Atharva Potnis.

Product Designer

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Resume

Atharva Potnis.

Product Designer

Home

Portfolio

About

Resume

Atharva Potnis.

Product Designer

Home

Portfolio

About

Resume

Atharva Potnis.

Product Designer

Handshake

This project focuses on how the overall usability of Handshake can be improved.

Project Duration


October 2022 - December 2023



Brainstorming an Idea!


To begin, we first had to decide what website or app we wanted to focus our research on. Each member of our group chose a website or app of interest to present to the rest of the group so that we could click through the website and decide which one we were most interested in conducting our user research study on. We looked for sites that were relevant to our lives as students as well as sites with obvious UI and UX issues that would be conducive to a strong case study. We chose to select our topic this way, so we could decide as a group and have a topic we were all passionate about and excited about.


Project Duration


October 2022 - December 2023



Brainstorming an Idea!


To begin, we first had to decide what website or app we wanted to focus our research on. Each member of our group chose a website or app of interest to present to the rest of the group so that we could click through the website and decide which one we were most interested in conducting our user research study on. We looked for sites that were relevant to our lives as students as well as sites with obvious UI and UX issues that would be conducive to a strong case study. We chose to select our topic this way, so we could decide as a group and have a topic we were all passionate about and excited about.


Project Duration


October 2022 - December 2023



Brainstorming an Idea!


To begin, we first had to decide what website or app we wanted to focus our research on. Each member of our group chose a website or app of interest to present to the rest of the group so that we could click through the website and decide which one we were most interested in conducting our user research study on. We looked for sites that were relevant to our lives as students as well as sites with obvious UI and UX issues that would be conducive to a strong case study. We chose to select our topic this way, so we could decide as a group and have a topic we were all passionate about and excited about.


Project Duration


October 2022 - December 2023



Brainstorming an Idea!


To begin, we first had to decide what website or app we wanted to focus our research on. Each member of our group chose a website or app of interest to present to the rest of the group so that we could click through the website and decide which one we were most interested in conducting our user research study on. We looked for sites that were relevant to our lives as students as well as sites with obvious UI and UX issues that would be conducive to a strong case study. We chose to select our topic this way, so we could decide as a group and have a topic we were all passionate about and excited about.


Why Handshake?


Narrowing down to a single application where we all had our own frustrations with the application at a certain point in time.

  • Passion: As a group, we found ourselves the most excited to work on Handshake for our project. We all had experience using the app and could easily come together and point out issues the app had.

  • Recruiting: As Handshake’s target market is University and College students, we felt choosing Handshake for our user research study would provide us with a large and easily accessible pool of interviewees to recruit from, as most University students are at least aware of the site, and have much experience using other similar job board sites.

  • Balance: We felt that Handshake had a good number of design and usability issues while still having elements it that were well-designed & executed



Here is the process that we followed!

Next, we moved on to the heuristics to get a better understanding of the application


We each conducted a heuristic evaluation according to Nielsen Norman Group’s 10 Usability Heretics for User Interface Design. As a group of 5, we each chose two heuristics to evaluate Handshake’s main use flows and scored pages and flows according to the below scoring key. We then came together to compile and discuss our findings to get a better idea of the main issues presented by Handshake’s user interface. The next slide is a collection of the insights we collected as a team from this exercise.



Analysis of the market to find out the competition


We conducted competitive research to gain insights into the features and solutions of our competitors. Identifying 4 of our direct competitors was the first step. Then we created a comparison matrix based on 45 criteria, including Nielsen’s heuristics. Based on this matrix, we came up with features that positioned our product above our competitors.

  • How many competitors have you analyzed?

  • What comparison criteria did you define?

  • List the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors!

  • Did you find a market gap?

  • What possibilities did you find?

  • How did the findings affect the overall strategy?



We then came up with some insights that could make the overall handshake experience a little better


Recruiting and Interviewing people


Handshake has a broad market and operates on a dual-sided platform that makes the website accessible to job seekers and employers and caters to their needs. In our study, we focused on job searchers who were students between the ages of 22 and 27 who used Handshake primarily for their job search, who used it along with other job boards for their job search, and the ones who never used it for their job search as our participants. We created the screener questions and distributed the forms on numerous platforms in order to find our participants. We then interviewed some of the interested individuals. By interviewing people from different experience levels, we better understood the current and potential users and their experiences.



Based on the Findings related to the task flow we brainstormed and came up with some recommendations



We then did a SUS Analysis to check the usability of the website



Based on the SUS Scale we came up with recommendations

  1. Insight 1:83% of our participants expressed the lack of search features on the platform. Recommendation: Incorporation of a ‘Search’ input field in the navigation bar. Re-designed recommendation as in image.

  2. Insight 2: Lack of confirmation on completion of certain tasks. hinders the system status visibility.Recommendation: Make use of non-modals and non light boxes to keep informing the users about their progress and make sure they are aware when they successfully or unsuccessfully completed a task

  3. Insight 3 Although Handshake is a good platform with many useful resources relevant to students, the resources lack discoverability and easy navigation. Recommendation: Incorporating all or most of the recommendations we spoke about earlier in the website would enhance the different features and functionality of the system.

  4. Insight 4 The content feels overwhelming and out of place currently.Recommendation:Use of a better Information Architecture along with having less and only the relevant content on the home screen would significantly reduce the cognitive load on the users. In addition, it, also making the UI minimal and clear demarcations between various sections of the screen would make scanning the screen for information easier.

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