Credify

Developing ways to support new immigrants facing employment challenges when moving to a new country and helping them succeed though academic credential verification.

Team

Sarah Young
Colin Schotsman
Megan Turnbull
Amelia Tziougras

Role

UX/UI Design
Research
Visual Design
‍

Created For

Collaborative Workshop Project with RTI Innovations

Created In

4 weeks

Overview

Finding employment can be an extremely difficult process when immigrating from a different country, especially when your educational credentials are not recognized in your new home.
The goal of our project was to identify an underserved problem space and identify a potential solution for a problem within that space. Our solution targets the need to support immigrants searching for employment within Canada, and guides immigrants to enter the job market in their new homes with the confidence that they have the experience and skills needed to succeed.

Problem

Bridging the Employment Gap 🏗️

Canada has one of the highest immigration rates of any country in the world with immigrants making up roughly 20% of the population. Many people are looking to come to Canada to find employment. These people are educated and are usually looking to move for work and a better life for themselves or their families. However, they often don’t know where the credentials they have will be considered valid, or how to get equivalents in their chosen host country. Because of this, many often end up working low paying jobs, working jobs that they are overqualified for, or spending years redoing their education.

credify home page and credential recognition page mockups

Solution

The application we created allows immigrants to verify their academic credentials and presents them with opportunities to find work in the field that they are qualified for. Our solution provides a way to scan your credentials and ensure that your credentials are valid within your destination country prior to starting the immigration process. It also provides them with much needed information on the FCR (Foreign Credential Recognition) process, ultimately instilling users with the confidence they need to start their new life.

Design Process

Research

Understanding Barriers to Immigration

As a team we each focused on different areas of research and then combined our findings to creative a more comprehensive understanding of our target audience and the struggles that they face. We started by asking some questions to guide our research and then completed a research matrix to find sources which validated our choice to focus on the problem space.

Asking Questions

What barriers prevent immigrants from finding employment?
What supports already exist for immigrants in Canada?
How big is the market opportunity? Is there significant opportunity for a marketable solution in this space?

Addressing the Problem

We spent some time reading firsthand accounts from first generation immigrants on their experiences. We also found data and statistics that strongly corroborated the challenges confronting this demographic. This allowed us to have a better understanding of our user group and the challenges they face and allowed us to better define their needs. After doing research we determined the following hypotheses:

Hypotheses

Our target customers would face difficulty understanding and navigating the FCR.
Our target customers would experience the Canadian government not accurately preparing immigrants with employment or credential information.
Our target customers would have issues finding employment when arriving in a new country.
Our target customers would be looking for jobs that they previously have education in.

What’s Out There?

When looking at what support there is for immigrants today, we found that currently there is a lack of efficient mobile self-service solutions for immigrants to assess the recognition of their credentials. Platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed fail to account for immigrant-specific needs and provide tools for credential recognition within the job application process. Others such as Find Hello and the Canadian government do not offer adequate support for those with diverse needs.

Doesn’t take into account immigrant-specific needs
Lack of tools that help users understand validity of their credentials

Focuses on roles limited to immigration such as translators or immigration services
Lack of tools that help users understand validity of their credentials

Doesn’t take into account immigrant-specific needs
Lack of tools that help users understand validity of their credentials

How might we improve the ability for immigrants to find work in their destination country?

Designing the Solution

Conceptualizing a Verification Solution

Once we had brainstormed some ideas, we decided to focus on creating an application that focused on providing immigrants with the ability to verify whether their educational credential would be valid in their destination country. We discussed some necessary features that the solution would need to have and what these features might look like. Then we created some quick concept sketches to visualize what we had discussed. These sketches became the basis for our prototype.

Prototyping the Process

From our concept sketches we moved to Adobe XD to create simple wireframes of what the credential verification process would look like. These preliminary wireframes served as a foundation for collaborative discussions, allowing us to refine the design before progressing to more detailed and higher-fidelity prototypes.

Wireframes of credential recognition process

Creating a Visual Identity

We used a mood board to define the typography, colours, and components that we would be using to design the application. Because of this we were able to make a more visually cohesive solution which demonstrates a visual narrative throughout the user flow. This tool also helped us to be able to develop a cohesive prototype despite working on separate parts. We decided on a more minimalist, conservative visual style based on the nature and purpose of the application.

The Solution

Credify

Credify allows the user to gain more confidence that they will be able to find work when immigrating to a different country by addressing the need for understanding, efficiency, and guidance through academic credential verification.

Understanding

Helping the user understand when their credentials aren’t valid for employment.

Efficiency

An easy to use system that can help streamline their immigration process.

Guidance

A guide to help immigrants prepare for work and feel more secure prior to starting the immigration process.

Mockup of the credential recognition screen