A social-networking platform and job-posting board for the entertainment industry.
My roles: UX Research, UX Design, UI Design
Industree is an NYC based innovative job-posting board and professional networking app designed specifically for individuals within the film/ entertainment industry looking to connect, share, and find work. The overarching aim of this project is to foster a dynamic platform where both established and non-established professionals can connect, build relationships, and further their careers.
We originally conceptualized this app as a means to fill the gap in the entertainment industry. From past experiences in the industry, we have quickly learned it is not very friendly to beginners.
There's a major lack of a community network. Everything is based on
knowing the right person or being in the right place at the right time.
There is no real space dedicated to making friends with other industry professionals. And so, this is what we sought to create.
- No easy way to break in to the entertainment industry
- There's no one place to manage and maintain the contacts people make
- Generational gaps are difficult to bridge
- No simple way to seek jobs/gigs
- Lack of community, every man for himself
- Provide an entry way into the entertainment industry
- Create an interactive visual representation of the network itself
- Connect veterans and newcomers in the same space
- Supply a centralized place for sourcing jobs specific to this industry
- Create an environment ideal for fostering community
User Research
We conducted user research to get to know our users and understand their needs. Our participant pool consisted of ages 24-48, included Production Assistants, Editors, Actors, and Graphic Designers, and had a range of 1 to 11+ years in the Entertainment Industry.
In some of our survey results, it was found that many participants believed it was difficult or very difficult to get started in the entertainment industry. This was an inkling that we had but the numbers really solidified this.
As for forming meaningful connections in their field, participants thought it to be easy, difficult, or neither. The range of reactions tells use that every experience is different. We we want it to be easy across the board to form meaningful connections.
Almost a quarter of participants spent 6 hours or more searching and/or applying to jobs. We want to cut this time down significantly when users use our app.
Key Themes:
- Social media, especially Facebook, is integral in the job hunting/hiring process in the Entertainment Industry
- Need to know someone to break into the industry
- Community has a major role in being able to find work
The App
Along the way we had trouble figuring how best to navigate the app. Deciding to split it into three sections was essentially the result of the challenge of balancing and focusing our concepts. But how were we going to connect and intertwine the different sections?
User flow: In the Community View, the user joins a community group (a collective) and looks through postings within that group.
For the typography we chose Poppins, a clean minimalist Google typeface. This font was selected in order to help make the app’s features stand out. The colors we used are colors found in nature and are a tribute to our Industree name.
Poppins Regular 400
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJj
KkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSs
TtUuVVWwXxYyZz
Poppins Bold 700
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJj
KkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSs
TtUuVVWwXxYyZz
This prototype demos the Collective View of the Industree app. The user joins a Collective, checks their approved and pending collectives, looks through the details of a gig they are interested in, views their favorites section, and reads through their messages.
We designed a pop-up tab for the home screen that divides the app into three Views: Collective, Network, and Jobs*. There is also a messaging feature for users to keep up with their contacts.
Collective: A collection of communities where people can get feedback on their portfolios, seek advice in their careers, find gigs, or just get inspired.
Network: An interactive way to manage contacts in the entertainment industry.
Jobs: A simplified job posting board to take the pain out of the job application process.
The navigation bar was originally meant to be an homage to the Industree brand’s nature theme. As we continued to develop a clean and minimalist interface, we opted for a more modern look for the navigation bar.
Before
After
- Participants couldn't figure out the exact steps of how to navigate to a View from the home screen. Participants suggest making the dedicated icon larger and/or put a label below.
- When attempting to navigate to the approved and pending Collectives page, users first went to the homepage. Participants say the paper airplane icon we used means "send" to them, and not "to send a message". They suggest using a chat bubble icon instead.
- When navigating to the direct messaging feature, users spent a long time searching for it. Participants suggest animating the home screen's tab pop up first to indicate that it should be pulled back down. Or to add text that tells the user to swipe down after making a selection
Our greatest challenge was seeing the Jobs portion of the app to completion. Unfortunately there was not enough time for it during the project’s timeline. We would like to continue building this out in future iterations of the app.
Taking the feedback from the initial user surveys and turning it into a viable app - something that our users would actually want to use - was also quite challenging.
We have a few bugs left to work out. The user testing came back with some confusion on some of the navigation aspects of the app.
We would like to find a way to make the three Views more cohesive.
Eventually, we'd like to test out some of the more difficult aspects, like the interactive Network tree.
