Outpace Training

Job Marketplace

Creating a digital platform for job seekers in the Aged Care Industry

Outpace Training is an immersive training platform available in VR, mobile and desktop. As Outpace Training is a carer centric platform, it aims at improving training standards after the Age Care Royal Commission showed that the industry was in a bad state and training was lacking.

Outpace training approached Academy XI in seeking a personalised job marketplace platform catering towards Aged Care workers. They were wanting a training platform built around 4 pillars of training:

Training
Learning Management System
Accreditation Management
Job Marketplace

The aim of this project was to create an interface for the marketplace so jobseekers (carers) and businesses (age care facilities) can find jobs and recruit for jobs. As part of this, businesses can ask for specific qualifications, if the user has completed that training within Outpace they can automatically notified of that job.

My Role

As a UX & UI Designer, during this project I had the responsibilities of:

Conducting user research: creating and distributing user surveys; conducting user interviews; competitor analysis and landscape review
Synthesis: Assisting with affinity mapping and journey mapping
Ideation: Collaboratively bring ideas into brainstorming and Crazy 8s session; indicating the MVPs; user flows
Delivery: wireframing the skeleton of the project*

*client wanted only a wireframe for the project

Design Tools

Figma & FigJam; Miro; Trello; Zoom; Slack; Pen & Paper

Time Frame

6 Weeks

Project Objectives

Outpace Training provided us with a brief on what they were wanting, they had 3 primary intended objectives, and 1 secondary objective that they were looking for from our design.

Create Marketplace

Job seekers (carers) and businesses (age care facilities) can find job and recruit for jobs.

Accreditation Verified

Allow businesses to ask for specific qualifications. Allow carers to list qualifications/training.

Auto-Matching

Carers can be automatically notified of jobs with the training required if they have completed training within Outpace.

Easy Navigation

Using icons and graphics to replace heavy text content so non-English speakers can easily navigate the site

Problem Statement

Care workers, who are undervalued and under-supported  want to see how accreditations can create opportunities  to gain better employment  but are unaware of the training they can get,  or where to find these opportunities.

Discovery

Understanding the problem

In understanding our client better, we conducted our own research to gain an insight on who we were designing for. Looking into both direct and indirect competitors, landscape reviews on ways to create an effective platform, creating and distributing user surveys, and conducting user interviews.

Direct Competitor Analysis

Outpace Training has niche market targeting towards the Aged Care Industry that come from ESL background. Though this idea is not very common, we looked into competitors that are of similar value where they are targeted towards Healthcare and Aged Care industry. We took 4 competitors (InterCare; Australian Carers; Carevolution; and Healthcare Australia), and we assessed their strengths, weaknesses, and our potential opportunities that would relevant to the Outpace platform.

Auto-Matching

Providing users with help in regards to finding and job matching by finding keywords to the profile and job descriptions.

Learning Accreditations

Direct display of certifications and learning accreditations from both internal and external LMS.

Ways to Empower

Showing users how to increase their abilities on getting a job from extra training.

Landscape Analysis

The landscape analysis was a way for us to identify current industry trends that could be relevant to our project. For this we considered 2 ideas.

Gamification: Making the learning experience more engaging and empower carers with 'achievements' for their carer profile. What better area to explore gamification than the gaming industry itself. We looked into 2 platforms for gamification: Steam; and Playstation.

Education: Understanding how education could be designed for a user not speaking the primary language - in this case, learning a language itself. We explored how users learn a language online and the potential solutions that could offer. We looked into Duolingo to better understand the concept and idea of it, and how we could benefit from it for Outpace.

Survey

Our survey was able to indicate and validate our problem statement about our users.

Job Board

Most interviewees use job board websites and company websites to look for a job.

Motivation to get Accreditation

See what accreditations are required inspires carers to complete that training.

Email Notification

Happy to receive emails with employment opportunities.

Know the Requirements

Clear job descriptions, contacts and accreditation requirements are the priorities.

1:1 Interviews

We conducted four interviews. It wasn't easy to find carers to interview due to their busy schedules. However, the insights gathered were invaluable, and several common themes became apparent even before synthesis.

