Traumjob Campus

Digital learning platform in career orientation for pupils

The Aim

This work attempts to create a digital learning platform that enables students at the secondary level to explore ideas about their personalities and their future career. The aim is to offer pupils support in their career and study orientation, which integrates various components and measures of this complex process and prepares young people in accordance to their generation specific needs.  

Approach

Based on pedagogical recommendations for learning processes, the career orientation experiences of current pupils so far as well as digital feature testing in Figma were the main methodologies in order to create a digital platform that gives pupils a safe space to explore their dreams and serves as an additional channel for the coaching work of Mein Mutiger Weg GbR.

Outcome

The result includes both the content and the visual redesign of the Traumjob Campus platform. In addition, the development of four different features took place. The technical implementation in WordPress was done in cooperation with a freelance developer. To unify the newly created corporate design, this project also included the redesign of MMW's analog materials for live coaching sessions.

Final interface for Traumjob Campus, designed by Linda Klotzbach
 

Researching

MOTIVATION Based on my own school experience, in which there was a lack of targeted career orientation, I decided to tackle this problem as part of my bachelor's thesis in communication design. I proactively searched for collaborating partners and joined Mein Mutiger Weg GbR, a start-up focusing on pupils' career orientation.

Team of MMW, 2021

RESEARCH QUESTIONS Starting my research, I mainly asked myself these two questions to keep the focus on the two main areas of career orientation and digital learning.
 

How can content for career and study orientation be designed digitally, so that students can easily access comprehensive resources?

Research Question I

What criteria must digital learning platforms fulfill to provide the best possible support for the learning processes of students between the ages of 16-19?

Research Question II

SECONDARY RESEARCH My research covered the status quo of career orientation currently in German schools as well as methodologies and changes in the growing digitalization of teaching. Of particular interest was investigating the success factors for career orientation as well as success factors in digital teaching.

INTERVIEWING In order to hear from actual pupils about their experiences of future planning while in secondary school, I conducted two rounds of in-depth interviews. During the first round, I explored their wishes and ideas for a more valuable future orientation integrated into regular school life. In the second round, I focused on their knowledge of digital learning tools and their learning success in digital environments.   
 

• 17 in-depth interviews
• pupils between 15 - 19 years

Interviews with pupils, May 2020

Interview Quotes

Checklist of success factors 

DEFINING DEVELOPMENT CRITERIA  With the research findings identified through secondary research and interviews, I created a Checklist of success factors for career orientation digital learning platforms. With this checklist acting as a referencable basis, I entered the design phase of the learning platform. 
 

Traumjob Campus · From Sketches to Wireframes

FROM SKETCHES TO WIREFRAMES With the knowledge from the research phase in mind, I started redesigning the current ”Traumjob Campus” of 2020. The first step was to clearly define the visual elements of the brand, analyze the current interaction possibilities on the website and develop suitable wording for pupils. I started with hand sketches, then progressed to digital wireframes, and finally made digital designs in Figma.
 

PROTOTYPING IN FIGMA In addition to the visual redesign, the focus was on prototyping new features. For example, new overviews of each lesson provide a description of the learning content as well as the option to download related learning materials for editing.
 

DESIGNING ELEMENTS New modifications also include module tiles that add additional detail by highlighting learning durations and colored gradients as progress indicators.
 

NEW FEATURE DEVELOPMENT A new feature of the Traumjob Campus was bringing students together with industry workers to share their experiences. For this, I created a mentor overview page with filter options to find the perfect match. 
 

Finalising

FINAL DIGITAL PROTOTYPE From all drafts, a totally new Traumjob Campus was created, which was accessible for entire grade levels in several german schools and evaluated in interviews with individual students. Feedback interviews were also conducted with teachers. This led to countless iteration loops to continuously improve the product and increase its quality.
 

Prototype Traumjob Campus, designed by Linda Klotzbach
 

WRITTEN THESIS This entire process, including the research phase and practical implementation, is summarized in this written paper.  
 

Further Developing

NEXT LEVEL The next iteration of the Traumjob Campus didn't just include a new visual appearance for pupils, but also introduces a backend version for teachers organizing the modules for their students. On top of that, collaborating partners like job centers in Germany were linked and referenced on the platform to connect pupils with different players in career orientation.
 

HACKATHON By participating in a hackathon “Future of Education“ organised by N3XTCODER, I was able to work with the team of MMW to completely rethink the Traumjob Campus from scratch visually and functionally. In a 48-hour design sprint, I was able to guide the MMW product team and external participants through an online workshop to develop new user flows and features.
 

SUCCESS The results of the several development stages of the Traumjob Campus were later partly responsible for the success of the second place for funding “Digital engagiert“ – an initiative by Amazon, AWS and Stifterverband. 
 

Date 2020 – 2021 
Client Mein Mutiger Weg GbR

Team —
Role UX/Ui Design

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