Introduction

Design work today is dynamic and fluid. Designers are constantly challenged to adapt to new technologies and analyze current design trends. Interdisciplinary and creative work has become essential as design projects often involve working closely with various teams, including developers, marketing teams, and stakeholders, to create effective and user-centric solutions.

In addition to this, there is now a trend of blurred specialties. Companies often want to hire employees who perform work in several related areas. For instance, a person can find vacancies called Visual Designer instead of just Graphic Designer. Companies have increasingly come to expect an interdisciplinary approach to work from the candidate. Today the designer is a person who solves the problem in a complex way.

The profession of the designer has become attractive to many people. The openness of sources and opportunities to study design make the design study available to many people. Therefore, there are more requirements and expectations for the designer, and the competition is only growing.

Thesis Statement

Problem

In today's highly competitive job market, talented students often face challenges in effectively demonstrating their skills and positioning themselves as capable professionals. As a consequence, their chances of getting initial job opportunities are reduced.

Question

How can we make the transition from university to work easier for design graduates?

Hypotheses

1. The ability to present oneself effectively, showcase work, and demonstrate strong self-presentation skills positively impacts the job prospects of design graduates.

2. The oversaturation of the design market, coupled with the prevalence of freelance platforms and price dumping, leads to increased competition for design job opportunities, making it more challenging for design graduates to secure desired positions.

Plan of the work

Research part

1. Search and superficial study of literature and electronic sources of information, as well as statistics related to job search among designers

2. Formation of hypotheses and formulation of problems

3. Repeated more detailed study of sources

4. Conducting surveys among students and graduates of design programs

5. Studying the behavior of people who is looking for a job

6. Interview with a hiring person

7. Analysis of the received data

8. Brainstorming of possible solutions to the received tasks and problems

Design part

1. Formulation of the design idea

2. Choice of design model

2. Design Process (Strategy, Scope, Structure, Skeleton, Surface)

3. Testing among the target audience and finalizing the design of the project

4. Documentation

Researching

Features of finding a job in design

Whereas in other professions, work without a degree is often either impossible or very hard to find. For example, if a person wants to work as an architect, in most countries, they need to have a degree in architecture. In Design it works a little different.

Due to the lack of clearly defined design requirements, working as a designer often does not require a degree in a specific field. Companies often present vague diploma requirements. So, for example, companies are ready to accept for a Graphic Designer vacancy not only a person with a diploma in this field but also illustrators, advertising specialists, web designers, media specialists, and even specialists in architecture, in case they have a portfolio in Graphic Design.

As a rule, it is important for companies that a person has at least some creative education close to the field. While on the other hand, a person with a graphic design diploma is unlikely to be able to find a job as an architect.

Literature Review

So as the part of the research some artisles and papers about the design graduate statistic were explored.

For example, the article “From College to Careers: Tracking the First Two Years for Graphic Design Graduates” by Kathryn Weinstein (2018) provides statistics on tracking the activity of design graduates after graduation from university.

“Only less than half of the students manage to find a job within the first six months after graduation.”

“Competition was the most frequently cited challenge to securing design-related employment by respondents…

Graduates from this cohort to first exit the field had a relatively high GPA, indicating high performance within college relative to their peers.”

Also:

The State University of New York, Fashion Institute of Technology, collected statistics. According to these statistics, only 54% of Bachelor in Design graduates were employed in their design field after graduation (Program Finder, 2022).

Michigan State University also published statistics on its website. Among the graduates of 2022, only 66% work full-time (Career Outcomes – Bachelor’s Degrees, no date).

Survey among Design students

For the purposes of the study, additional information was collected among students and graduates of the “Design” or related fields in different countries (mainly master’s students in Germany participated).

One of the most interesting questions for the research was asked to the target audience - How quickly did they find their first job in the design field? As a result, it was revealed that only 23% of the respondents found their first job within a month. In most cases, it takes 3-6 months of active search.

Moreover, 88% of all respondents find the job search process very difficult. And only 64.7% said they fully understand the process of finding their first job. 23.5% noted that they did not understand the specifics of this process at all.

Interview

As part of the research, an interview was conducted with Elizaveta Rumyantseva, a professional designer and the Head of the Design department at Serenity Marketing Agency. With significant experience in designers for the agency, Elizaveta’s insights provided valuable perspectives on the hiring process within the industry.

Insights:

- “Great practical experience does not mean high quality of work. Moreover, a large amount of knowledge does not mean the freedom to apply them in the right places.”

- A portfolio is something to focus on.

- Students need to work on as realistic projects as possible because student projects are often not enough.

- It is better to have a portfolio in one direction of design than in several at once, as a portfolio with work in various ways does not make a professional impression.

- Self-presentation is the most important thing.

