Creating a Resource
for Opportunity Youth
The Project
Over the course of nine months, my team and I worked to evaluate and improve a solution aimed at providing wraparound services to Opportunity Youth in America. This project was conducted through a partnership between the University of California, Irvine, and the Sony Corporation.
My team was tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of Sony’s Oppro application and redesigning Oppro based on our research. At the end of our engagement period, we provided a comprehensive report on Opportunity Youth-centered needs and high-fidelity design concepts to Sony.
My Roles
- UX/UI Designer
- Visual Designer
- User Researcher
- Communication Manager
Tools
- Figma
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Photoshop
- Mural
- Maze
- Usertesting.com
- Userinterviews.com
- Notion
- Trello
Organization
- Sony
Project Dates
- Jan 2022 - Sept 2022
Collaborating with Sony for the Youth
In an effort to leverage technology for positive social impact, the Sony Group partnered with a team of UX Master's students from UC Irvine to improve their application, Oppro. Their most recent product was specifically aimed at enhancing the lives of Opportunity Youth.
Who are Opportunity Youth?
Opportunity Youth are young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who are disconnected from education, work, and major social institutions. They face unique challenges and barriers that hinder their access to education, employment, and stable livelihoods. As a result, they often experience limited opportunities for personal and professional growth, perpetuating a cycle of disadvantage.
Opportunity Youth Data
4.6 million young people in the United States are classified as Opportunity Youth.
$6.3 trillion dollars is the personal and public costs of not changing the trajectory of Opportunity Youth throughout their lifetimes.
A considerable proportion of Opportunity Youth live in poverty, facing economic instability and limited resources.
Without intervention, the long-term consequences of being an Opportunity Youth can impact their overall well-being and future prospects.
How does Oppro Help Opportunity Youth?
With the intention to support Opporunity Youth, Sony created an application called Oppro. Oppro connects Opportunity Youth with case managers and opportunities/wrap around services in their area.
Oppro Features
Sony’s Question for our Team
Our Approach & Process
Design Model
Discover
While countless sources discuss the needs of social work organizations, the youth perspective was missing — particularly that of the disconnected and disengaged youth. We aimed to fill the gap in knowledge.
Define
We performed UX research through a literature review, competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation, and interviews. Analyzing the findings from these methodologies helped define core problems that needed to be addressed and identified possible solutions.
Design
We used insights from our research to improve Oppro from its current state. We began our redesign process with low-fidelity assets and transformed them to high-fidelity screens. These assets were then user tested and iterated to measure the effectiveness of the improvements to Oppro.
Deliver
At the end of the engagement period, our team compiled our research assets and materials to handoff to the Sony team. We created a deliverable file for our designs with a style guide and development priorities. The files were provided to Sony with recommended next steps.
Reviewing the Literature
Kicking off our research, we conducted a literature review to better understand our main users, Opportunity Youth. We synthesized 11 peer-reviewed papers focused on the challenges Opportunity Youth face and methods used to address those challenges. Three themes were identified.
Need for Validation
- Fragmented and inconsistent systems fail disconnected youth.
- Countless barriers exist to entry for work and schooling.
Diversity of needs is often not addressed
- Disconnected/Opportunity Youth needs are unique, but resources treat them the same.
- Diversity of needs also includes ranges in access to technology.
Motivation and skills development are key
- Many youths feel unmotivated and unqualified.
- Professionalism and soft skills are often not taught.
Comparing Existing Resources for Youth
Our team performed a comprehensive competitive analysis to gain insights into alternative resources and uncover potential areas where Oppro could excel. Our primary objectives were to assess the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, identify the advantages of Oppro's product, and gather crucial findings to inform Oppro's future roadmap.
Direct competitors
Indirect competitors
Rich functionality drive youth engagement
Using familiar interactions engage youth users. For instance, having youth swipe left or right on opportunities that interest them.
Robust organization matters
As seen with most competitors, highly organized categories, filters, and tagging structures make opportunities much easier to find in lieu of extensive algorithms.
Help users help themselves
Supporting independence allows more feelings of control and autonomy. There is an opportunity to incorporate self-guided resources directly into Oppro for additional support.
Oppro has more to offer
Oppro has strategic advantages to capitalize on: direct case manager messaging system, youth-focused, and a digital wallet.
