A New Platform For Promoting Careers In Skilled Trades

Skilled Trade BC is a platform dedicated to promoting skilled trades in British Columbia. Its primary goal is to connect individuals with training, job opportunities, and resources in the trades sector. The website is designed to inspire young people to consider careers in trades and facilitates the process of signing up for apprenticeship programs. A discovery phase has been completed, along with the development of wireframes and a comprehensive UI redesign.

  • Project Manager

  • UX Designer (me)

  • Artistic Director & UI Designer

  • Content Strategist

  • Developers

TEAM

  • Stakeholder questionnaire

  • User surveys

  • User journey map workshop

  • Wireframes and prototype

  • UI design

METHOD

YEAR

2022

Project Overview

The Client

Skilled Trades BC leads and coordinates British Columbia’s trades training and apprenticeship system. It works with employers, apprentices, industry, labour, training providers, post-secondary institutions, Indigenous communities and government to support apprenticeships, set program standards, issue credentials and promote career opportunities in the trades.

The Needs

The project's goal was to create a brand-new website that would serve as a powerful marketing hub for Skilled Trades BC. Specifically, the organization needed a website that would both encourage young people to think about careers in trades and enable them to sign up for apprenticeship programs, while also serving the needs of other audiences, including current apprentices, trainers and employers and trade qualifiers.

The Plan

  • Conduct stakeholder surveys to identify Skilled Trade BC's audience

  • Prioritize audience groups for targeted research

  • Collect feedback on needs and website issues

  • Focus on key user journeys, identify areas for improvement

  • Review the website’s sitemap and information architecture

  • Translate research findings into wireframes

  • Involve stakeholders in wireframe review and refinement

  • Develop the final user interface based on feedback

The Discovery Phase

  1. Stakeholder Survey

  2. User Survey

  3. User Journey Map Workshop

STAKEHOLDER SURVEY

Methodology

  • Distributed a Survey Monkey questionnaire to 10 Skilled Trade BC stakeholders including mostly open-ended questions.

  • Survey objectives:

    1. Assess impressions of the current website

    2. Collect expectations for the redesigned website

    3. Identify and prioritize website audiences

    4. Gather user feedback (needs and pain points)

    5. Understand requirements for website content and functionalities

    6. Collect any benchmarks or sources of inspiration

Findings

STAKEHOLDER SURVEY

  • The current website primarily caters to current apprentices rather than future ones, hindering the key performance indicator (KPI) goal of increasing apprenticeship sign-ups through the website.

  • User feedback and most customer service inquiries indicate issues with poor site navigation and difficulty accessing information.

  • The website insufficiently emphasizes accessibility and inclusion in trades for Indigenous and underrepresented groups, which are central to their mission.

  • Trades are often perceived as less prestigious in the field of education.

  • The website does not effectively showcase Skilled Trade BC's mission, value proposition, and resources.

  • The new Skilled Trades Certification (STC) in BC enhances the value of ten specific trades, potentially attracting more apprentices.

  • The primary audience includes both prospective and current apprentices, while the secondary audience comprises sponsors, training providers, and trade qualifiers, each with distinct needs.

Reaffirm that skilled trades are great careers

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Hard to find links to commonly used resources

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Design doesn't inspire trust and credibility

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Navigation is not intuitive

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Reaffirm that skilled trades are great careers 〰️ Hard to find links to commonly used resources 〰️ Design doesn't inspire trust and credibility 〰️ Navigation is not intuitive 〰️

Methodology

USER SURVEY

Distributed a Google Forms survey to 35 website users, selected from a list provided by Skilled Trade BC, to target main audience groups:

  1. Prospective apprentices

  2. Current pre-apprentices/apprentices

  3. Partner employers or sponsors affiliated with Skilled Trade BC

  4. Educators or Skilled Trade BC administrators

  5. Current tradespeople who have previously used the website

Each participant began by answering a screening question to identify their relevant audience category. Depending on their response, they were then directed to questions tailored to their specific group. The survey included various types of questions: Binary, Multiple Choice, Rating Scale, Likert Scale, Open-Ended, and Demographic.

Survey Objectives:

  • Understand users' needs and primary objectives when visiting the Skilled Trade BC website

  • Identify any pain points, challenges, or usability issues.

  • Comprehend the steps users take in their journey to accomplish main tasks

  • Determine the most sought-after information/content by users

Deliverables:

Main audiences personas summarizing users goals, pain points, needs and some demographics, as shown below.

persona-apprentice.png
persona-sponsor.png
persona-tradequalif.png

The Discovery Phase