The White House TechHire Initiative
Overview
In March of 2015, the White House announced the launch of the TechHire Initiative, a program that focuses on working with communities across the nation to rapidly train Americans for well-paying jobs in the technology industry. Opportunity@Work held a 2-day design sprint to explore ideas and take the first steps towards creating TechHire's website.
Opportunity
We wanted to create a framework for the TechHire website that optimized employers' experiences to recruit and maintain employer participation and engagement.
Outcome
At the end of the Design Sprint, we had participated in brainstorming sessions and a design studio exercise, created a style tile and mockups, conducted initial user testing, and laid the groundwork for the future iterations of the TechHire initiative website.
Project Details
Role: Collaborated with team members in ideation and sketching sessions, and was part of the visual design team. I was tasked with creating a style tile and producing mockups of various pages.
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Sketch, Post-Its, Sharpie Pen & Paper
Topics: Visual Design, Sketching, Mockups
Timeline: 2 Days (Design Sprint)
Team: Andrew Turner, Dave Wright, & Steve Yadzinski
Note: In addition to the visual design team above, I collaborated with an amazing group of employers and designers assembled and hosted by Opportunity@Work.
Day 1
DESIGN SPRINT
Google's 6 Stages of a Design Sprint
We listened to a series of lightning talks to learn more about TechHire's progress so far, its strategic goals, its potential employers, and the tools its desired beneficiaries would require to be successful in the program. Once we had an understanding of our objectives and audiences, we defined our plan for the next day and a half and moved into the ideation phase.
Sketches
We conducted a design studio exercise, where we brainstormed and sketched several pages to visualize features that could meet the needs of TechHire's audiences.
Once we had been through several rounds of sketching, the group participated in a Zen voting process, by which we determined the preferred features that would meet the needs of our main goals and satisfy our MVP.
DISCUSSION
The White House Offices of Science and Technology Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs invited us to join an informal discussion at the White House to learn more about the state of innovation, technology, and education on a national scale.
General Assembly's representatives at the White House. From left to right: Rachel Spikula, Dom Propati, Eliza Doton, and Me
Day 2
Style Tile
I decided to play off of the patriotic red, white, and blue theme to give a nod to TechHire's political roots but with a little bit of a twist. I went with a flat, minimalist theme, and I selected typefaces that were modern, yet simple, so the focus remained on the copy and content.
MOCKUPs
I created high-fidelity mockups of various pages based off of the sketches from the group and from the visual framework created by our visual design team.
Once completed, the mockups were linked together to create a prototype that was used for interviews and testing with employers to validate our design choices.
retrospective and Presentation
At the end of the sprint, we all came together for a retrospective to present our work and reflect on the process and experience of the past two days.
MORE ABOUT THE TECHHIRE INITIATIVE
On March 9, 2015, President Obama spoke at the National League of Cities Conference on the TechHire initiative.