ReachOut
Building Bridges to Employment
ReachOut is a platform designed to bridge the gap between organizations helping ex-offenders and employers who are open to second-chance hiring.
My Role
Graphic Designer
The Final Product
While the app is live, access is currently limited to verified non-profit organizations and businesses. In the meantime, please feel free to explore this high-fidelity prototype to get a detailed view of its features and design. You can also check out the code on github!
Research
To begin this project, the team researched what happens when someone is released from prison. Here's what was found...
Prisoner is released
Since Canadian prisons do not allow any internet use, recently released prisoners feel overwhelmed searching for a new job, as they have not used the internet for the duration of their incarceration.
Prisoners reach out to nonprofit organizations
These organizations assist them in finding jobs and provide guidance on reintegration.
Organizations apply to employers on the individual's behalf
Before ReachOut, Organizations would utilize mutliple tools to apply for jobs such as glassdoor and indeed. They would rely on excel to keep their clients organized.
This is where ReachOut comes in!
Discoveries
Personas
Based on these discoveries two distinct personas were created. One non-profit worker and one Employer interested in second chance hiring.
Leena
Non-profit Worker
Ryan
Employer
Flows
This research also informed two distinct Flows. One for Non-profit workers, and one for Employers.
Organization Flow
The Organization flow allows non-profits to keep their clients organized, view job listings, and create new resumes for their clients.
Click to see more!
Employer Flow
The Employer flow allows buisnesses to post job listings, keep track of their applicants and stay on top of interviews.
Click to see more!
AI Job Matching
The research showed that it was exhausting for organizations to have to filter through each job listing only to find one or two critera their client lacked. With the help of AI and ReachOut, these non-profit workers can tell at a glance whether or not a job posting is right for their client.
Logo and Branding
- The logo combines two main parts.
- 1.The hands, which represent aid and assistance to symbolize ReachOut’s mission to assist formerly incarcerated individuals.
- 2.The second part is the bird found in the negative space. This bird represents the freedom these individuals find themselves with.
- Together these images create a picture of newfound freedom, being aided in that new freedom, and finding a path forward.
Styleguide
The goal of the brand colours to be calming and trustworthy. The fonts were chosen to be legible, going with a sans serif to keep it minimalist.
Design Process
The design process relied heavily on user feedback. Below is an example of how our design for the listing cards changed based on user feedback. Through this practice the cards were refined to have tooltips and maintain the same colour to minimize confusion.
Initial Design
Revision One
Final Design
Challenges
- During this process the team encountered many challenges. the most notable ones being
- 1.Interviews. Finding willing participants to answer our surveys and sit down for interviews was very difficult. To combat this the team used personal connections, and sent out many emails to gather enough data to make meaningfull steps forward
- 2.Logo. Finding a way to incorperate the bird, hands, and a professional atmosphere into the logo while maintianing a cohesive image was difficult. To ensure the logo effectively combined these aspects many drafts were sketched out and feedback was received at various points during the design process.
Final Screens
Brochure
