ProntoFolio
ProntoFolio is aimed to provide a new tool for online virtual career events that enhance job seeking experience and encourage candidates to share works and communicate with recruiters.
Design For Usability Studio — Parsons School of Design
Project Duration: 2 weeks
Instructor: Fei Liu
Team Members:Asuka Li, Patricia Parnet
Role: Research, Analysis, Wireframe, Interactive Prototype
Problem Statement
For creative students, portfolios reflect personal abilities and play a big role in their careers. But many of them have difficulties presenting their interactive work during the job seeking process. The low visibility and impact of their portfolio also make it difficult for them to demonstrate their skills and get effective career connections.
Design Process
Secondary Research
Competitive Analysis
We conducted a comprehensive competitive analysis by making research on both products that are directly related to the portfolio (Art work community and web builder) and on products that are not directly related(job search platforms and video call tools commonly used in interviews).
Primary Research
User Interview
16 questions
Students seeking for jobs in creative industries
How do they build their portfolio and what do they like/dislike about this experience?
What’s bothering them when finding a job and building more career connections?
What do they expect for the job hunting process?
Have you participated any campus career events before？Did it help you to find a job?
Agency manager who hires creatives
What does the perfect application include?
What do you think about LinkedIn?
What is frustrating for you during the hiring process/ reviewing applications?
Have you participated any campus career events before？How do you like that experience?
Quotes
“I am not sure if my portfolio website has helped me get more job opportunities because I’m not sure if recruiters would check it. “
”I am glad that the career fair of our school has been moved online during the pandemic. So I will be able to login in from home and feel less pressure.“
”For designers, I would definitely first check their portfolio, I wouldn’t even bother with the CV.“
”I don’t like the various formats of portfolios. Sometimes I can’t even find a portfolio link on their resumes“
”The campus career events I attended were more about promoting our company. Usually We don‘t have enough time to get to know every student and see their work.“
Research Analysis
Interview Analysis
Personas & Empathy Map
Creative Student
Recruiters
Ideation
Research Insights
What role can technology play in online career events to help enhance the overall experience?
Ecosystem
Design
Project Statement
To be exact, we focused on live sharing during one-on-one meetings with recruiters, for example at virtual career events. We decided to create a tool that would work at the New School, since the school is hosting several events already on campus. Previously, they happened offline, but since 2020 the school managed to successfully organize conferences and career events online.
The New School offers a working ecosystem which is ideal for an extension specifically designed for artistic students. So our solution would technically close the gap between companies and students in the virtual world. Event management would still mostly happen on New School channels and existing tools, which would interact with our tool.
Example of the Hire New tool currently used by the New School to organize career services
Students can manage and edit their profile on the existing Hire New tool, which would ensure a smooth and real-time integration into our system. At the same time, recruiters can continue to post their jobs on Hire New and use our solution to speak and interact with interested students. Hire New manages the data, our solution manages inter-personal connections between students and companies.
Based on all the research and ideation, a video call tool was designed for creative people to help boost their career by closing the gap between students and recruiters from external companies. Technically speaking, our solution connects recruiters and the student in the virtual world through online career events. The system is integrated and sharing data with the existing Newschool HireNew platform. The profile and portfolio of students will be automatically presented to recruiters when they meet each other in the virtual career events and will be in a uniform and easy-to-read form. We designed a built-in browser to display the student portfolio website and a talent management system to facilitate the recording and comparison of these candidates.
User Flow
Wireframes - Recruiter’s Version
Key Features - Recruiter’s version
Meet with candidates in 1 on 1 interview session
Communicate with candidates in turn. Candidates are queued in the order they joined the 1 on 1 interview session.
View the profile and the portfolio of the candidate. The portfolio website is displayed through a built-in web browser and real time cursor(display the mouse of candidates and recruiters in real time).
Take a note of the candidate or mark the candidate as ‘favorite’ during the 1 on 1 interview session. 、
Add more time or connect to the next candidate
For every candidate, they have the same time limit. (depends on settings)
The countdown reminder will turn red when the remaining time is less than 3 minutes. Click the clock button to extend the meeting.
Click the Next button to talk to the next candidate in the queue.
Join different sessions in the virtual career events
In order to ensure full use of time, career events are usually divided into several breakout sessions to hold different activities at the same time. The company can build different breakout rooms such as company presentation and Q&A sessions to improve efficiency.
Join different sessions flexibly by clicking the Join button.
Use the talent management system to find the talent.
The information of all candidates who participated in the 1 on 1 interview session will be recorded. The talent management system can be accessed both during and after the meeting.
Use the filter to find ‘favorite’ candidates, review their information and get contact information.
Use search engines to find schools, names and other results more accurately.
