JobFlare is a mobile application that helps users connect to companies. JobFlare has six 90-second brain games that tracks a user’s performance in skills that are key predictors of job success: math, verbal, attention to detail, and memory. As the UI designer, my primary role was to design the mobile interface of JobFlare. I collaborated with the marketing and engineering team to create features that would increase the number of downloads, as well as, lengthen a player’s time in app.
UI Designer
Visual Design, Print Design
Aug 2017 - Jan 2019
JobFlare’s tagline is “Play Games, Get Hired.” It’s catchy and is a huge factor to why we have downloads. Users approach JobFlare because they believe it is an easier alternative to job search. Therefore the way users engage with JobFlare is similar to how one checks of a list of items to complete. Using Mixpanel, we were able to track our user’s behavior with the app. Once users completed onboarding, they would be taken to the game menu where they would play all six games. After playing through the games, users would drop out of the app. We were faced with a lack of engagement on the user’s end with our application. As the lead designer on the project, I had to create a solution that would increase a users’s time within the app.
I started off with doing some research on studying the nature of games. I looked specifically at mobile games that were simple, but incredibly addicting to play such as, Flappy Bird and Candy Crush. Originally our solution as a team was that, we should create more games so that users wouldn't lose interest. However, if you look at other mobile games, you see that that game play is usually the same. While I was scrolling through Pinterest, there was one game that caught my eye, and that was a screenshot of OverCooked. For those that haven't played OverCooked before, it's a game on Nintendo Switch that features a more team- based game. As a team, you are required to create and deliver food items. The game requires team work and constant communication. When you pass levels, the food items required for you to make become more and more difficult. After each game, there's a post game menu that shows your overall results from the game. If you did great, you would get three out of three stars. The star icon was also a big part of our own game, so we liked how we could also incorporate some of OverCooked ideas into our own post game screen. We recognized that our games weren't challenging or addicting because it never required users the ability to unlock levels. The difficulty of games was always the same. Therefore, I pitched the idea of creating a world map for each game. We would start off with limiting each game to five levels. Each level would be more difficult to achieve. Users had to hit a certain number of correct answers in order to unlock levels. For every level unlocked, players would receive a star. Stars are important to have in JobFlare because it signifies to employers the performance of a player within our app. From our research, players that have achieved at least three stars and more have a higher chance in being contacted by an employer.
Before I start designing, I take a look at user stories accumulated by the product team. I arranged these stories by their importance, and here we are able to build our minimum viable product. The objective of this screen is to increase a user’s game play, and therefore lengthening a user’s time in app. The very top of the screen will give users the ability to navigate to the past screen, which is signified by the arrow icon. On the right-hand side, there will by copy for a game tutorial. Underneath it all, we have the game icon, followed by the title and a visual of the game map. The game map will feature five different levels, and will show users what levels they have unlocked and vice versa. The CTA button allows, the users to select which level they want to play and move them forward to the game. If they tap play without selecting a level, the app will automatically guide them to the last level they unlocked.
The results of adding the level maps was able to improve player retention within the app. We noticed a greater conversion of players that were able to gain an additional star level, which would be beneficial for both them and companies. With the next update to the games, we want to focus our designs by maturing our game characters. Our marketing team went to a couple of career fairs, and shared with us that a user’s first interaction with the app is that the graphics appear childlike. Our next stage in improving our app will be researching brain games, and studying their style to elevate the aesthetics of our game characters.
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