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Case Study: PRINTED App and Website

*This case study is part of my entry to Google Career: UX Certification. PRINTED is a made up product.

PRINTED: Mobile app & Website

PRINTED connects job seekers to local print shops in their area and provides free resume printing services as well as job resources to help individuals land that perfect job.

 

July 2022 – September 2022

My Role and responsibilities

My name is John Linsangan and I am a UX designer in charge of designing the PRINTED mobile app and website. My responsibilities includes the following: conduct research and interviews. Create paper, digital wireframes. Create low and high fidelity prototypes. Conduct usability studies and ensuring accessibility and iterations of the design. 

The Problem

Often times most job seekers have no access to printing his or her resume at home and have little to no budget most of the time. 

 

The Goal

Create a way to connect job seekers and local print shops and provide a free service that will potentially build a relationship and hopefully both benefits from it. 

 

Research

User Research: Summary

I’ve conducted a series of interviews and created persons, user story, and user journey among other things to  help me understand what type of users I am designing for and their needs. In my research I learned that, a primary user group are professionals who are eager to get back in the workforce but lacks resources to do so. 

 

This primary user group shares a common frustration and that is the lack of resources available to them at any given time. Not everybody have an access to a home printer to print their resume, so a solution will be getting them printed professionally in a print shop. But small / local print shop are often ignored and most users will go directly to a big franchised print shops which most of the time have a negative experience.

Persona
User: Emily

Emily is an unemployed marketing coordinator with years of experience who needs her resume printed professionally  because she has interviews already lined up.

User: Jack

Jack is an unemployed who just finished a 4-years college who needs help with building his resume because he is planning on applying for jobs in the near future.

 

Competitor Audit
Competitive Audit Goals

Compare features and feel of the competitors app or website

Key Competitors

Minuteman Press

Commercial print shop franchise providing big and small printing services.

Fedex Kinkos

Retail style copy center and shipping center.

Resume.io

Online resources for building a resume.

What are the type and quality of competitors’ products? 

Professional printing company that offers a wide-range of printing services. Basic printing services are also available with a minimum order for a cost. More knowledgeable and customer service is excellent when it comes to printing services.

How do competitors position themselves in the market?

A franchise of professional commercial printing companies located all over the United States.

How do competitors talk about themselves?

Focuses more on businesses for large printing jobs, but occasionally offers small print services for walk-ins.

 Competitors’ strengths

  • Wide-range of printing services available locally
  • A lot of option for paper stock
  • Quick turnaround time
  • Vast knowledge in printing services

Competitors’ weaknesses

  • Can be pricey even with basic types of printing
  • Does not typically deal with walk-ins but are welcome

What are the type and quality of competitors’ products? 

A retail setting, where services such as shipping and printing are available but limited printing services are offered locally and quality of prints are a hit-or-miss.

How do competitors position themselves in the market?

 A very well-established shipping company that offers printing services. They position themselves as a retail store, which separates them from most commercial printing companies.

How do competitors talk about themselves?

Retail store that offers both shipping and printing services for everyday people. 

Competitors’ strengths

  • Wide-range of printing services available 
  • Office supplies are sold in store
  • Shipping services are also available

Competitors’ weaknesses

  • Limited amount of printing services are available locally, most are outsource
  • Print quality are not always the greatest
  • Workers are not that knowledgeable about printing

What are the type and quality of competitors’ products? 

An indirect competitor, but a great tool to create resumes for those that need help. Unfortunately it does not offer printing services.

How do competitors position themselves in the market?

An online website with a very well done SEO for job seekers building their resume. 

How do competitors talk about themselves?

A great tool for jobseekers building a resume

Competitors’ strengths

  • Templates for building resume and cover letter
  • Tips and other resources for job seekers

Competitors’ weaknesses

  • Does not offer printing services
  • Some features are for premium users only

Ideation

SKETCH

For the ideation process, I decided to create a quick sketch to come up with some ideas based on my initial research and how the app can potential look or function.

Low-Fidelity Wireframe & Protoype

After coming up with a quick sketch using crazy 8’s. I created the initial design for the app. This is one of the app / website’s main feature is to be able to find the nearest print shop that is providing free resume printing services.

View live prototype here

Usabality Study Parameters

Study Type

Unmoderated usability study

Location

United States, remote

Participants

5 participants 

Length

10-30 minutes

Usabality Study Findings

File Upload

Some users have files saved on other locations such as google drive, a way to upload files from other sources will be beneficial.

Additional Information

Most users wanted to include instructions about their print order, and a section for this will be beneficial.

Resources

Users often ignored this section since they feel they have no need for it.

High-Fidelity Wireframe

After getting feedbacks from the usability study I re-designed the upload section to allow users select where the “source” of their file is coming from. After the usability study I learned that most users would prefer to have a section to explain their print order, so by adding a comment section allows user to communicate with the print shop when submitting their order.

View live prototype here

Finish product: PRINTED App
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Ideation

Sitemap

The app design gave a clear direction on how the design of the website will look like. The sitemap shows the pages that needed to be designed but not to far from the app.

 

Responsive Design

Take-aways

Impact

PRINTED helps users connect with small business / local print shops that are willing to provide free resume printing in hopes that the user will continue give the print shop some business in the future.

What I learned

I learned that there are many ways to look at a project such as this. There are a lot to research about potential users and the businesses that will provide the service. So from that point, I had to look at two perspective and how it will benefit both the user and the business (print shop.)

Thank you for taking the time to view my project for Google's UX certification.