Tools
Figma
Data.ai
Miro
Photoshop
My roles
UX Researcher
UI Designer
Graphic Designer
Team
UI/UX Designer
UX Researcher
AI/ML Developer
Front-end Developer
Timeline
Overall: 8 weeks
Discovery & Research: 2 weeks
Design & testing: 6 weeks
Introduction
Empowering and guiding students through their pivotal career discovery journey.
Ostello is an AI-powered real-time career management platform that guides you in choosing the right career for you and provides a marketplace for coaching institutes and mentorship from peers.
Designed a psychometric assessment section to help students choose the right career path.
Developed a centralized marketplace for students to find nearby coaching centers that meet their needs with filtering systems.
Implemented a feedback system utilizing an AI chatbot to assist users with their queries.
Established the brand identity and design principles for future developments.
Problem Statement
The growing number of career options has made choosing a career more confusing, especially since many people don't have access to clear guidance and helpful support systems.
01
Fragmented programs limit student support.
02
Lack of tailored advice leaves students uncertain and slows growth.
03
Many career options overwhelm students, complicating skill-aligned choices.
The Challenge
How can we effectively tackle the obstacles that students face in obtaining the right career guidance and support?
The Solution
A one-shop-stop for all things learning and career building.
OstelloAI
Empowering and guiding students through their pivotal career discovery journey.
OstelloAI here!
How can I assist you?
AI Chatbot
Personalized Career Guidance
Centralized
Marketplace
Rewards & Feedback Systems
The Impact
In our pursuit of improving Student career support, we achieved the following impact metrics for the final shipped product.
.
Customer Rating
/20
Net Promoter Score
%
Conversion Rate
Psychometric Assessments
%
Conversion Rate
Booking Coaching Session
The Design Process
Empathize
I conducted competitive and feature analysis of the existing career guidance and marketplace platforms. And then I surveyed and interviewed students from various classes to help with my research.
Competitive Analysis
There was not a single platform providing a one-stop shop for all things required for career assistance. CareerGuide is the only good platform, having pyschometric assessments as well as coaching assistants.
Feature Analysis
Next, I identified features from these platforms to help narrow down the important features that exist in the market and what is missing from them. CareerGuide has a holistic platform inclusive of pyschometric assessments and coaching assistants.
In the research and analysis phase of the project, I organized user interviews to develop fresh personas and guide the design process.
From the survey results, I found that
67.4% of them said they would prefer progress assistance, which would help them build the skills needed to achieve their goals.
The majority of students start to decide their career paths, usually at 16–20 years of age.
There are a lot of misconceptions about career counseling and psychometric assessments, and students find them very expensive or have no knowledge about these resources.
Students said that the process of choosing a career was confusing and overwhelming, as there was not one resource that could help them in the whole journey.
Define
At this stage of the process, I created personas, empathy mapping, and visualized customer journeys.
Empathy mapping
Insights on what a user's typical day would look like? What do they think about? How do they feel? How do they act upon these thoughts and feelings? These are things we derived from the empathy mapping of the two personas.
Customer Journey
If Arjun were to encounter Ostello, what would her experience entail, and how could it assist her in achieving her objectives while alleviating any difficulties she might face? this customer journey map gives a visual narrative depicting the customer's interaction with our product.
Here, Arjun goes on a quest to seek career guidance and discovers Ostello and completes the assessments and gets a personalized career roadmap created for him. This journey showcases his journey throughout the application.
Ideate
I established the information architecture, ensuring seemless navigation through all features as well as laid down the brand guidelines to be followed to create the user interfaces.
Information architecture
The platform's information architecture is intuitively organized, comprising sections like Career Assessment, AI-Powered Recommendations, Coaching Marketplace, and Resource Hub. Each section serves specific user goals. For example, Career Assessment employs psychometric assessments and generative AI for personalized insights.
Sketches
I began the design process with low-fidelity sketches to accelerate decision-making through visualization without losing time. My sketches were based on the initial user interviews, the business goal, and the heuristic evaluation, keeping in mind the user-friendly interface and user pain points.
Mid - Fidelity Wireframes
Using Figma, I translated my first sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes. I started by laying out all the screens I needed to design. I blocked out sections for each element and did my detailed work.
