Onboard

Project Overview

Understanding the Context

Final Design

Process

Reflection

Project Overview

Part of univerity coursework at Purdue University

Sponsor

OnBoard is a board management software that assist boards in their organization and operation.

Problem Statement

We wanted to look into building out a service that can help boards connect with potential new candidates. Questions that guided our design process include:

How can we help OnBoard experiences stand out from competitors?
What are the best ways to connect people?
How do we use our findings to develop a new connected and explorable OnBoard feature?

Role

User Research, Sketching, Interviewing, User Testing, Wireframing

Team

7 UX designers

Timeline

August 2022 - December 2022

Research Report

Journey Map

Hi-Fi Mock-Ups

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT: What are the painpoints OnBoard is facing?

Board Administrator Pain Points

This video gives an overview of the painpoints that Board Administrators are currently facing when looking to expand and diversify their boards.

Interactive Prototype

*Prototype not visible on Mobile*

For our final design, we created a feature to help Board Administrators find qualified candidates to fill board positions openings through a system we called, “OnBoard Connect”. This prototype is a simulation of the interactions that Board Administrators would be able to have with the new feature.

Project: a specific search among an actively recruiting board for a specific candidate to fill a board position based on specific skills or demographics.
Public Job Posting: an optional public member application that candidates can reach out through about their interest and learn more about the opportunity. The concept revolves around the new journey map we created below:
Other Features: viewing candidate information, messaging candidates, and schedule meetings, editing projects, editing job postings.

Competitive Analysis

To learn more about the current tools boards use to recruit new board members, the team conducted a competitive analysis.

We researched board-matching software services that shared the same goals, objectives, and customer base for this OnBoard marketplace and found ways to make it stand out.

Takeaways

Analyzed what competitive services are doing that works in their favor and what doesn’t
A lot of services aim to emphasize on creating diversity, but also fail to do it effectively
Data visualization is an important aspect to display information efficiently without making it too overwhelming
Filtering tools are really helpful, especially for board administrators to narrow down their hunt for new board members by specifying the skills, experience, qualification and other aspects they are looking for.

Competitive Analysis conducted by UX Design team

Interviews

Three people who have been CEOs of companies were interviewed, two have served rolesas Board Administrators, and one has experience being a board member.

Our goals for the interview process were to identify pain points in the current process of selecting member candidates, learn what makes one candidate stand out over another, learn how a Board Administrator evaluates how well-rounded their board is, and understand the journey members undergo when searching for a board.

Board Administrators

Takeaways

The current methods for recruitment include, reaching out to personal of company networks (word of mouth), Linkedin, or using recruitment service.
Potential candidates may be evaluated through honest dialogue, their passion & interest of the board, strengths and expertise, time commitment, previous work experience, if they fit into the company culture or not, and board readiness.
It is important to bring somebody on the board that can provide expertise to what they're doing with the development of the board.
It is important to bring somebody on the board that can provide expertise to what they're doing with the development of the board.
Previous board experience isn't always necessary, however coaching and mentoring is important for new board members.

Board Administrator Quotes

Board Member Quotes

Board Members

Takeaways

If someone is interested in Joining a Board, they take action through reaching out to people in their network (word of mouth), looking into non-profit organizations, and Google Searching.
A lot of services aim to emphasize on creating diversity, but also fail to do it effectively
To get touch with a board, they will try to schedule a casual talk over lunch or meeting.
Keep learning to become familiar with board rules and strategy development.

Sketching & Wireframing

After a few rounds of ideation and sketching, the team started to wireframe mid-fidelity mockups of our system on Figma. This step would help develop the overall journey of the system as well as merge together features from our individual sketches. These wireframes were divided into three main parts of the imagined journey:

1. Creating a Project

One recurring idea throughout brainstorming sessions was organizing a search into a project. This would allow board administrators to keep track of all recruiting projects in which they can save filters and candidates specific to a position.

Sketch

Mockup

2. Searching and Filtering

Much of our research focused on the information boards look for in candidates, therefore it was very important to design how a candidate’s profile is viewed well. Skills and experience were two criteria we found boards look at. Additionally, there are quick actions on these profiles for administrators’ convenience.

Sketch

Mockup

3. Connecting with Candidates

The last step the team ideated on was connecting with candidates before finally adding them to the board. Our sketches have many ideas for this step of the process, but based on some interview insights, it is kept simple with a messaging feature as boards usually keep communication simple and casual.

Sketch

Mockup

Reimagined Journey

The reimagined jounrey simplifies the board member recruitment process. Board Administrators will more easily be able to compare between multiple candidates, recieve a more diverse set of candidates, and communicate with other collaborators all in one centralized location.

Reimagined Experience Journey Map

For me, working on the OnBoard project was an introduction to the endless possibilities of prototyping through design software like Figma. Being able to communicate concepts interactively and having stakeholders use the prototype to conduct scenario testing severely augmented the credibility of the design. This project embodied nearly all stages of the design process – from research to ideation to prototyping – making it a well-rounded UX design project. A special thanks to everyone over at OnBoard and my fellow teammates!

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