Platform of applications helping citizens access resources for education and job placement.
“Each of us have the power to deliver joy and happiness to the people around us through the work we do.”
Alex Kakuyo
Results
Launched live platform with 12+ applications aimed to connect Colorado citizens with meaningful work and education options
Process
Card sorting, tree testing, contextual interviews, usability testing, rapid prototyping, A/B testing
Outcomes
>30,000 Colorado citizens use platform today
Gained contracts from governments of Colorado, Hawaii, and Virginia
Client
Colorado Government
Role
Leading end-to-end strategy, research, design
Timeline
10 months
Startup PAIRIN identified an opportunity in the government space to provide a streamlined and accessible experience for state citizens to access state-funded resources. I was hired to lead design, research, and strategy as PAIRIN's first designer.
Over the first few weeks, I led numerous stakeholder, subject matter expert, and user workshops and interviews to understand business and user needs.
I also created extensive research artifacts to reference about our target audience and our product market fit.
I then created personas for us to better empathize with user needs. Our personas were split into two main use cases-individuals (anyone using My Colorado Journey on their own behalf) and professionals (anyone using My Colorado Journey on behalf of another individual).
After compiling industry research and considering SME, user, and business needs, I led whiteboard brainstorming design sessions with my team.
I created user flows for demonstrating how users can create a profile and navigate a wide array of government job and education resources.
I collaborated on an information architecture sitemaps with engineering to iron out edge cases and to give engineering back-end architecture to work on.
I then sketched and hi-fi wireframed two sets of design directions to prepare for stakeholder and SME feedback as well as A/B testing with users.
I made modifications to the design mockups based on guerilla research and feedback.
As we got closer to production, I led design of branding and a design system for a sustainable and extensible product. I also designed a physical brochure for the CEO to use during a pitch meeting to other state governments in D.C.
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I then worked with engineering on handing off the front end designs. Due to a small engineering team, we had to limit our scope but because I included engineering on the back-end architecture months prior, we still got a surprising amount done in a short time.
First, a person enters www.MyColoradoJourney.com, a marketing website that describes the product.
Second, the person creates a profile with the My Colorado Journey system and enters their information.
Lastly, My Colorado Journey recommends job and education resources which are specifically relevant to them. The user can then save these resources in their personal "My Journey" timeline.
Outcomes
Helping citizens today and tomorrow
More than 30,000 Colorado citizens use the My Colorado Journey platform today to seek job and education resources in rural and urban schools and workforce centers.
National reach
The work we did on My Colorado Journey led us to gaining similar contracts from governments of Colorado, Hawaii, and Virginia. I even led design on a Virginia white-labeled counterpart that serves their unique population.