#HR
#Research
#UX/UI
#Design System
#Creative direction
ROLE: Creative Director
The Ultimate Student Work App – From Loose Concept to Living, Breathing Digital Service
When Uniyou came to us-a startup with big dreams of a digital student work agency-they had little more than a spark of an idea. As Creative Director, I had the privilege of leading the charge to turn that spark into a fully functioning service. Our mission? To design a slick mobile app for students and a powerful admin web app for employers, administrators, and supervisors.
The goal was simple yet ambitious: make the process of finding jobs, hiring students, and managing the whole shebang as smooth as possible.
We kicked off this project with some good old-fashioned research. But we weren't just throwing darts at a board-we were laying the foundation for every design decision to come.
We dived deep into market research to scope out the competition, hunted down opportunities like truffle pigs in the forest.
Next, we had cozy chats with stakeholders to hear from those in the know how the land lay. Then we created personas: bringing the main characters-students, employers, and supervisors-to life, quirks and needs and all.
We also had a one-on-one with students and HR pros to glean the insights first-hand. With this research in hand, we concocted user stories, mapped user journeys, and sketched out lists of features. And then we threw a brainstorming party with our design and dev teams to make sure every feature was not only beautiful but also doable.
Market Research: Understand the competitive landscape and identify opportunities.
Stakeholder Interviews: It involves understanding from important players in the ecosystem. The personas are defined for the main users: students, employers, and supervisors.
User Interviews: Converse with students and HR professionals to understand first-hand insights.
Splashing Color on Canvas
Pop It: Simple, fun, and just a little bit cheeky-Uniyou's visual identity needed to be as colorful as its target audience. We designed an identity that was minimalist, yet bursting at the seams with personality. Smooth shapes, legible typography, and intuitive icons make this app as soft on the eyes as it was to use.
We ditched the overly used flat vector style for playful 3D illustrations-because why not have a little fun? And topping it all off was the quirky, humorous tone in the written communication-poking fun at the struggles of student life and keeping it encouraging. This "minimum viable brand" approach was so bang-on that some of our concept designs ended up plastered around Budapest in real-life advertisements. Not too shabby!
Interface Design
Pixels with Personality: From Figma to the Finish Line - Bringing Uniyou to Life
After the wireframes were locked in, it was time to add some color and flair.
Design System: From atoms to organisms, ensuring consistency across all interfaces.
Asset Library: Illustrations and other visual elements.
Mobile and Admin Screens: Using Figma to create and hand over detailed designs to the developers.
This resulted in one single, integrated, intuitive application and administrative interface that eased job-seeking and job management from all angles.
User Experience
Designing for Real Life
No Student Left Behind-Now that we had the core research set, we rolled up our sleeves to get started with the User Experience. Our process involved:
Brainstorming Workshops: Ideation and kick-starting Product with the team.
Personas: The profile of main users, students, employers, supervisors, and what they need. Information Architecture: This ensures all is in its right place.
Wireframing: Specific wireframes are described for the mobile application and admin interfaces. Iterative
Design: Going back to our designs as we keep getting feedback and testing. Collaboration with Developers: That involves closely liaising with the in-house developers to ensure the feasibility of solutions and functionality.
Prototyping and Testing: Creating prototypes and testing these with real users to garner feedback and iterate accordingly.
Hungary’s First Digital Student Work Agency
Putting the 'Work' in 'Student Work' But in Fun Ways–Creating Uniyou wasn't all about making the student aid look pretty; it really needed to work, too.
For students, the mobile app became their go-to for finding side gigs, building financial security, and gaining work experience from within their dorm rooms. Paperless onboarding took center stage in these truly digital times as students can sign up from anywhere.
Also, an Admin Web App was developed that gave top-view insights on hiring, performance, and resource needs for employers, HR folks, and supervisors. Easy, fast, super effective-that's Uniyou.
Product from a loose idea
From an idea to a fully-fledged digital student work agency, Uniyou came into existence with us.
Now Uniyou offers a full-cycle solution for students to get work, employers to manage their workforce, and supervisors to manage work being performed-all wrapped up in fun and engaging software. This project shows the power of good design and effective collaboration that makes a dream of a startup real.
It was also a very good project from a professional growth point of view. This complex greenfield project surely made me and my team grow.