Team: Austin Leung, Ruhao (two designers)
Timeline: 2022 June - 2022 August (3 Months)
Tools: Figma, Miro, Photoshop
Timeline: 2022 June - 2022 August (3 Months)
Tools: Figma, Miro, Photoshop
IKIGAI
Background
Ikigai is a project created at a design-a-thon hosted by the University or Luarier UX Club. My teammate Ruhao and I decided to tackle a common problem we notice in our everyday lives. Our product Ikigai is a platform created to encourage users to explore different career paths, pivot careers, and get connected with useful resources seamlessly as career decisions have always been a hot topic.
Ikigai is a project created at a design-a-thon hosted by the University or Luarier UX Club. My teammate Ruhao and I decided to tackle a common problem we notice in our everyday lives. Our product Ikigai is a platform created to encourage users to explore different career paths, pivot careers, and get connected with useful resources seamlessly as career decisions have always been a hot topic.
Problem
Research
With the abundance of career conflicts and the overwhelming weight of career choices, we planned on creating a platform that solves the burden of career-related issues. Creating a platform that includes readily available low and high-commitment courses, allowing users to find what's right for them and focusing on what brings true fulfillment. Often people don’t know what gives them fulfillment in a career or can’t find a job that checks off their boxes, but with this platform, we aim to create a space where users are able to discover what they want.
With the abundance of career conflicts and the overwhelming weight of career choices, we planned on creating a platform that solves the burden of career-related issues. Creating a platform that includes readily available low and high-commitment courses, allowing users to find what's right for them and focusing on what brings true fulfillment. Often people don’t know what gives them fulfillment in a career or can’t find a job that checks off their boxes, but with this platform, we aim to create a space where users are able to discover what they want.
Exploratory Research
Starting off with our initial research we conducted qualitative research with seven participants. With the wide scope of our idea, we recruited a range of participants in different stages of their careers, in order to narrow down the scope and understanding of people in all stages of their careers. It was important to keep the conversation open-ended as this was our initial research, but also guide the conversation with the “what” and “why”.
Guiding Questions
What is the current career path you are pursuing?
Why are pursuing the career path you chose?
Why are pursuing the career path you chose?
Important common themes we found in our interviews:
- 35% of people claim that income is one of the leading choices in career decisions
- 30% of people want to be in a career that aligns with their passions
- 30% of people struggle in finding the right career due to the resources available to them
- 35% of people claim that income is one of the leading choices in career decisions
- 30% of people want to be in a career that aligns with their passions
- 30% of people struggle in finding the right career due to the resources available to them
Quotes
Summary
Synthesizing our initial research, we noticed the reoccurrence of common areas that were important to people in their careers. With the top three areas of income, resources, and passion. With our secondary research, we introduced the philosophy of ikigai.
Secondary Research
What is Ikigai?
Ikigai is a Japanese phrase that means “reason for being”. The word ikigai has a very profound meaning that aligns perfectly with what we are designing. The most common theme in our initial research is that people struggle to find meaning in a career. The philosophy of ikigai follows four key principles that bring fulfillment in someone's life.
Why is Ikigai Helpful?
In the next steps, we used the principles of Ikigai to create a framework for additional research on our users. This time we had more specific questions for our users, with the goal of pinpointing which features would be beneficial to our design.
In the next steps, we used the principles of Ikigai to create a framework for additional research on our users. This time we had more specific questions for our users, with the goal of pinpointing which features would be beneficial to our design.
Further Research
Next, we approached our research differently, conducting a qualitative interview with the same seven people. However, this time we created questions based on our initial research findings and incorporated the principles of ikigai from our secondary research which provided us confirmation and value to the features we want to include on the platform.
Findings
After our second round of interviews, we had quite a thorough understanding of what users wanted and what their pain points were. It was clear that everyone is at different stages of their careers and that they all have and want different things. Our goal is to help users achieve the so-called “ikigai”.
Confirming the most common needs users expressed were...
1. Users want a central place where they could learn about the career paths out there and preferably a low barrier of entry to learning.
2. Users want transparency about careers, they want to see the pay and work lifestyle.
3. Users want to be connected with people in the industry and others who are in the same shoes in an organic way.
2. Users want transparency about careers, they want to see the pay and work lifestyle.
3. Users want to be connected with people in the industry and others who are in the same shoes in an organic way.
Features
As we designed our features we wanted to make sure what we provided was backed with thorough research, but we also wanted it to be sustainable and not just another platform users lose interest in. As the average app loses 77% of users within three days and 90% in 30 days. How we tackled this problem is not only focusing on what the users want on the platform but focusing on equitable solutions that will benefit every user.
Different levels of commitment
• Users have the option of Courses or Workshops offering a wider range of commitment levels as taking a course is a higher commitment and a workshop is much more of a lower barrier of entry.
• Users have full transparency of what is being taught in the courses, and have the option to view their progress and how much time is required for each step of the course.
• Users are able to see the percentage of bookings and satisfaction rates for workshops giving them full transparency.
• Users have full transparency of what is being taught in the courses, and have the option to view their progress and how much time is required for each step of the course.
• Users are able to see the percentage of bookings and satisfaction rates for workshops giving them full transparency.
Range of Resources
• At the end of a course, users are connected with job listings and additional resources that are required for the next steps, making it easy for users to advance easily.
• Users have transparency of the pay of job listings, as income is an important factor for users when considering their career decisions.
• Users have transparency of the pay of job listings, as income is an important factor for users when considering their career decisions.
Community
• Users are able to interact anytime with people from all stages of their careers by asking questions on a question board or participating in live group discussions. Allowing all users to find what is beneficial to them at any moment.
• Questions are asked anonymously on the question board to encourage users to not be afraid to ask anything or even if users want to answer anonymously to protect their identity.
• Questions are asked anonymously on the question board to encourage users to not be afraid to ask anything or even if users want to answer anonymously to protect their identity.
Reflection
Key Takeaways
• Narrow down the scope of the product, it was not hard to think of common problems in our world we could solve, but it was difficult to narrow down what's actually important. Conducting enough research was very important as it was crucial to narrowing down such a broad idea and focusing on perfecting one flow at a time.
• Stick with the original problem, often times it was easy to sidetrack into further ideas before the problem statement was even solved. Next time I need to stay aligned with solving the core problem first.
Future Considerations
• If we had more time we wanted to include more curation and filtering for our users. Specifically, have an AI-based matching system that would automatically connect users with the right resources that suit them.
• Creating an AI-based questionnaire for users to complete that is based on the principles of ikigai, suggesting the right resources