The challenges graduates face:

1. Lack of self-presentation skills

2. Insufficiently well-prepared application documents

3. Insufficient Portfolio Preparation

4. Loss of motivation in the process

5. Lack of systematization of search

6. Insufficient developed Soft skills

7. Insufficiently developed Hard skills

Design

In order to find an improvement in the experience of finding a first job for designers, there were two sessions focused on finding an idea, creating a mind map, and a brainstorming session. Thanks to creating a mind map, interesting moments were found in transit from the academy to work, which became clues for the further development of ideas.

For competent alignment of the design process, the method of building the design process, “5 elements of UX design,” developed by Jesse James Garrett, was chosen (2003).

These five elements of UX design were first introduced by Jesse James Garrett. In it, he explains the steps user experience projects should go through, as well as the issues UX designers should consider at each step.

Strategy

Objective of the application:

Facilitate job search for job seekers unfamiliar with the structure of the process and the market’s principles.

Target audience:

Graduates (and not only) who want to receive information about the construction of the job search process and (or) get help regarding their application, improve it.

Functions: 

1. Providing information on the main aspects of job search

2. Maintain user motivation

3. Providing the ability to document progress

4. Checking the readiness of the application and the ability to improve it with the help of Ai

5. Creation of a community with university 

3 types of users:

_- _Person, who wants to find a job

- Professional, who wants to assist 

- Employer, HR, or a person looking for an employee

Scope

At the Scope, all a product’s features are decided, including the information users can find and the functionality that users can interact with.

The functions that users will have and the interface will vary depending on the user type.

How will the content for the app be created?

It was decided that the texts would be generated by artificial intelligence. But articles will be published by Professionals

How will Cover letters and CVs be evaluated?

To optimize the process, cover letters and CVs will be checked by artificial intelligence.

Functions and features of AI

- User curation, assistantship

- Evaluating and improving the text elements of the users application

- Generation of responses and suggestions for improvements to the application

- Playing the role of a mental character that inspires trust and increases the positive perception of the application

It has been proved that AI can evaluate the written text in the role of a career consultant and give general and specialized advice for a particular user’s case.

Structure

At this stage, it was determined how the user interacts with the product, how the system behaves when the user interacts, how it is organized and prioritized.

Skeleton

At this stage, Lo-Fi prototypes of both the web application and the draft versions of the resize for the phone were developed.

They determine the arrangement of elements, such as buttons and menus, to make them easy for users to interact with.

Surface

Design encompasses the visual aspects of a product, including layout, typography, colors, and more. In surface design, the focus is on creating a visually appealing and intuitive user interface that enhances understanding and cognitive processing.

At this stage, the color scheme, logo and character were developed.

It was customary to use the name Jobsy as the name of the application. Jobsy is easy to pronounce, remember and associate with work. The character’s name was derived from the app’s name, Jobsy.

The first letter J is used as a logo. The logo is a small face, which refers to the developed character, adds friendliness to the application and is memorable.

Character

Also at this stage, the image of the key character was determined. It was decided to use the image of a friendly robot, as it does not look too childish and is the image of a friendly assistant.

This 3D model was purchased with a subscription on the Freepik.com website. It may be used and modified for commercial purposes. This 3D model has been repainted in the corporate colors of the application. The robot has several emotions that can be used in different contexts in the application.

Design System

At this stage, a design system was developed, which includes examples of the use of all design elements.

Hi-Fi Prototype

The final and main stage in the design development was the design of hi-fi prototypes.

When entering the application, the user is greeted by a robot and prompts him to register or log in as a person looking for a job, as a person who wants to consult, or as an HR looking for employees.

Testing

The finished prototype was tested by 3 potential users and the following changes were made according to the feedback received:

BEFORE: Communicating with AI in a small window is inconvenient

AFTER: Chatting with AI on the big screen

BEFORE: Not visible online experts or not

AFTER: Creating „available“ buttons

Further Discussion

Advertising Strategy

1. Social media advertising

2. Email marketing

3. Publication on university portals

4. Printed posters at universities

5. Influencer marketing

6. Collaborations with career events and job fairs

7. Referral programs

Conclusion

In conclusion, this study has paid attention to the difficulties faced by design graduates in the competitive job market.

The research question focused on finding ways to facilitate the transition from university to work for these graduates. Through the exploration of two hypotheses, the importance of effective self-presentation skills and the impact of market saturation on job opportunities were emphasized.

The primary objective of this master’s thesis was to propose a design solution that addresses these challenges. A solution to the problem was proposed through the creation of an application that facilitates the search for work. Moreover, during the study, the realization was put forward that this application can solve the problems of not only designers but also specialists in almost any field.

The findings and practical recommendations provided in this study aim to improve their prospects in the design industry and facilitate a smoother transition into their professional careers.