FREEWORLD
Designing a learning platform
for formerly incarcerated people
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TEAM
2 UX design students
2 UX research students
FreeWorld's design & engineering teams
TIMELINE
Fall 2023, 6 weeks
ROLE
UI/UX Designer
DESIGN PROCESS
Define
Problem statement
User persona
Ideate
Competitive analysis
Sketching
Iterate
Prototyping
Usability testing
Deliver
Design-to-
development handoff
CONTEXT
What is FreeWorld?
FreeWorld is a nonprofit helping formerly incarcerated individuals get high wage, high demand jobs in the trucking industry.
The organization supports program participants, known as FreeAgents, in obtaining their CDL-A license. Currently FreeWorld has limited engagement with program graduates. They want to develop a Post-Program Portal to continue providing career support.
THE PROBLEM
Interviewing for a new job is difficult.
And formerly incarcerated individuals experience a distinct disadvantage in the job search process, due to factors like:
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A lack of prior or recent work experience
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An existing criminal background
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Social stigma against formerly incarcerated people
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Unfamiliarity with the job-search process
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Self-doubt and uncertainty about career outcomes
How might we design a mobile platform to educate and prepare formerly incarcerated people for job interviews?
USER PERSONA
What is a FreeAgent's post-program journey like?
FREEAGENT
FRANK
30 / Male
Fred recently graduated from FreeWorld with his CDL-A license and was invited to interview for an entry level trucking job.
This will be his first job interview in years. Fred doesn’t know what the interviewer expects, and he has a lot of questions about what to do and say. He has one week to prepare for the interview.
TRAITS
Education level: low
Technology literacy: low
Anxiety & self-doubt: high
DETAILS
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Learns best through hands-on experience
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Was incarcerated for all of his late teen - adult years
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Social stigma against formerly incarcerated people
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Primarily uses an older Android phone
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Reads at a 3rd grade reading level
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
How do other platforms deliver content in a clear and engaging way?
01. CalFresh
Divided content into
multiple short pages
01. Duolingo
Incorporated gamification, clever illustrations, and mascots
03. Kahoot
A great example
of gamification
IDEATION
So what's feasible?
We generated ideas quickly using ideation techniques like Crazy 8's and concept sketching. Then we voted on the most promising concepts and arranged them into 3 "levels" of complicaton.
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Level 1: Utilizes FreeWorld's existing design systems.
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Level 2: New ideas that diverge from current system, but likely achievable.
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Level 3: Requires more complex engineering capabilities.
We presented ideas from each level to FreeWorld's UX and engineering teams to determine their feasibility and practicality.
CONTENT ORGANIZATION
Bite-sized lessons are more digestible.
To make the interview preparation content more digestible, we organized it into six lessons:
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Lesson 1: Overview
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Lesson 2: What to Wear
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Lesson 3: How to Present Yourself
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Lesson 4: How to Sell Your Skills
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Lesson 5: How to Talk About Your Criminal Background
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Lesson 6: What to Ask the Interviewer
DESIGN DECISIONS
Here's what we found to be most effective in communicating new information to FreeAgents.
Through one round of concept testing and two rounds of usability testing with FreeAgents and FreeWorld employees, we developed a few principles to guide our design decisions.
01. Emphasize individual agency and autonomy over learning
In the Overview lesson, we chose to include an introduction quiz to boost engagement. We tested two variations and found that assessing FreeAgents' initial confidence level, rather than actual knowledge of the topics, encouraged self-reflection.
Option 1
Confidence Quiz
Option 2
Knowledge Quiz
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Final Decision
Confidence Quiz
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02. Incorporate graphics & illustrations to maintain engagement
All of the following additions received overwhelmingly positive feedback during all three rounds of testing.
Mascot: E'Neil
Hand-drawn illustrations
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Use of emojis
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03. Present and reinforce content in multiple ways
Participants responded positively to multiple ways to present content, including videos, articles, and interactive quizzes.
Short videos
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Breaking down examples
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Interactive elements
DELIVER
From design to development
We met with FreeWorld's engineering team to pass of our designs for implementation in the near future, and recommended a few changes to FreeWorld's existing design system.
"I can actually talk about [my background] during the interview? I was thinking in my mind I shouldn't bring it up. I learned some things here." - a FreeAgent during a usability test
REFLECTION
Here are some of my key takeaways:
Designing for a unique user group can be challenging but insightful.
Designing for vulnerable populations requires careful consideration of their interests, challenges, and sensitivities. Discovering design principles that worked for our specific user group was a key breakthrough.
Sometimes, user testing doesn't go quite how you expected.
During usability testing, we noticed that our participants often focused on the content and wording rather than the designs themselves. Using dummy text instead helped us shift the focus back to our designs.