Evaluating Oppro’s Usability
Our team used the ten design heuristics established by the Nielsen Norman Group to measure the usability of Oppro's existing youth and case manager user interfaces. There were three core areas of improvement that were identified.
improve internal and external consistency
Oppro regularly violated the Consistent and Standards heuristic, and has a major opportunity to address in-app discrepancies. This is important for learnability, efficiency, and trust for users.
Help Prevent Errors
Oppro should try to reduce the errors users encounter by providing helpful constraints and warnings.
Provide clear documentation
Oppro has the opportunity to provide both proactive and reactive help for its users.
Interviewing Users
Case Manager Interviews
We interviewed three case managers from different regions: BPS Department of Opportunity Youth (Boston), Opportunity Youth Supported Work Experience Program (New York City), and South Carolina Works (Charleston).
Communication with youth involves the case managers considering youth preferences, weighing best approaches, and spreading awareness.
Case managers tackle several roadblocks to youth employment, including but not limited to: homelessness, transportation, motivation, and documentation.
Case managers are aware of the presence of modern youth mental health struggles.
They often experience a daily battle in juggling and balancing workload, collaborating with others, and trying to support as many youth as they can.
Opportunity Youth Interviews
We spent time learning directly from the youth themselves. We interviewed two youths that had worked with the Sony team in the past and seven youths that were sourced through extensive screening on UserInterviews.com.
Youth we interviewed
Resume building, career guidance, and interview preparation were all important to youth beyond seeking employment.
Youth want guidance in figuring out an educational or career path that suits them.
Youth frequently interact with short-form videos and visual methods to consume information.
Product trust is built through family, friends, and brand recognition.
Youth frequently interact with short-form videos and visual methods to consume information.
Analyzing Interview Findings
In the analysis stage, we took the interview recordings, transcribed them into text documents, and coded the insights. We then grouped common themes.
Research Insights
Prioritizing Impactful Changes
Using the impactful areas from the research insights, we listed out feature additions and existing edits that we recorded throughout our research process. The team used colored sticky notes to vote for the key design changes that should be prioritized. The changes the team believed were most impactful overall were starred.
Developing Persona Journey Maps
Revisiting Oppro’s Structure
In our design phase, we started by focusing on the information architecture of Oppro. Using our research and generative design methods, we developed a site map for a conceptual redesign of Oppro.
Youth-focused Branding
A Fun Color Palette
A key part of redesigning Oppro was revisiting its brand and style. The demographic that Oppro aims to target is as visually focused as they are technologically savvy. A well-branded platform is one that shows intentionality and effort. These are characteristics that can also build trust once users see a platform developed with their visual language in mind. The color palette chosen for Oppro is derived from the original design, with a twist for accessibility.
New Design Elements
Our style guide also incorporated abstract shapes as elements in Oppro. Colorful minimalism, abstract shapes, and illustrations are among some of the most popular design trends of 2022. We chose design elements that were not only trendy but easy to create as well on nearly all design platforms.
Planning Priority Flows
Sign Up Process
Youth users mentioned that personalized content was important. We saw an opportunity to incorporate personalization into the Oppro app beginning from the sign up process. This personalized flow was also important to provide a greater first impression to users.
Sign up Flow
Sign up wirframes
Resources
Resources were the most requested feature by youth. We considered how youth engage with content and their learning material preferences to developed the core characteristics for Resources.
Resources Flow
Wireframe Sketches
Opportunities
Oppro's value proposition is exploring opportunities, but engaging youth in this area has been the most challenging. We began our redesign of this section by creating a user flow and envisioning a range of design ideas based on user preferences.
Opportunity Flow
Design ideas
A Glimpse of our Redesign
Putting our Redesigns to the Test
Testing Sign Up Flow
We recruited 7 youth on Maze.co to create an account with both the current and updated sign up flow. They were then asked to take an optional survey based on their experience.
33% described the new design as 'trustworthy' compared to 14% on the current design.
4/6 users preferred the new design over the current design.
50% of users described the new design as 'secure' compared to 14% on the current design.
Users wanted to access the app without signing in or by using a Google account.
Testing Resources Flow
We recruited 5 youth on Maze.co to explore and interact with the Resources prototype. We then asked a series of questions about their expectations and satisfaction.
3/5 users told us that the Career Exploration section would be useful in an upcoming opportunity search.
