The project
This app idea has been designed by me as a follow up to one of my classes at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. The original idea was part of an entrepreneurship class, where I was working on a business side to this app.
The idea for the app started forming after I was talking to some of my friends who were complaining about how they would like to get a job, but how they don't really have the time to work long hours. Based on their input, this concept was created.
What is iJob?
"Imagine you have a day off. You are at home, doing nothing and you know you are wasting time. What if there was a way to spend the day better, earning some extra money?"
That is the easiest explanation of iJob. It is a platform that allows mostly students to find one-off jobs, and a platform that allows employers to find workers for basic jobs - such as promoting, cleaning etc. quickly and effortlessly.
The design process
Building the platform concept took several weeks and several iterations where I did change the logic of the solution several times based on user feedback and tried to come up with an easy to use solution.
1. Who will use the app and why?
First of all, the end user had to be defined. Without knowing who we're designing the solution for, it makes no sense to continue. As I have already mentioned, this idea has been based on my friends' concerns - therefore the app has been designed for students. On the other side, when testing the concept later, I found it was appealing to other users as well - so in the future, the app might become larger.
For the "Why" question, I did use the Situation-Motivation-Outcome methodology, finding out that:
When
I have a day off, and know the budget is tight,
I want to
find a job easily and quickly,
so that
I get some extra money.
2. So who are they really?
Based on this, I created a set of personas to define potential users of the app - such as Marie:
Marie
2nd year undergraduate education student
Attitude
I would like to get a part-time job, but I am afraid I would not have enough time to study and to meet my friends. I know there are agencies that offer jobs like promoting, but I find it too complicated, really, and I have heard from a few of my friends’ friends who did have bad experiences from them.
Behaviours
Busy, responsible, enjoys time with her friends, is lost without her phone.
3. What do they need?
Knowing who and why I am targeting, it was time to find out what would they really like to get from the app. Based on further research, I defined several pain-points:
It is difficult to find a job that is for one day only.
This one was an obvious one. A lot of employers try to either find employees for these jobs in their full-time employees, outsource the jobs to an agency, or to their relatives and friends.
It’s too much hassle to have CV, motivation letter and others for such a job.
Students know that a CV is the most important thing when searching for a job. But scribbling anything for a short job? Most have told me they don’t really want to do that.
It’s often a bad experience - the treatment and the money.
When asked about their experiences with jobs, many students told me they knew people who were badly treated, didn’t get the money they were promised, or were expected to do something else than what they signed up for.
When you apply, you often don’t even get an answer.
A lot of students who were applying for any jobs (even part-time or full-time) were fed up with the fact they have spent a lot of time preparing all the documentation, and then didn’t even get an answer from the employer.
The solution
Based on the research and on the pain-points, I have designed and prototyped a platform that should allow students to find short-term one-off jobs. The solution is based mainly on the needs of the users - so the description of the final platform here is a set of answers to the needs outlined above.
It is difficult to find a job that is for one day only.
This has been the main focus at the beginning, when the form of the solution was taking its shape. It was obvious that rather than a web site, a mobile app would be a better solution. An app that will allow students to get an overview of jobs would be great, but how could they find a job that suited them? To solve that, the app has three major features that make finding a one-off job easy.
1. Notification based.
Once users download apps, it is difficult to retain them - so if I wanted users to use the app a week since they downloaded it, I needed to make it as simple as possible to search for the jobs. In fact, what if they didn’t need to search for it? What if the jobs found them? The first power feature of the app is that it is notification based - whenever there is a suitable job, the user will get a notification.
2. Localisation based.
If however the user got notification for every single job posting, they would soon get overwhelmed and would delete the app anyway. That’s why is localisation the second power feature. By only getting notifications for jobs that are geographically close to the user, the relevance of the platform is much higher. Naturally, the default radius and location of the user can be changed at any time.
3. Learning based.
If the user is living in a town centre though, it is still possible that they will be getting irrelevant job posting notification. To prevent that, the app will use artificial intelligence to curate jobs based on the reaction of the user to past notifications.
It’s too much hassle to have CV, motivation letter and others for such a job.
When the user gets the notification, applying for the position should be as easy as it possibly can be. There should be no CVs, motivation letters or anything else really. On the other side, the recruiter needs to know at least anything about the potential worker. Therefore, each user needs to register before using the app, defining not only their basic information, but also which jobs appeal to them (to only get relevant notifications), and also a short bio - to make sure the employees can get to know them at least a bit. The app also implements a chat feature - so that in case there is a need for information, it can be asked for as easily as possible.
It’s often a bad experience - the treatment and the money.
The fear of not knowing what to expect was ranked as one of the most important factors when the potential users were asked why would they not consider finding an one-off job. To prevent this, the app implements a ranking feature. Whenever anyone finishes a job, they are asked to give feedback and to rate the employer. To help employers on the other side, the same happens to the worker - meaning that both the companies and the users are rated using a standard 5-star scale. As for the money, each job listing clearly states how much the worker will earn - and once anyone gets hired, the money is taken from the employers’ account - meaning that we guarantee the user will get paid.
When you apply, you often don’t even get an answer.
As has already been mentioned, the applying mechanism is designed to be as easy as possible - in fact, it only takes two taps to apply. As for the answers, when the employer picks a “winner”, they are immediately notified and are required to accept the job. Once they do, all other applicants are automatically sent a notification about the end of the offer. If the recruiter chooses so, they can even add a feedback about why they picked someone different.
The takeaways
Even though the concept was really successful among my classmates, there is still a major flaw in the product - there was no research among the other side - the employers. I know students did love the prototype, but I did not consult the solution with any employers. If it was about to be pursued, this would be the first thing to fix.
Despite of that, this was a really fun project - trying to make sure the app is as friendly as possible, going through several iterations. The biggest takeaway here was definitely not to be satisfied with first versions of the solution - if I was, the final app would have looked entirely different and would not be half as easy to use as the final product could be.