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Our group had a total of 2 rounds of testing with three versions of the prototype. The 2 tables below lists all the changes we changed throughout the entire process leading up to the hi-fi prototype:
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One of the main things that we didn't have time to do but would love to eventually complete is to make a mobile version of the idea. We believe that this sort of application would lend itself well to the mobile form factor like an app like Uber.
Another thing that we would want to do is run a couple of user tests on the high fidelity version of the application because even though testing went well with the low fidelity you need to still run more tests to iron out your idea.
All in all, this was tied with the longest project I've been apart of and made me get out of my comfort zone. In conjunction with all the design related work like mockups, interviews and analysis, my group and I were also tasked with the financial aspects of running a business(expenses, Kickstarter, etc.) which was challenging but very interesting. Even though a tough experience, we got great feedback from users and teaching staff alike to makea product that I'm very proud of.
Justin Nwanagu