Youth Centralised Directory For
Out-Of-School Youths Platform
Timeline
Oct 2021 - Feb 2022
Platform
Website
My Role
UIUX Designer
Tools
Figma
Miro
Notion
Introduction
Betterwork is a platform that helps out-of-school youths to find resources about courses, finance, and more!
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In this project, we created a youth-centric centralised directory for out-of-school youths.
User Research
Interviews
To better understand the different user's needs, we conducted interviews with 10 youths and 5 professionals working with out-of-school youths.
General Questions
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When did you leave school, and what are you currently doing?
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Are you interested in furthering your studies/attending courses or training where you can learn a skill and then find a job?
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What kind of courses are you interested in?
Workaround Behaviours
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Where and how do you currently get your information from? (e.g. information about jobs, courses, friends, families, etc)
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What are the challenges you face now, and what helps you?
Experience Questions
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Have you attended courses/training in the past?
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What were the information/resources the school gave you upon leaving school?
Project Objective
Here are the main objectives that we aim to have.
Increase awareness
Increase out-of-school youth's awareness of the following through an online platform.
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Employment support programmes and resources.
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Alternative education pathways, programmes and resources.
More support resources
Bridge the current gap between out-of-school youths and professionals supporting them.
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Lack of awareness of employment support programmes available for out-of-school youths.
Key information to obtain
Key Information
Will out-of-school youths use the platform?
What is the current state of out-of-school youths and what motivates them?
What design features will they want?
Who is our exact target audience? (Caseworkers or Youths)
Personas
To better target the youths, these are the personas we created after the user research and interviews.
Out-of-school youths with goals in mind
Some have clear goals but lack the resources to get there:
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These youths want to do better for themselves
(e.g. Getting stable higher-paying jobs)
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Financial trouble means difficulty in pursuing goals
They will search for jobs in the following ways:
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Online via job portals like FastJobs or Part-time job Telegram Groups
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Offline via walking around malls looking for hiring posters
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Referrals and advice from friends and mentors
Out-of-school youths without clear plans
Settle for salary that is sufficient for daily use:
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$500-1000 is already pretty good to them.
"Why get $1000 tomorrow, when I can get $500 today.”-the type of mindset
Lack of long-term planning due to lack of liabilities:
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Their financial needs can be resolved with a low salary. Don’t have a strong urge to grow their earning capability through upgrading themselves.
Design Insights
Here are the different design insights from the caseworkers and the youths from third-party websites to find different courses and jobs.
Platforms
Used by caseworkers:
Used by youths:
Used By Youths
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Key information highlighted
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Opportunities with low commitment
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Easy to apply and join (and quit)
Used By Caseworkers
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A wider range of activities for volunteering
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Supports Discovery
MySkillsFuture
It is mainly used by caseworkers but:
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Rigorous but too much content
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Phrasing is too mature
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The design is too dense
MyCareersFuture
It is mainly used by caseworkers but:
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Monthly salary feel out of reach by OSY
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Opportunities are mostly for those with higher education, creating an alienating effect
Prototype
Wireframe
Here is some of our lo-fi wireframes that we created after the user research.
Final Design
Main Features
Here are the main features that we decided to add to improve Betterwork.
Before
After
Simple, friendly language
Some of the users found that complex sentences and words are difficult to understand so we decided to have simple copywriting.
Before
After
Interactive Quizzes
Short, fun quizzes to help the youths discover more about their interests, finances, and work readiness.
Before
After
Curated Content
Youths have trouble finding courses so the programs are supported by existing, engaging materials from other sources. Which would help them to find all the information on the platform.