Pivot Exit

Overview

Pivot Exit assists people transitioning into new careers. Their primary product is the Change Microscope, an assessment which asks a series of questions of the user to gain a holistic view of their likes, strengths, and drives.

Role

Product Designer

UX Researcher, UI Designer, Prototyping, SPOC

November – December 2018

Goal

Our mission was to streamline the process and bring cohesion to the separate parts. We strove to improve satisfaction, and decrease both the time and cost required on both ends.

Scope

Wide-ranged. As the Change Microscope is used by people across disciplines, and at different stages of life it had to be engaging and easy to understand.

“When I lost my job, I went straight into panic-mode- I didn’t know what to do.”

– Ryan, former QA tester

Comparative Analysis

We began by researching the field of related companies: job-placement, personality assessment, even pop-quiz sites. After getting a toehold, we turned to evaluate the Pivot Exit website and the Change Microscope to better understand their strengths and areas of opportunity. Armed with insights into who our client was, the space they operate in, and possible areas of improvement, we felt confident to begin the user research in earnest.

Survey and Interviews

We conducted a survey and a series of interviews with participants who were considering or who had taken on a career change.

We found that:

People feel nervous, stressed, and frightened during a career change.
They would be more likely to take an online career change test if it was credible and tailored to their needs.
The majority seek out advice from their family and friends.
Most would likely spend 30 minutes to an hour completing an assessment.

Form Design

After learning the specifics of our client, we turned to research form design. We noted where the current Change Microscope succeeded and what could be improved. A large part of this process was finding a balance between the needs of both parties. We strove to make it clear, accessible, and aesthetically pleasing while maintaining the scientific rigor of a psychological assessment.

Archetypes and Journey Maps

We moved from research gathering to synthesizing, interpreting, and displaying the data. Adding a ‘face’ through archetypes, and mapping the user journey clarified where we could affect a positive change.

Journey Maps

Sketching

At this point, we’d been sketching nearly everything we came across. We broke down competitor pages into basic blocks, and how users flow from one stage of the current assessment to the next. So it’s only natural that we finally begin sketching possible designs.

Early Mockups

It’s humbling to look back to our first mockups. Although we were headed in the right direction, we made some big mistakes, like:

Centering the text. This is way too much work for the eye to bounce around, searching where to read next.
Not labeling the rate scales well enough.
Forgetting to add the progress bar to the initial mockup. This is key to keeping users committed to the task.

Final Prototype

We relied heavily on the results of the survey and interviews. We focused on redesigning the main pages of the Change Microscope to decrease friction and reduce pain-points. Specifically:

We combined the disparate pieces of the assessment, decreasing wait-time and confusion.
Condensed the questions onto fewer pages shortened the survey overall.
Streamlined by reducing the number of user response methods (eg, eliminating drop downs).
Improved the flow by moving demographics questions to a dedicated page.
Expanded the error prevention measures.

“…what helped me through was the support. I’m glad I had people looking out for me.”
– Ryan, former QA tester

Reflections

We had some very interesting takeaways from this work. First, our surveys and interviews didn’t provide any major insights that were pertinent to our task. This could absolutely be a failing on our part to ask the right questions, but also speaks to the task at hand (redesign vs user-need). It would be interesting to test another aspect of Pivot Exit and dig deeper.

Results and Reception

Our client was very pleased with our work over the course of three weeks. They were particularly appreciative of the level of feedback we asked for and were able to act upon given the short time span. In the weeks following our project pitch, Pivot Exit has decreased the overall cost of the Change Microscope assessment by over 50%.

The major note of disagreement our client gave to us was in the choice of colorizing the rate scale radio buttons. This struck us as a valid concern, but were not able to test this to assess given our contract length.

Next Steps

Condense the color palette (several redundant gray tones used).
Test our current design with users.
Next sprint:
- Begin research and design of a profile/account page.
- Address the concerns surrounding color usage.
- Design a one question per page layout, and A/B test the two.