Most of us perceive technology as a means to make things easier. Yet, for a significant portion of the population, technology is a gateway to what once seemed unattainable. In light of this, I would like to share the story of Confy, a web-based mentoring application that supports people with disabilities from sheltered workshops to gain employment in the general labor market.

My role

This 4-month project took place between February and May 2023 and has been carried out in collaboration with CODE University of Applied Sciences and Project IDEAL 4.0 at Oberlin Werkstätte. Taking on the roles of a Researcher, UX Designer, and UI Designer, I developed the concept of a responsive web app from zero. I worked independently alongside a team from IDEAL 4.0, who supported me with organizing ideation and testing sessions at Oberlin Werkstätte, a sheltered workshop facility.

Context

Sheltered workshops (SWs) are work environments specifically designed for people with disabilities (PWDs) who are severely impaired and struggle to obtain employment in the mainstream job market. They aim to provide a safe environment where individuals can adapt to typical work requirements, develop vocational and social skills, and eventually transition to integrated employment. However, workshops often become a permanent solution rather than a transition to the primary labor market.

Problem

PwDs feel insecure and demotivated to seek employment outside of SWs

Lack of familiarity with real-world work experience: SWs often provide a protected environment, which may limit opportunities to gain real-world work experience and hinder confidence during the transition to the job market.

Limited aspirations: PwDs in sheltered workshops may have been conditioned to believe that their capabilities are limited or only suited for certain types of work. This can lead to limited aspirations and lower motivation to pursue them.

Solution

Developing role models and spotlighting PwDs that achieved job success is key

Exposure to a success story has been connected to a positive impact on people with disabilities, as it shows them the potential to fully engage in the community. Confy recognizes this potential and creates opportunities for individuals to share their experiences with others who went through similar challenges by connecting workshop clients with employed impaired professionals.

PAR approach

Participatory action research (PAR) is a research approach that involves active collaboration with the people being studied, allowing them to contribute their insights through cooperative activities. Together with the target group, we had two ideation workshops to develop a tailored mentoring process. This helped me better connect with the co-researchers and understand their principal and latent needs.

Methods: Questionnaire, Interviews, Storyboard Visualization, Closed Card Sorting, Journey Mapping, Affinity Mapping, Task Analysis & User Flows, Sitemap, Wireframes, Prototyping, and Usability Testing.

Learning about the audience

Prior to conducting the ideation workshops, I reviewed existing research and IDEAL 4.0 interview data to frame the first ideas. I also had an interview with an employed PwD to learn more about the mentor perspective.

Ideation workshops

The research methods were adapted to make the data collection process less cognitively intensive for the participants. Instead of doing interviews, I used visual storyboards to capture the experiences and feedback of PwDs. All participants had different types of cognitive disabilities.

Ideation Workshop 1: Designer, PwD1, PwD2, PwD3

During the first session, participants had to compare two storyboards – traditional mentor-based and peer-based mentoring. After the review, the participants were given a visual questionnaire where they could vote for their preferences and choose the optimal intensity, format, and frequency of interaction between them and their role models.

Ideation Workshop 2: Designer, PwD1, PwD2

During the second session, the participants had to review the refined storyboard with applied feedback from the last workshop. During a closed card sorting activity later, PwDs clustered possible program topics under the learning blocks based on what made sense to them and voted on the most and least essential job-search themes.

Key insights

An inclusive approach to mentoring goes beyond one-on-one interaction

Based on the trends in the affinity map, I have observed that the participants strongly emphasized the social aspect of the experience. An inclusive approach to mentoring involves addressing aspects beyond the direct individual interaction, such as the mentee's overall development and social environment.

Framing solution experience

The purpose of the journey map was to create a story that visualizes all the key points and experiences based on the gathered insights. It includes stages and phases of the journey, storyboards to illustrate each step, pain points associated with each phase, the emotional experiences of the mentee throughout the steps, prevailing strategies used, and opportunities to address the pain points.

3 support directions emerged

The information gathered identified three ways of providing support that defined the core features: one-on-one interactions with mentors, peer exchange, and job search guidance. As a result, user pathways for important interactions were created.

Book a call with a mentor

Join a community event

Start a self-paced training

Opting for a web app allows for greater accessibility as it is not limited to specific platforms and can be accessed across various devices. This makes it well-suited for our target audience, who may not always own smartphones.

Prioritizing mobile-centric designs

Since many PwDs work in manual labor at SWs and may have no laptop readily available, my wireframes focused on the mobile user experience. For this reason, I also added a bottom navigation bar to ensure convenient access to key features within reach of the user's thumb.

I ensured the prototype copy was accessible for testing with our target audience. This involved using simpler sentence structures, rephrasing and hyphenating complex terms (for example, using "Plan" instead of "Strategie" and "Arbeits-Suche" instead of "Arbeitssuche"), and avoiding English terms like "Tools" or "Community."

Testing in a real setting

In the first round, I conducted usability testing with three PwDs on the Oberlinhaus campus in Potsdam. The participants were asked to complete a few scenario-based tasks to test the prototype's core functionality.

Let's imagine the workshops close in 10 years, and you plan to find a job in the market. A friend told you about this mentoring program, and you want to give it a try.

1. Search for a mentor and book an online session
2. Find out where there are group meetings with likeminded people and sign up for one
3. Find a way to your job search tasks and try to solve one

Usability testing findings

All the findings were broken into errors, observations, general info, positive and negative quotes mentioned by PwDs. As a next step, I rewrote statements into actionable points and grouped them under clusters: Copy changes, Unorganized information, Experience, Navigation, UI inconsistency, Poor feedback, New features, and Testing process.

Second iteration

After refining the design, I created and evaluated high-fidelity prototype in a second round involving three new participants. During this round, I observed that some of them were less expressive and faced challenges articulating their concerns when they encountered confusion. So I began to pay closer attention to their behavioral cues to identify patterns in their interactions with the screens.

Style guide

I opted for a combination of blue and yellow colors, creating a visually accessible and highly contrasting pairing. To ensure clarity, I reserved blue exclusively for interactive elements while ensuring that color alone is not the only indicator to convey important information. This involved underlined styling for tertiary buttons and utilizing symbols for error or warning messages, among other techniques.

Final UI (40+ unique screens)

Try it out yourself

Takeaways

Expanding the perspectives

Thinking back, involving more stakeholders in ideation workshops, such as the employees from sheltered workshops, would provide me with valuable insights into how to incorporate the program within the current ecosystem.

Taking one key interaction at a time

As the prototype evolved, it became apparent that each new feature introduced extra complexity for the user. Thus, my priority would be to focus on implementing one-on-one interactions first. I would also include an optional possibility for individuals to disclose their disability to improve the accuracy of mentor matching.

IA balance across devices

I have learned that over-customizing the mobile experience is not always beneficial as it can lead to notable variations in the organization of information, resulting in inconsistency for users who access the site from multiple devices.

Shifting from a culture-fit to a culture-add mindset

Hiring for cultural fit can often lead to a lack of diversity, as the assumption that a strong business is built by similar individuals can unintentionally exclude people with disabilities. Companies can promote inclusivity by actively seeking individuals with diverse perspectives.

Walkthrough

Take a peek at this short walkthrough video to see all the interactions in action :)

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