Aspire | Notion

Screenshot 2025-02-23 at 11.39.46 AM - Clara Yin.png

Team members:

Nicole Yanuaria
Clara Yin
Jason Zhang
May Zhang

Slide deck Link

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Responses

<aside> <img src="/icons/pin_red.svg" alt="/icons/pin_red.svg" width="40px" /> Outline the key features of your solution and the significance of why you implemented them.

Visa-Centered Job Search: Visa requirements are hidden in long descriptions, leading to wasted time and frustration. By prioritizing visa eligibility, we ensure users only see jobs they can actually apply for. Plus, immigrants need clear, organized information on jobs their visa is eligible for, as well as the pathway for potential future applications.

Resume Filler: American resumes follow unfamiliar conventions, and immigrants may miss opportunities to sell themselves because of confusion at how to convey their past experiences because foreign degrees and jobs are less known. Automatically filling a resume with applicant responses simplifies this.

Mock Interview Prep: Speaking in an interview is challenging: not just complex behavioral questions, but also the simple “how are you?”. We incorporated response templates as hints to emphasize learning, instead of the insecurity at having a question someone does not know how to answer. Many foreign countries have a culture of humility, and templates help the immigrants learn how to sell themselves. Structured feedback at the end starting with a numerical score is easily understandable and actionable.

Professional communication guidance: Immigrants are unfamiliar with workplace norms, and feel anxious talking to coworkers and sending emails. This feature supports them with templates and practice conversations, building their confidence and understanding of the workplace.

Language translation and text-to-speech: Immigrants may understand job descriptions and communications templates better after first reading or hearing it in their native language. It eliminates the friction of external translation apps and also gives pronunciation and intonation guidance.

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<aside> <img src="/icons/color-palette_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/color-palette_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> Explain the reasoning behind your visual design choices.

Intuitive Layout: We designed a layout with clear navigation, ensuring users can find essential features easily. The design is centered around defined sections (such as job search, resume building…), and each page features labeled, distinguishable buttons, ensuring that users can instantly recognize their intended action.

Readability: Text-heavy job platforms and articles are overwhelming for non-native English speakers. To counter this, we implemented large, readable fonts, consistent blue accents to highlight key actions like accessing interview prep, and neutral backgrounds that create a calm interface.

Globalized Design Elements: We incorporated familiar UI patterns and iconography to visually communicate how to use our app. For example, tapping the microphone to talk and clicking a lightbulb button for a hint are features built into many international platforms. This reduces the learning curve for users unfamiliar with U.S. job platforms.

Intuitive Job Filtering: The job list page focuses on tag-based filters that allow users to refine job searches, color-coded labels for visa eligibility, and a match percentage system that numerically indicates how well a job aligns with the user’s visa and experience, reducing the frustration of unfitting jobs or wordy explanations.

Visual Guidance: Our resume upload tool is designed with simple upload functionality and clear visual cues. The mock interview practice tool is structured with step-by-step prompts, reducing hesitation and anxiety, and a clear numerical scoring system.

In implementing these design features, we ensure that immigrants can confidently navigate the job search process without unnecessary barriers.

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<aside> <img src="/icons/paste_blue.svg" alt="/icons/paste_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Describe how you adapted the research insights you received to inform your design decisions.

When considering transformative experiences, we hypothesized that adjusting to a new country would be one of the most significant. As immigrants or children of immigrants ourselves, we reached out to 100+ members of our friends, family, and Davis community to survey their greatest struggles with moving to the United States. Among general struggles such as a language barrier and cultural adoption, there were more concrete ones such as finances and employment. We decided to focus on employment, as it encompasses both emotional and practical challenges.
As we planned our design, we considered the emotions at each step of the employment process that we gathered from our five user interviews. There were feelings of frustration at scrolling through long job descriptions only to see that it was not visa-compatible, confusion at how to “sell yourself” to American employers, and anxiety about accommodating to workplace culture and small talk. In short, there is a lack of immigrant-centered career resources, and there is no existing platform that helps immigrants adjust culturally.

In response, we designed a mobile-first interface to ensure easy access to job search tools, interview preparation, and workplace communication resources. We incorporated translation features, eliminated hidden information, and maintained a straightforward layout and iconography inspired by globally-used app designs. By doing so, we reduced complexity, making navigation more intuitive for immigrants. Our design choices directly address the gaps identified in our research, ensuring a more supportive experience for users adjusting to the American job market.

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