Midterm Reflection
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Designing for Usability Class, 2021
For this class, I’m researching the field of job applications, specifically creative portfolios with the aim to create a more user-friendly and more efficient approach for students. Please read more about the project in my previous post.
If you know me, you probably also know that I’m researching a fairly similar domain for my Master’s thesis: candidate portals. However, these two projects are not the same, even if they have a lot of things in common. With that being said, I was immediately interested when my team mate Asuka proposed her idea. However, we started with a fresh approach and did not use anything from my own thesis, in order to come up with something new.
The field of job applications and everything that is related to it, can be very b-r-o-a-d and somewhat overwhelming, considering all the different stakeholders and steps involved. One of the biggest challenges is the fact that every company is different and requirements vary so much. This makes it harder for ambitious designers like us to actually propose a solution that would also work from the perspective of recruiters or companies.
The process of creating and mainting a portfolio for career purposed can be very challenging and frustrating for students, which is a clear sign that our audience is experiencing serious pain points. This is a very good indicator for UX designers like us, as we could really solve a problem for a lot of people. Our solution could improve the situation for many young designers, which is the greatest motivation.
Together with my teammate, we brainstormed a lot and tried to scale the project down to the core: portfolios. We used various methodologies that helped us to better understand our users and the actual journey of our new idea.
After presenting this idea in class, we knew that we must narrow it down even more and focus on one particular aspect. Otherwise, the solution would simply offer too much of everything. Instead, we aim to create a smaller, more impactful solution. Maybe not an entire portal, but a specific functionality or integrated tool that would make existing experiences better.
Overall, the midterm crit helped us to better define our goals. As a designer, our goal is not to include as much as possible in one single solution. Actually, we must focus on the essentials and say “bye, bye” to all the aspects that would make the final solution too complex. Designers tend to create their own bubble and like their ideas a lot, which can lead to less user-centric approaches. Designers should always remind themselves why they are doing the project and what they want accomplish by putting the user in the center. Therefore, honest critiques are very important and showed us that we must do that with our project too: focus on what’s important for the user, even if we liked some ideas or designs personally.
We scheduled a Zoom soon immediately after to discuss our new ideas after getting so much inspiration from peers. This will help us to iterate our concept and prepare a version that is ready to be tested by strangers.
