Brief
For this project, I collaborated with three of my colleagues to explore an opportunity space for our brand of choice Hired.com. We chose to solve a problem within the scope of Autism spectrum high functioning individuals seeking for work. The Neurodiverse community lack access to work search support.
Our solution was Hired Neurodiverse! A work search/ support platform built for the Autism community. The user friendly desktop and mobile app allows the neurodiverse audience to learn, get inspired and apply for jobs at places that supports them.
Responsibilities
User Research, Personas, Strategy, Feature Prioritization, Low-Fidelity Sketches, High-Fidelity Wireframes & Prototype, Usability Testing, UI Specifications Document, Presentation, Case Study
Tools
Sketch, InVision, Trello, Slack, Keynote Google Suite
Our Team
InVision Prototype
700K additional people from a specific segment entering the workforce over the next 10 years
“If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism”.
Stephen Shore Doctor, Professor, Author
Repport
In order to better understand Autism Employment problem—as well as guide our decisions when designing for our chosen target audience of the High functioning Autism spectrum disorder—our team used a combination of online research, competitive and comparative analysis, and user research. Through online research, we gained a more thorough understanding of the exact severity of the lack of comprehensive work support for high-functioning individuals suffering with some level autism spectrum disorder.
To get a clear picture, we also conducted several user interviews to get direct insight from people in our target audience. From individuals with autism, care givers (who provide support on the job search) recruiters (supportive of this initiative), to private support organizations (working on behalf of people with autism).
Following a screener survey, we interviewed a total of nine participants, three care givers, four individuals with autism disorder, and two recruiters (interviewed by phone, in person and by chat). The nine participants are considered highly involved in the employment search or support, enabling us to get an accurate representation of our target audience. Interviews were 20–30 minutes long, wherein we asked questions such as:
Tell me about what it’s been like finding work?
When did you identify what you wanted to be as an adult?
What types of resources or training do you have access to for job training, employment, career guidance etc?
Do you feel supported in discovering ways to find a job that you would enjoy and that would be meaningful to you?
The problem
It has been shown that the neurodiverse population (those living with Autism Spectrum Disorder) are unemployed at higher rates than the general population and often lack the opportunities and resources to find and retain employment.
How might we…
Create equal employment opportunities for all people with ASD interested in Tech careers, tailoring resources, as well as the screening, recruitment and hiring process based on their unique skills and ability to perform a job in order to ensure fair and open recruitment?
Outcomes
Through the research the hypothesis was validated, and opportunity to develop a product to support people with ASD was identified.
The analysis of the competitive landscape shows there is a gap that Hired could capitalize on to provide a service both to job-seekers and hiring companies.
The Design phase and subsequent rounds of user testing have provided positive validation that the proposed solution is something that would be valuable to the target audience.
Next Steps
Conduct further research with Hiring companies and ideate solutions to service their needs
Partner with psychologists specializing in ASD to validate and further build out solutions to accommodate needs of the target audience.
Build out designs for fully responsive site
Integrate APIs such as Chatbot and LinkedIn
Create a pay scale comparison tool
