Problem
New Immigrants overwhelmed and confused by the United States job market.
Not only are most new immigrants exhausted and overwhelmed by uprooting their lives to move to a new country due to various circumstances. But more often than not, they are also struggling to overcome numerous barriers when entering the workforce.
Design Challenge: How might we help immigrants successfully integrate into the workforce?
The Solution
Mentors & Support are key
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Starting with the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, I began to draw from the current labor statistics and how many immigrants made up the workforce. Every year this number increases, this sparked the question - what resources do these immigrants have to help them integrate into the workforce?
“In 2021, the share of the U.S. civilian labor force that is foreign born returned to its pre-pandemic level of 17.4 percent in 2019. From 2020 to 2021, the foreign-born labor force increased by 671,000…”
Competitive Analysis
While keeping the above statistics and information in mind, I analyzed 3 of the most popular career mentorship apps currently on the market. I found that none of them had resources specifically for immigrants nor were there any immigrant specific career mentorship apps. This then became my opportunity for the solution.
User Interviews
I’ve conducted interviews with 6 immigrants of various backgrounds, career histories, and levels of English speaking. I’ve asked them the questions below to find common themes & trends on what they feel like would help them adjust career-wise. I then organized my data through affinity mapping.
Research Questions
1)Tell me about your career goals?
2)What steps did you take to achieve them?
3)What motivated you to start in the first place?
4)What has been the most difficult part of reaching your career goals?
5)What kind of support did you have when trying to achieve these goals?
The Main Insight
Many of my interviewees felt alone & confused in reaching their career goals due to the lack of direction or support.
Based on the trends in my affinity map, I’ve noticed having a guided pathway and people that they could lean on would have greatly benefited these new immigrants.
Design
When ideating for this project, I realized that a mobile app would be the most accessible option. More often than not these immigrants are part of the next billion users and have limited access to devices & internet.
Iterations
3 major improvements in my design
The Final Screens
The Final Product
Conclusions & Lessons Learned
This was my first ever app design! Emplo was driven by the passion of helping boost the success of those who truly deserve it.
Things I’ve learned:
1) Focus more on the usability of the design vs the look. I was so excited to design an app that I thought of all of my favorite apps and researched all the components I could incorporate. I quickly realized that focusing on an “aesthetic” design is only going to overwhelm the user. With that, I started focusing on ensuring that the design is not only simple enough for the user to easily complete the flow but also eye catching.
2) Never Assume, always research. As it is so important to design with as much empathy as possible, this project taught me to be thorough & especially sensitive when advocating for marginalized communities.
