Nexus VR

For my "Introduction to UX Design" course (INFO 213), I deepened my understanding of the UX design process, especially for approaching/explaining user research and usability testing. For our final project, we were assigned to teams and given full-control over what we wanted to create. Driven by our shared interests, we chose to explore and develop solutions for how students typically discover career opportunities and job prospects.

Timeline

February - April 2024

Project Type

Class Project

Tools

Figma

Miro

Skills

Prototyping

Visual Design

User Research

Storytelling

Usability testing

Team

Monica Cortes

Ankita Shanbhag

Phil Ickes

Sekar Setyanto

Background

My team shared a strong interest in education and communication. Leveraging this common passion, we brainstormed a wide range of research topics using a Miro board. After generating numerous ideas, we convened to vote on our favorites and selected the topic with the most votes.

We decided to focus on the job application and search process. As students ourselves, my team deeply related to the challenges of job applications and the job search. Recognizing that our peers face similar issues, we posed the question: How do students build projects, create portfolios, and prepare for job applications?

Research

Before we began ideating solutions, it was important to engage in need-finding. My team conducted several user interviews with students and working professionals to explore topics such as task management, resume building, and showcasing relevant experience.

Additionally, we observed participants as they demonstrated their habits and methods towards approaching these topics, while framing questions to gain deeper insights into their processes.

Overall, we found that users need:

A system for receiving feedback to enhance projects, portfolios, and resumes.
Methods to stay accountable and balance job searches with social life.
Ways to connect projects to job prospects and format portfolios effectively.
Referrals from professionals and interview guidance to showcase their projects.

Based on our findings, our Point of View being explored is:

Students entering the workforce need help translating experiences into impactful hiring materials and to present themselves well in interview and networking events, so that can effectively promote themselves for their target employment positions.

Brainstorming

Once again, my team met to discuss possible solutions to our POV statement.

We bounced back and developed upon each other's ideas, eventually voting on three solutions:

A platform where students can connect with industry professionals to receive feedback for their hiring materials, as well as offer mentorship opportunities.
A Virtual Reality platform to hold mock a networking scenario
AI chatbot algorithm trained that will translate a users' education and life experiences into relevant bullets and interview talking points

Lo-fidelity prototypes

Below are my lo-fi prototypes for the VR networking solution (left) and the AI chatbot solution (right).

And now for our solution!

How did we design the final version of the application?

At this point, my team and I distributed responsibilities. I was responsible for designing the VR Networking solution and will be focusing on that product from now on. (If you're interested in how the other solutions developed, check out the slides here.)

Introducing

Nexus VR

Nexus Solution

Personalize your experience

As part of the onboarding process, users personalize Nexus VR to meet their needs and desires. Based on their skills and fields of interest, users will be placed into relevant scenarios.

Helping Hands

Network with others, with a bit of help!

Now comes time for networking! Users will gain experience and grow more comfortable speaking to others about their experiences, with various prompts to randomize the experience, bring users a new experience every time they use the app. And, if they need a bit more help, they can quickly toggle information about who they're speaking to.

Gain immediate feedback

Throughout their conversations, user's reactions are collected and converted into valuable data for them. This data, ie. usage of filler words, is displayed to them after finisihing their experience.

All screens made

For context, our team was challenged to keep everything within 5 screens or less!

Testing our prototypes

How did we go about usability testing?

We wanted to know about their their sole usability and how each prototype compared:

How user-friendly and intuitive are our 3 prototypes?
How confident is a user in its ability to help them in their job search?
What general improvements or additional features would they recommend to enhance its effectiveness?

We once again recruited the same participants we initially interviewed. We observed them as they used our prototypes, asking them questions whenever necessary. We also followed up with follow-up questions:

As we followed our participants as they tested our prototypes, we asked questions like:

While interacting with our high-fidelity prototype, how intuitive did you find the process of identifying and articulating your key experiences and skills?
Based on your experience with the prototype, how effective do you think the final product will be in creating relevant and impactful hiring materials for your target employment positions? Please give specific examples from the prototype that influenced your opinion
How satisfied are you with the current design and functionality of the prototype in terms of preparing you for the job application process?
What improvements or additional features would you suggest to enhance its effectiveness?
What aspects of this prototype frustrated you? Or confused you?
At any point during your interactions with the prototype were you unsure of how to proceed?
Is there anything else we haven’t mentioned that you would like to mention now?

Key findings

What did I learn?

Based on my observations from above, users reported that:

The application is simple to use.
Having that second screen ("What industry are you interested In?") is useful for tailoring your experience.
Having that last screen with stats about user performance ("How you did") is also useful.
One user even commented that this prototype may be enhanced by combining it with the features of another prototype we worked on.

As for pain points, users brought up helpful points to consider:

One user pointed out that the whole experience could be ruined if they are interrupted by someone in the real world. Is there any real solution to this?
Currently, there is a lack of sufficient feedback provided by this tool.
The "About Me” portion was confusing, suggesting the need to make its usefulness more clear.

Overall, what I discovered is that:

There is a desire to be able to see information about yourself as well, not just the person you're speaking to.
It's important to collect enough detailed information about the job seeker and the specific job position they are applying for, to tailor the interviews to the user's current needs.
Testers want to see more useful performance statistics but also to be given suggestions as for how they should improve.

Testing this prototype brought up different experiences and needs from our users that will be useful for future iterations. This experience also taught me how different needs/pain points vary per user, as there were points that I initially did not deem confusing.

Reflecting on this project

How might I improve this product?

Overall, I'm really glad that I was able to take this course. Given the lack of UX/design courses offered at my university, it provided a valuable education and multiple opportunities to practice skills that will continue to be necessary in the world of UX Design and UX Research.

Reflecting on it now, I would definitely focus on how I want to layout each page for this application. I think that would benefit from users being able to interact a lot more with the product, as the usability testing was impacted by that. I also would like to explore a different user interface, especially for differentiating between mobile and VR capabilities.

This course provided me a solid foundation in UX Design, and I got the chance to apply these skills as a CoGrader intern!