Internship Search Tool
Role
UX/UI Design
Art Direction
Animation
STRIDE
Redefining how high school students search for internships while boosting leads and creating brand recognition.
Situation
Stride Career Prep offers a unique curriculum that allows students to explore their options and take electives in high-demand career fields—all so they'll be better prepared for what comes after graduation, whether that's college or starting a career right away. While Stride offers high school internships internally, we found that there was no existing tool in the market targeted at high schoolers looking for an internship.
Solution
Develop a search portal and resource library for high schoolers interested in internships. Our primary goals were to increase satisfaction and retention among currently enrolled students, collect targeted leads from students interested in career and college, and increase organic traffic using targeted keywords all while increasing general brand awareness.
Wireframes + Requirements
UX/UI Design
Research
Based on student user surveys and comparison analysis, we identified the primary search field criteria, landing page content hierarchy, required search result content to display, and the promotional timeframes for our new product.
In order to launch in time for peak internship search season, I worked with the web team to build out a phased product launch plan. Wireframes were built out with full functionality and broken up into stories. Full-fidelity mocks and prototypes were designed by phase in alignment with available development resources.
Launch of MVP
UX/UI Design
Working with the development and research team to create an MVP for launch, we identified the key features for phase one. All key functionality aligned with student survey results, and we began additional user testing after the initial launch in tandem with additional feature development.
Phases 2-5
UX/UI Design
After launch, we began user testing with current students for initial feedback, improving the design as we built out the additional features including: additional search criteria, new student resources and quizzes, and e-mail capture for lead collection before revealing full job posts.
Improve
Working with UX researchers, developers, and our database partners – Burning Glass, we have continued conducting user surveys to identify areas of improvements for both functionality and user experience. Additional tools and resources for students are continually developed and added to the product.
Impact
The new product creates a space for high schoolers to locate internships, take career quizzes, and find resources for landing the perfect job. We successfully created a tool that increased satisfaction rates in enrolled students and brought brand awareness to prospective students. While increasing page rankings and tripling site traffic, the tool also resulted in an immediate and unexpected increase in lead generation.
Success Metrics:
Student and parent satisfaction surveys
Feedback loop, tracking students who found a job successfully
Lead collection
Site rankings
Primary: Unique visitors
Secondary: Engagement (# of clicks to description, # of clicks to apply, # of shares, # of times saved)