UI Kit
It encompasses a curated set of design elements and components that form the visual foundation of the application. It includes a range of buttons, navigation menus, input fields, icons, colors, and typography choices, all thoughtfully crafted to ensure a consistent and intuitive user experience. This kit serves as a comprehensive guide for the design team, promoting cohesion and efficiency in the development process.
Final Design
I maintained brand consistency throughout the app by designing over 40 screens, ensuring smooth navigation, and incorporating gamification and animations to enhance the entire user experience.
Get instant access to the latest career trends to explore your interests and get in-depth information on each.
The AI-based Psychometric Assessment, Ostello’s main service, is prominently featured at the top for easy access.
Scholarship resources are available to students completely free of charge.
The Discover page serves as a marketplace where users can find coaching centers and tutors.
The OstelloAI Chatbot is conveniently placed in the navbar for users to quickly ask questions and resolve queries.
Personalized Career Roadmap enables students to plan their future and track progress effectively.
The Profile section allows for personalization, account management, and privacy settings.
Home
Chatbot
Quick and personalised responses to queries.
Credits are spent on a per-message basis.
In-app credits can be earned through daily challenges and achievements, which can be used for interacting with the chatbot.
Suggested Queries
Users can chat with the bot and ask any doubts using their earned credits.
Best stream match for the student to pursue after school.
Tailored career path recommendations based on their unique characteristics and results.
Psychometric Assessment
*Due to data privacy and company policies, actual results have not been included, and the complete process is not displayed.
Ostello offers a 10-minute assessment with 5 simple categories, unlike competitors.
The Assessment is a premium feature, offering personalized insights and career guidance benefits.
A preview of the personality questionnaire. *not the actual quiz representation.
Accurate and insightful assessment to help users understand their characteristics
Marketplace
Category specific Marketplace
Center specific offers
Select your location to view and access nearby centers and services.
Promotional banners and special offers for enhanced visibility.
Promotional video advertisements from various coaching centers.
Coaching center and tutor cards showcasing offers, ratings, and details.
Cards featuring popular subjects, location, and students studying from the same school.
Filter system to sort by relevance, location, distance, rating, subjects, courses, and skills.
Class & Subject filters
Subject Detail Cards with pricing and course duration information.
Faculty Profiles to enhance credibility and trust.
Map view showing coaching center locations.
Student reviews for building trust and credibility.
Discover Page
Dedicated marketplace sections for academics, skill learning, and study abroad assistance.
Browse top categories.
Showcase of facilities provided for better insight.
Coaching Center Page
Other Screens
Testing
We had the opportunity to test the app with students from schools around India, through online meetings as well as in-person sessions taken live in the schools.
Usability Testing
To ensure Ostello provides an intuitive and seamless user experience, we conducted comprehensive usability testing. Our primary goals were to identify pain points, gauge the effectiveness of design elements, and gather actionable feedback to refine the app's interface and functionality.
Founder of Ostello and our team at regional schools in New Delhi, India.
Scenario-Based Tasks: Participants were asked to complete specific tasks, such as taking a psychometric test, searching for a coaching center, interacting with the AI chatbot, and navigating through the gamified features
Observation and Recording: Each session was observed and recorded, capturing user interactions, hesitations, and verbal feedback.
Post-Task Interviews: After completing the tasks, participants were interviewed to gather qualitative insights about their experience.
Reflections & Takeaways
Ease of navigation
9/10
Most users found the app easy to navigate, appreciating the logical flow between different sections as well as the gamification of sections, making it rewarding to explore the app.
AI Chatbot
6/10
The AI chatbot was effective in resolving queries but gave lengthy responses and sounded generic. The LLM model used for the app needed to be enhanced and trained with more data to be customized for our user base.
Psychometric Assessments
7/10
The psychometric assessment section was well-received, with users finding the questions relevant and the results insightful. We found some users to be still uncertain about the results, questioning their credibility.
what aspects of the product need more fine-tuning?
We faced tight deadlines to ensure the product was viable for pitching to potential investors to secure funding. While the current version is functional, there are several aspects of the app that can be enhanced in the next iterative build
The user journeys can be made much more defined and user-friendly.
WCAG Guideline compliance for text sizes.
Better AI model to be used for chatbot as well as psychometric assessments.
A little more time during the wireframing phrase would have helped me compare and test design iterations.