Skills Week: Learning and applying digital skills as a beginner
I have always been interested in pursuing a career path in business but didn’t know where to start. Thanks to CareerContact I’m ready to apply my newly acquired digital skills to SMEs in Southeast Asia.
by Alison Tichelaar
Over the course of six weeks from June to end July 2021, CareerContact carried out its fourth-ever Digital Skills Sprint. In the first two weeks, students were introduced to the fundamentals of User Experience (UX), User Interface Design (UI), Low/No-code web development and Digital Marketing. Every day involved small assignments that culminated in a mini-project. After completing CareerContact’s online digital skills curriculum, students embarked on a month-long digital challenge with partner SMEs in Singapore.
When I signed up for the CareerContact programme, I wasn’t too sure about what digital skills we would learn. However, after having completed the sprint, I am now aware of UX, UI, low-code web development and marketing, and I feel more confident creating or improving a product/service using UX and UI.
Getting started
Throughout the courses of the programme, I focused on my project: how I could improve the Good Notes application. I am very familiar with the app myself and therefore had a good idea of the user experience. The process and outcome can be found on this website, which I built as part of the two-week sprint.
Sorting out UX and UI
During the first course, I learned that UX is the design process that addresses a user’s problems and needs by creating a satisfactory experience. Before, I believed that user experience was limited to the ease of which the product may be used, but the concept turned out to be more complex.
When we learned about UX I carried out a range of activities that helped me understand the pain points of users when they use Good Notes, then I was able to come up with prototype solutions.
I started the design process by creating a User Persona. This was key to making product improvements specific to the target audience. To ensure that I was meeting the user needs and wants I had to keep this user persona in mind during the whole design process.
I then proceeded to conduct an interview with a participant that matched the user persona, and gained insights about the pain points and competitors of Good Notes. Following that, I ordered the key takeaways into groups using affinity mapping: Benefits, Pain points, Solutions, Extra features and Competitors.
I then created a consumer journey mapping and user flow to address the smaller details. From this, I learned that there were nearly no pain points for Good Notes’ organisation method of the notebooks and that I should focus on improving the note-taking function. After that, I had a clear idea of all the pain points the users experienced. When conducting market research, I looked at the competitors of Good Notes — Notability and One Note — and completed a SWOT analysis. During the design process, I also picked up Miro, a very helpful and effective tool for UX.
In the second course, we covered User Interface (UI) which corrected my misunderstanding that UI doesn’t simply make a website look pretty but also makes the design memorable and meaningful.
I learned that website architecture is important before creating a website prototype. A website should be user-friendly, logical, and easy to navigate. I had to make sure that users could easily and quickly find what they are looking for. Using Optimal Workshop, I created card sorting and tree jack testing and quickly realised how useful these tools could be.
Card sorting is when users are asked to organise labelled cards into groups they think are appropriate. I used card sorting to see how the user would prefer to categorise information. Tree testing is when users are asked to complete a series of tasks using the site structure. I used tree testing to test whether users would be able to find items on the website.
Finally, I completed a mood board for Good Notes which helped me identify the website’s aesthetic: hex codes, images, fonts etc.
Creating a prototype
We were taught how to use Figma to create high-fidelity prototypes. I completed the wireframes for the website and made them interactive so that it was more visually appealing.
I also used Figma to create high-fidelity prototypes for the improved features of Good Notes. I created low-fidelity prototypes first on paper and then recreated them on Figma after incorporating feedback given when testing the low-fidelity prototypes. (This can be found on the website)
Before the programme, I had some experience in creating low-code websites. However, I was able to further my knowledge, including making navigation easier and including website translation and creating subpages. One thing I found especially useful from the course on web development is that a call to action (CTA) on the landing page is necessary to let your user know what you expect them to do. In my case, I wasn’t selling a product, so I decided that my CTA would be for users to send in their feedback on the solutions I ideated for Good Notes.
Lastly, in marketing my key takeaways were the 4P marketing tools (product, price, place, and promotion), learning about B2B and B2C, how backlining works, SEO (search engine optimization) and the differences between sales and marketing. Although, I couldn’t apply much of the marketing tools to my website, I did include backlining by referencing reliable links to other websites. I hope to apply more of the knowledge I learned in the coming weeks when working with the enterprises Swapie and Gifting.
Main challenges
One of the main challenges I faced was creating the user persona. I was unsure of what should be included until I received feedback on my draft. I was soon able to craft a more precise target audience. Secondly, I found it difficult to grasp many new concepts and tools such as Figma, backlining and Google Ads. However, after doing more in-depth research and watching videos, I was able to have a clearer understanding.
In Summary
Overall, I really enjoyed the two-week sprint. CareerContact facilitated learning through their syllabus on key digital skills, UX, UI, low-code web development and marketing, and then giving us an opportunity to apply our learning to real-life situations while partnered with an enterprise. I learned a lot of new digital skills including how to build a website whilst creating my final product. I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this course and I’m looking forward to applying these skills to the challenges posed by Swapie and Gifting later this month.
Alison is a rising 11th-grade student at Dulwich College Shanghai Pudong (China).
CareerContact is an ed-tech platform designed to bridge the gap between school and work. We help students develop digital skills and connect them with SMEs in Southeast Asia. Feel free to reach out to us at CareerContact.cc or check out our courses on Thinkific.