These included:

Many carers using mainstream sites like Seek
Carers prefer to get jobs through work of mouth
Many facilities are indeed understaffed
Those close to retirement are not good with computers
Aged care workers are hard working and dedicated. Patients are like family

"Seek is a straightforward platform for carers to look for jobs and get interviews"

"Companies asked for experiences but I don't know where should I start"

"I'm at an age where I'm too old to be contemplating nursing or anything else because I'll be over 60"

"A good marketplace is able to filter jobs and build relationships with employers"

Define

Synthesise research to generate insights | Uncovering what the problem we are trying to solve

With the research we gathered, we were able to synthesis the information into both Affinity and Empathy Mapping, as well as journey mapping of how our current at current would use a job market place platform.

Some key points we found through our affinity mapping was that users were not tech savvy, assuming they would struggling with complicated stuff on the computer, so seeking simplicity and familiarity. Also found that users wanted more support at work and further training.

Develop

Exploring effective solutions using an iterative approach

Collaboratively as a team, we derived a few How Might We statements and questions, bringing these into an Crazy 8s ideation workshop where we were about to delve and develop on these ideas on how we were able to help our Aged Care users. Once indicating each idea and solutions, we used a Minimum Viable Product axis chart to pin point out each phase of the project and how we can also achieve our design goals.

How might we design an intuitive job marketplace for carers and facilities so that they can find jobs and recruit for jobs?  
How might we allow the creation of a job profile for users with limited computer skills and limited English so that they can be considered for job opportunities?  
How might we incorporate skills, accreditations and trust on profiles and job adverts to find a match in the marketplace?  
How might we allow for filtered job searching for carers and job seekers so that they can find opportunities outside of market matching?  
How might we validate accreditations for carers with education outside of Outpace so that all qualified carers get considered for opportunities?  
How might we create easy job applications for carers with limited English or computer skills so that they can be confident applying? 
How might we show further training / beneficial skillsets for unqualified carers so that they can see where to get qualified and the opportunities it provides?

Crazy 8s

Some features and ideas that were generated through the ideation workshop included:

MVP

As a platform that's designed for job seekers, we included features that users preferred and had no issues with (profile creation, searching and filtering, job listings, company details and application processes). This provided non-tech savvy users a sense of familiarity and simplicity.

As our Easy Wins, we indicated these to be:

Profile Boost
Profile / Job Match
Searching and Filtering
Employer Review
Resume Builder (which enables a Quick Apply feature)
Persona Quiz

Userflow & IA

As a team, we discussed that as this platform is being design for job seeker Aged Care user, we would have 4 main areas of focus. Developing 4 user flows to set out the essential tasks our users would perform in the marketplace. Targeting a specific HMW on each user flow created.

Creation of a Job Profile  (HMW 2,3,5) 
Viewing & searching for jobs  (HMW 3,4) 
Applying for jobs  (HMW 6) 
Beneficial future training  (HMW 7)

Wireframes

Once defining our user flows and IA, we were able to create a visual representation of how our job marketplace targeted towards our Aged Care users would be like. Taking in notes from our research, interviews and survey, we created a simple and familiar platform that isn't complicated for those non-tech savvy users. With a step-by-step guided process, this would allows our users to understand what they're doing.

Using arrows to indicate how the CTA buttons would interact and where it would lead our users.

Outcome

In presenting the tasks, final wireframe designs and conclusion to the project, the team at Outpace Training were drawn in at what was presented. Looking into all aspects of how this design can be effective in helping their Aged Care ESL users seek for employment. Having created a simple and yet basic marketplace that can bring familiarity. With the features and ideas in this design, the design goals set out in the beginning were shown throughout the wireframe.

Creating a marketplace for Aged Care job seekers and recruiters
Verifying and displaying accreditations
Providing an auto job and profile matching
Easy accessibility with familiarity through icons and graphics

Future Considerations & Roadmap

Upon designing this platform, there were areas we believe there were potential and how these ideas can expand.

Now:

Aged Care workers can access the Jobs marketplace to search and apply for jobs in their field
Users can see how Outpace Training directly increase job opportunities. Users can easily access training required for certain jobs through Outpace.

Outpace Resume Builder and Persona Quiz can help Users hone and enhance their professional and soft skills
Displaying all the relevant information about jobs and employers builds users' trust in Outpace, and saves their time.

Future:

Outpace provides a community where users can connect and engage with peers and colleagues
Users can share their training and accolades, and be notified of their connections' completing training and other successes facilitated by Outpace.

Full Case Study