Hello 😄! My name is Muhammad EL Yafi Putra Kailany, a product design freelancer and currently studying at IDN Boarding School for the last few Years. I have been participating in a UI/UX design competition held by Udayana University. This UI/UX case study is the competition project

Today, recent graduates face significant obstacles in starting their careers and finding stable employment suited to their skills. The main challenges lie in the intense competition in the job market and the lack of transparency in job postings, which makes it difficult for candidates to accurately assess their qualifications.

This situation is exacerbated by companies’ tendency to prioritize experienced candidates and the strong role of networks (connections) over formal qualifications. Consequently, this uncertainty has a profound psychological impact on job seekers, leading to feelings of frustration, anxiety, and even despair about their prospects.

Take a look at this User persona, Octavia Salwa is a 20-year-old Computer Science student at Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang who is highly social, hardworking, and currently interested in the field of data mining. As an active student involved in campus committees, she seeks a flexible and focused mentoring platform that offers face-to-face interaction to help her when she is stuck with college assignments. However, she faces significant challenges, including difficulty finding the right platform, unclear mentoring information, and high costs that do not align with a student’s budget, leading to frustration with existing chat-based consultation methods.

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The Empathy Map for Octavia Salwa illustrates the deep-seated challenges faced by a job-seeking student, categorizing her internal and external experiences into four key quadrants. She says that the job search is incredibly difficult and the recruitment process feels unfair due to a lack of clear information and the heavy reliance on personal connections. This leads her to think about her own self-worth and question how to secure a position without an established network. In her actions, she does everything possible by searching across multiple platforms, applying for jobs, and seeking additional training while discussing her struggles with friends and family. Ultimately, these factors culminate in a profound emotional toll where she feels frustrated, anxious, and helpless, yet remains hopeful for government intervention or a breakthrough in her career journey.

The How Might We (HMW) statements serve as a bridge between the identified problems and potential solutions by reframing job search challenges into actionable opportunities for innovation. These statements address critical pain points such as limited access to relevant job information, the mismatch between graduate skills and industry needs, and the lack of clarity in recruitment requirements. By asking “How might we” provide better security, more accurate information, and effective recommendations, the framework shifts the focus from feeling overwhelmed by fierce competition to designing practical tools that help job seekers navigate the professional world more easily and effectively.

The Solution Idea phase translates the “How Might We” challenges into a concrete strategic roadmap for the Karirku! app by categorizing innovation into five key focus areas. To democratize access, the design proposes an “Unlock by Action” system where users earn premium job insights by contributing valuable content, such as interview reviews or micro-learning. The platform addresses skill gaps by tracking user progress and recommending relevant training based on real-time industry needs, while simultaneously utilizing AI to match candidates’ resumes with specific job requirements for maximum transparency.

The final design for the Karirku! mobile application is a comprehensive solution specifically engineered to bridge the gap between fresh graduates and the competitive job market by directly addressing Octavia Salwa’s frustrations.

The interface features a streamlined “JobMatch” system to ensure role relevance, “Work Simulation” to provide candidates with the practical confidence they lack, and “Hiresense” to bring much-needed transparency to recruitment requirements. Each job listing provides a clear “Overall Summary” and “Improvement Suggestions” after simulations, transforming the platform from a simple job board into a personalized career mentor that mitigates the anxiety of the search process.