NetFem
- A mobile app that fosters a safe community and helps young women with their careers.
Project Type
Individual Project
Academic Project
Role
Project Researcher
UX/UI Designer
Duration
September - December 2023
Tools
Figma
Project Summary
The problem 🚩
74% of women experienced workplace discrimination based on their gender. Women currently comprise approximately 27% of the technological workforce, and 50% are likely to quit by 35 years old due to toxic workplace culture.
The users 👥
The project is made to address career issues among women aged 17-21 who are interested in technology.
Primary goal🎯
The goal for this project was to provide young women in STEM with career resource and a welcoming community for career help to combat discrimination in the tech industry.
User Research & Analysis
Interview Analysis
The user research for NetFem was gathered utilizing a semi-structured interview of three participants, and 12 participants answered a Google Forms survey. The problem I chose to focus on before collecting interview and survey data was observing gender-based discrimination and increasing access to career opportunities in technology spaces.
In the interviews, I primarily focused on learning about the interviewee's experiences with sexism, finding career opportunities on their smartphones, and their obstacles
while networking with professionals and peers.
" A weakness of mine is that I tend to doubt myself a lot, so this makes it hard to always be confident in my work." - Participant A
On career websites, an interviewee expressed intimidation from a "lack of qualifications" for the positions they were applying for.
"I was mainly hopeful while applying for opportunities and events, but also stressed out about some of the qualifications as they could be way more challenging and demanding of more experience even though I am still in the middle of my studies" - Participant B
During the interview, when asked whether they look for career opportunities on their smartphones, all three reported that they do because of the email notifications they receive.
"I have email notifications for different job websites, so I scroll through these sites when I get notification of an interesting position." - Participant C
The interviews' common themes were social interactions and experiences with gender-based discrimination, intimidation and doubts, and notifications pushing them to search for careers.
Affinity Diagram [Link]
Group One. Statements by Participant
Group Two. Grouping by topic
Group Three. Final Affinity Diagram
Survey Data & Analysis [Link]
The twelve responses came from a majority female survey demographic who used smartphones as their prioritized Internet access (approximately 50%, 75% when combined with another device, like a laptop). About 50% of respondents stated they frequently/often use career resources on their phone, but only a few noted participating in discussion forums about their career of interest.
Summary of Insights
1
NetFem needs to be a space where women can talk about their experiences, exchange advice, and learn in a close-knit, down-to-earth community.
2
NetFem should utilize frequent notifications to get users involved in discussions and other application content.
3
NetFem should include interactive features to get users to learn more about careers from professionals.
User Personas & Storyboards
User Persona #1: Iris
Iris' Storyboard: Iris' Experience with networking and getting a job after frustrating career finding experiences
User Persona #2: Anna
Anna's Storyboard: Anna's Newfound Confidence from good Community Support and a Learning Space
Sketches
Welcome Page and Home Page
The sketches contain the concept of how the homepage would look after logging in/signing up and would include different highlights of resources in the app.
User flow of Reaching out to Professionals
Viewing professional profiles, which show their available times, and also talking in live stream chats are different ways to talk to available professional users.
User flow of Filtering Careers/Opportunities
In these pages, the user can apply to careers/opportunities (i.e., summer programs, seminars, etc.) and filter through those opportunities using a set of questions.
Low-Fi Wireframes
Welcome + Sign In/Up Pages
Main Pages
Using my understanding of the user, the insights gathered from the user research, and the goals that our users aim to achieve, I worked on making informed decisions on how to develop NetFem's different screens on Figma.
In retrospect, writing this after making the project, I would have developed the wireframes more by actually writing things instead of using lines to represent text to make reviewers understand the content better before the high-fidelity prototype.
A Reflection
NetFem was the longest and most informative process in UX/UI that I had experience in. Finishing this project felt extremely rewarding because I had a very strong end product after a month of preparation, drafting, and research. I had a lot of fun with the design, choosing the palette, and talking to many people about their experiences with the technology industry.
Next Steps
The prototype had performance issues, which I blame for taking longer routes to avoid the "variable feature" on Figma. Hence, in future projects, I really want to focus on learning how to make functional variables to run the prototype better even with so many features being clickable.
2024 Retrospective
A year after doing this project, I definitely would have changed more aspects of the high-fidelity prototype and the general application itself. It's very dense, and resorting to hiding a lot of the key features in the hamburger menu was not my best idea, but I still love the look of the application.