A Bentley Networking App
Goal:
The goal of this project was to come up with a creative solution to the current networking, job posting, and event notifications associated with getting a new job.
Process:
At Bentley, the job posting, event sharing, and networking process are well-intended but difficult to track. By combining my background in Recruiting with UX design, I spoke with classmates and created a prototype of the proposed app.
Role:
UX researcher and designer on a team of 1
Responsibility:
This was a self-led project
Methods:
Interviews, competitive research, and prototyping
Tools:
Figma
Overview
This project sparked from personal frustration and intimidation with the networking and job search process as a student. As a former recruiter, I was stuck on how to improve my candidate experience by finding jobs, connecting with classmates, and viewing events. With this idea, I interviewed classmates to understand their pain points. I also did a competitive analysis of other networking and job searching apps. Finally, I created a prototype in Figma and presented it to some classmates.
Process
Through the research and interviews, it was clear that top priorities for job-seeking students and alumni were viewing jobs, searching for community events, and reaching out to alumni.
I also viewed a wide range of competitive applications to understand what networking online looks like. It was important that this app match the mental model of users who were spending time elsewhere looking for jobs.
Finally, one of the most important aspects of the app was to streamline the process. The current communication methods consisted of slack groups, email chains, and one-off communications. I wanted to create an app that would house all of this information.
-
Home Page
This home page is a dashboard for each user. It displays their events, announcements, and jobs. It also allows customization, and a view of their saved searches.
-
Job Posting Page
This page displays jobs that have been posted by the community. In addition it shows alumni who work at the company.
-
Events Page
This page shows the upcoming events the user has registered for. It also allows the user to post events.
-
Alumni Page
In the alumni directory, the user can search for a specific alumni or companies.
-
Message Center
This page allows the user to craft, send, and view messages. The user can see their inbox and the sent mail.
Limitations & Outcome
This project did face a few contraints and challenges:
This project was a fun side project. While I presented it to some classmates and internal clubs, there is very little funding or opportunity to implement the idea as of now.
The idea and prototype was received positively from classmates. At this time, there is no plan to implement or move forward. Hopefully in the future it can be considred.