P4: beINSPIRED: a product for the muse
“What do you want to do when you grow up?”
That is a question we looked to help teens begin to address with a new product proposed for The Muse, a career development website founded in New York in 2011.
I. The Proposal
The concept we submitted: an app designed for The Muse offering a career oriented ‘choose your own adventure’ inspired interactive story game for young adults.
In preparing how to approach our research we decided that a User Survey would best suit our needs since none of us had easy access to our target users: teens. While preparing our survey questions we created an empathy map.
This proved helpful in fleshing out the kinds of questions that may give insight into the kind of product that may engage our users while providing a much needed service.
II. Competitive Analysis
Our competitive analysis for this product included for the first time not just a matrix but Heuristics:
III. Survey & Results
With a bit of effort (teens are not easiest to get complete things in timely fashion) we received 16 participants giving us insight into:
Who they go to for advice about their futures?
How certain they are about their career interests?
What sights/apps they prefer?
How helpful their guidance counselors have been to them?
Key Findings: of our users questioned, ranging from 14–21, only 12% felt confident that they knew what they would like to do. Not one user visited a career site to help them decide aside from Google searches. Half found their guidance counselors of no help. And many felt overwhelmed by the choices available as well as the need to find work they will enjoy while meeting the very real needs of paying off school loans.
IV. Why we chose the Muse
We selected the brand because of its positive reputation with millennials and national reach, as opposed to the Department of Education, which is staid, bureaucratic and operates on a district basis. That said, they (D.O.E.) or no one we have examined, has tapped into the teen market often unprepared for the modern day job market they are preparing to enter into. We believe that a youthful company like The Muse interested in having people ‘love their job’ would be well suited for this product.
V. beINSPIRED: Key Features
CONTENT
- A tool for self discovery presented in the form of a game
- General information presented as an early introduction to professionalism
- The links to affordable and free (where available) access to discovering more
information provided is linked to sources for higher learning for deeper engagement
LOOK & FEEL
- Orange and teal chosen as key colours for their vibrance and positive association
- Photos and video are used prominently for a more visual experience
- An urbane feel points back to the Muse’s brand identity
VI. Iterations & Navigation
Essentially our users were presented with a personalized story we wrote that would encapsulate questions derived from Holland Codes or the Holland Occupational Themes. These refer to a theory of careers based upon personality types initially developed by American psychologist John L. Holland that categorize personalities as percentages of archetypes such as: a Creator, Problem Solver, Builder, etc. Based on the percentages certain career choices are likely to be a better fit than others, and after taking several of these quizzes to a certain degree of satisfaction with the proposed results chose to build our prototype around it.
VII. The Takeaway Results from Our Product
What the benefit of the story and the questions asked is a personality assessment followed by a list of career options logged as appropriate matches to this assessment. The career options (presented as a summary) each linked to a detailed profile with an explanation of the processes used for that profession, informative videos and links to free resources for deeper exploration and preparation should it be interesting to the user.
VIII. Stakeholder Meeting
Although our stakeholder meeting did not end in success it was extremely insightful. Our stakeholder bosses were incredibly insightful in regards to the areas that would’ve benefited from deeper thought: primarily our wordy interface. What I did walk away with is a direction I want to push the prototype after completing the course through further iterations to develop it in a slightly different direction that may prove to become a successful product.
IX. How to Push This Project Further
Where this project could benefit most from is (surprise!) further testing and iteration. We had time for only two rounds of user testing with 3 users each round. This was as always helpful with navigational tools however, as our site was rather content heavy could have greatly benefited from in depth testing (including A/B testing) of the interface with more finalized content included.
This is where I will pick work back up with testing going forward with this project as soon as P5 is completed.
