Project Brief

Most high school students think a résumé is not needed until one graduates from college and is in the process of finding employment. This is far from the truth! It is an essential part of your college application. Because admission to college is so highly selective today due to the marked increase of students applying for the limited open slots, it is imperative that you find a way to stand apart from all of the other applicants. A high school résumé can help do that for you! It is one of the most important marketing tools that you can use in selling yourself. Essentially your résumé provides a snapshot picture of the “REAL” you: your interests, passions, achievements, and contributions BOTH in and out of the classroom.

My Role

User Research, User Interviews, Surveys, Persona Creation, Information Architecture, Affinity mapping, Wireframes and Prototyping, and User Testing

Discover - The Problem Statement

Rethink the Resume builder so that it meets students where they are so they can put their most professional foot forward in job interviews, job shadows, scholarship applications and similar scenarios. My core challenge was to make sure that it needs to facilitate the needs of the high schoolers who are likely building their resume for the first time and who have little or no job experience- but big aspirations.

My Research Process

A high school student's resume builder software serves a diverse population of which the technological and academic levels vary widely. I followed the process shown below to investigate the user's challenges and interaction with buidling their resume.

User Interviews

Based on the requirement I conducted 6 user interviews and 10 surveys on qualified applicants – The user must be in high school. Is planning to create a resume. Has used an online platform to create a resume. Has tried to create or has atleast one resume.

1. When did you realize that you need to build your resume?
2. What was your main motivation towards creating it?
3. Whom did you reach out for advice when you started thinking about creating your resume?
4. Walk me through your process and how you felt when you started making one?
5. Which tools did you use/try to create your resume?
6. How many types of resumes have you drafted or build so far?
7. What questions did you have during the process of creating your resume?
8. How long did it take you to create your best resume?
   a. Was there any guidance or influence while creating it? Who helped you?
9. How many pages long was your resume?
   a. How long did you expect it would be?
10. Have you included any outstanding moments from your high school career? Which ones?
11. Did you come across any part of the resume which you thought you didn't have any experience in?

Key User Finding's

Based on the feedback from the user interviews and surveys, I analyzed the data based on these themes for conducting usability tests. All the data was grouped using an affinity map to better understand patterns,area for an oppurtunity and areas of concerns.

• 1. Problems with procedure
• 2. Content Issues / inadequacy of content
• 3. Communication with problems
• 4. Need
• 5. Process interruptions
• 6. Influence

“I don’t know if I have anything resume worthy”

“Can I get my counselor to look over it before I submit it for the scholarship application?"

“Should you list coursework on your resume?"

Creating Personas

User Scenario

Robert wants to pursue a career as an Engineer but doesn’t want to put a financial burden on his family. His counselor has suggested him to apply for a scholarship. She suggests he use the Career and readiness program to build his resume so he can apply for his scholarship before college begins.

User Flow

Building further on the personas, I created a storyboard and user flow to further elaborate and detail the user's interaction with the resume builder. It also allowed me to articulate and highlight the pain points of the users.

Wireframing

Aiming to transform all the research into something useful and engaging, I started drafting some paper prototypes, wireframes and Hi-Fidelity Prototypes.