Alternative School Discovery

Problem

A government agency aims to reconnect youth aged 18-24 with opportunities to complete secondary credentials and begin workforce training. Youth would visit the office, meet with counselors/staff, and get personalized recommendations for getting back into school. However, they recognized that going into the building and asking for help could be intimidating. Their hope was to build an online portal that similarly could personalize recommendations for clients seeking support.

Solution

We built an online directory tool for the client. The website lists all schools and programs in the local area that support disconnected youth and allows site visitors to sort and filter by their specific needs so they can enroll.

We led numerous design sessions with the team and prospective clients. Through discovery meetings we identified that a key to providing value to site visitors was to ensure data were updated and accurate. So in addition to building out the web application we also built out the content management system that school/programs could update themselves. Deliverables of this product included:

1. User Research Report
2. Information Architecture Map
3. Full Stack Web Application

The tool went on to support the 8,000 youth in the city that were neither in school nor working. By taking the school/program recommendations provided by the tool, one study suggests they will go on to earn an additional $10,386 in income by finishing their secondary credential and $36,424 in income by finishing their post-secondary degree.