The Problem

Career counselling often relied on verbal discussions and assumptions.
Stakeholders faced three key challenges:

• Lack of structured student data for follow-ups and regional insights

• Unreliable user identification due to email-based signups

• Low engagement with a text-heavy psychological assessment

These issues made counselling less efficient and reduced confidence in course recommendations.

UX Goals

• Enable reliable user identification

• Collect meaningful student information without friction

• Improve engagement and usability of the assessment

• Support real counselling workflows, not just screen interactions

Key UX Decisions

1. Phone-based onboarding & structured form

To ensure unique users and better follow-ups, I redesigned onboarding around phone-number-based identification.
A short, progressive form captured essential details like location and background, helping counsellors segment users by region and training centre.

2. Emoji-based psychological assessment

The assessment is based on John Holland’s career personality theory and requires repeated user input.

To reduce cognitive load:

• Replaced text buttons with emoji-based responses (Like / Dislike / Neutral)

• Enabled faster, more intuitive decision-making during live sessions

This made the test more inclusive and easier to complete.

3. Clear results & next steps

After completion:

• Users receive their Holland Code

• Career fields aligned with their interests are shown

• Results can be downloaded

• Students can request one-on-one counselling

This ensured the experience led to real-world action, not just test completion.

Impact

• Improved quality of student data for stakeholders

• Higher engagement with the assessment flow

• Better support for mobilizers during counselling

• Increased clarity and confidence for students

What I Learned

• UX design can directly support business and operational decisions

• Small interaction changes can significantly improve usability

• Designing for assisted, real-world contexts requires simplicity and clarity