Overview:

This case study started as an investigation to understand what are some of the underlying reasons for the lack of employment diversity among Black and Latino Americans in the design and technology space. Throughout the  7-weeks of this course, I conducted a series of interviews with hirers in the UX field to gain better insight into the hiring practices and the challenges of supporting corporate  values of diversity and inclusion.My response to support employment diversity is a product called “Colorbook”. This product  helps connect underrepresented population with employers that welcome diversity.

Problem:

According to the 2019 Google and AIGA design census. White / Caucasians make up 71% of the design community, Asians 9%, Latin / Hispanics made up 8 %, Black / African Americans 3%, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians made up less than 1% combined. While in comparison the racial make up of the United States depicts a greater eligible population share. based on 2010 US Census Whites make up 60% of the US population, Asians roughly 6%, Hispanics make up 18%, and African Americans made up roughly 13%. Based on population, whites and Asians seem to be overly represented in the design community, Native Hawaiian and Native Americans were proportionately represented, and Hispanics and blacks were grossly underrepresented. The overarching goal of this project is to raise awareness of this disparity and spark the conversation of how to be more inclusive of those who desire to work in this space and create opportunities for successful partnerships. 

Users and audience:

The application is designed to connect hirers in the design industry with a multicultural talent base. 

Roles and responsibilities

 Created the initial concept, branding, visual, and interaction design, as well as conduct formative research, and usability testing.

Scope and constraints

There was no budget, 7-week timeline, worked independently, developed participant list, conducted remote user testing. Constraints were, having $0 budget, working remotely, and an aggressive, 7 week timeline to complete the MVP of the mobile experience for both

 User groups.

Research 

Interviews: 

I conducted five interviews with UX managers at respected design firms, to try to understand drivers that may be playing a role in the lack of diversity in the industry. 

Insights: 

Hirers couldn’t place why they weren’t receiving a proportionate number of applicants of color. While most of the applicants report that their own companies were pro diversity and inclusion, the applicants just weren’t there, and while a few participants had opinions, none could pinpoint why that is. 

All of the participants expressed a positive attitude towards having more diverse companies/teams, none of them had any explicit recruiting practices to find these diverse candidates or track how many of their own applicants were people of color. 

All participants reported either a disproportionately low volume of applicants of color, compared their white counterpart, or no awareness of the volume of applicants of color all together. 

From my research, I gathered that lack diversity on the hirer’s part wasn’t for lack of trying, but lack of a focused approach to recruit for diversity. In my opinion, this challenge creates an opportunity for a tailored experience to meet this need.

Empathy Maps

At this stage I created empathy maps to further understand each user group’s needs and pain points. This would inform the design decisions made from this point onward.

User Flows  

Here you can see the initial user-flow and wireframes for the each user type.

Product Features:
Onboarding

I designed the on-boarding experience to be simple, easily understood, and delightful. With calls to action for hirers, looking for talent, de- signers, looking for career opportunities, and for anyone who may be interested in learning more about Colorbook’s efforts to give back to under- served communities.

Branding
Logo & Brand elements

I wanted to craft an experience that was delightful, vibrant, and convenient. The name I arrived at is “Colorbook” because at its core the application would be a database, or book that connects de-signers of color with career opportunities. I knew finding the right sans serif font family was crucial, I decided to use the Montserrat typeface because of its elegant, expressive, and playful qualities fit nicely with the tone I was trying to achieve.

Component Library

 Here is Colorbook’s component library, comprised of all of the components that make up the application

Usability testing

User testing validated some of my initial assumptions about the prototype’s usability, and desirability. I conducted a series of usability tests with designers of various diciplines.  All 4 participants were able to intuitively understand the interface.  In terms of desirability, users found the overall experience to be delightful, and that if such a service existed, they would
be interest in it.