3/5 users were 'very satisfied' with the job search resources they saw on the prototype.
4/5 users used the word 'convenient' to describe their experience with the prototype.
All users ranked the ease of navigating the prototype as 'easy' or 'very easy.'
Testing Opportunity Flow
We recruited 7 youth on Maze.co who had been job searching within the last 6 months. Participants were asked to explore and interact with the Opportunities prototype and then asked to rate and describe the experience.
71% of users prefer the Oppro redesign flow to the Oppro's current state.
Users described the redesigned flow as more trustworthy.
Users seem to value attributes on open job postings, including salary, experience needed, and posting updates.
Users were more likely to navigate completely through the opportunities section in the redesign.
Card Sort Filtering
We recruited 8 users on Maze.com to conduct an open card sort of the 21 filters that Oppro offers. Users were asked to create categories the described the cards and then to sort each card into the category that made sense to them.
High School Diploma, College, and GED were always grouped together, but users disagreed on whether the category should be called ‘Education’ or ‘Requirements’
Career Exploration, Apprenticeship, Employment, Internship, and Job Training were often grouped together
Gift card, Benefits, Free Food, Food, and Paid were often grouped
Transportation, Health/Wellness, Support Services, Community Events, Shelter programs, Support were often grouped together
Our New High-fidelity Solutions
Sign Up
- Tailored onboarding flow
- Animated landing screen
- Updated password creation requirements
- Updated progress bar
- Sony brand included to build trust
- Specific location preferences
Resources
- Added resource hub feature
- Short-form videos on relevant topics
- Horizontal scrolling to maximize information presented
- Time commitment indicator
- Key takeaways at the end of the resource
- Maximized and scrollable video players
- User can engage or reject content
- Users can connect with professionals
Opportunities
- Modified layout for users
- Reduced cognitive load with simple cards
- Added organization-submitted images
- Toggle to Saved and Applied
- Improved progress indicator
- Tooltip for documents
- Robust categorized filtering
Home
- Local organization & app announcements
- Recommended opportunities
- Personalized experience
- Recently applied for quick status
- In-app messaging system
- Direct communication with case managers
Account
- Personalized user profile
- Account details
- Secure and accessible document uploads
- About Oppro page to build trust
- Help center with FAQ
- Contact Oppro for feedback and inquiries
Answering Sony’s Question
Is Oppro really an effective solution to solve a social problem of Opportunity Youth in the U.S.?
Our research showed that opportunity youth need more coaching and resources around choosing a suitable future path, developing their professional skills, and the opportunity application process.
If Oppro is able to advance its current offerings, conducting more user testing on these suggested modifications, and employing a more user-friendly design, they should see a more active and trusting user base.
Oppro has potential to be an effective solution for opportunity youth. With its current offerings, there are still many unmet needs that, if addressed, could propel Oppro ahead of its competitors.
Recommended Next Steps to Sony
Our designs are suggestions based on user experience expertise and research, but there is room for flexibility based on user-needs and company resources.
Continue user testing for Oppro's core user flows, using various methods to gather valuable insights. Sony can begin user research on the case manager interface to enhance the opportunity posting tool. They can also utilize lighter methodologies like heuristic evaluations and unmoderated usability testing for rapid feedback.
Designs are subject to change based on continuous user feedback. Changes can be implemented in update cycles rather than before release. As more users adopt the application, feedback can be gathered in real-time.
Reflecting on Oppro
In this project, I had the privilege of contributing to Oppro’s UI design, leading meetings with the Sony team, supporting user research, and developing UX assets. It was a collaborative effort with my talented team members, as we leveraged our diverse expertise in user research and design. Our collective efforts led to significant growth in our skills. We acquired insights into promoting trust and security within an application, as well as a deeper understanding of the impact a personalized approach to users with specific needs.
Furthermore, we successfully implemented many proposed solutions, resulting in a redesigned app that addressed the project's objectives. During the course of the project, I also had the opportunity to develop practical skills such as identifying local users for interviews, understanding best practices for interview outreach, collaborating across different time zones, and effectively managing our work asynchronously.
Given more time, we would have liked to conduct further testing on our youth-facing solution, create comprehensive specification sheets, and make enhancements to the Case Manager interface. The project concluded with the successful handoff of our design evaluation and proposed changes in September 2022.
