Super Purposes is a mission-driven company that provides education and tools to help job seekers—particularly those from underserved communities—land their dream jobs. As part of the UX research team, our goal was to improve the user experience of the company’s career platform. We conducted usability tests in the form of interviews and surveys, and performed a competitive analysis to better understand how similar platforms approached user engagement and job-seeking support.
During my time at Super Purposes, I reorganized the team’s Google Drive to improve file access and collaboration, led a competitor analysis project to identify key UX opportunities, and collaborated with the team on usability research to uncover pain points and recommended design improvements. My contributions helped streamline team workflows and provided actionable insights that informed platform enhancements.
One of the first challenges I noticed was the disorganized state of the team’s shared files. It frequently disrupted our workflow—meetings were often paused to locate documents, and team members regularly asked where to find key materials. These interruptions created frustration and slowed down our progress. I took initiative to address the issue and proposed a reorganization of the file system to streamline collaboration.
To begin, I audited the existing files to identify patterns and redundancies. I then facilitated a card sorting exercise with the team to better understand how everyone naturally grouped and accessed information. Using those insights, I created a new site map and presented it to the team, incorporating their feedback to finalize the structure.
After the reorganization, confusion around file access was eliminated. This seemingly small improvement had a significant impact, fostering stronger team cohesion and allowing us to focus more fully on our work without logistical distractions. The new system was also scalable, which proved valuable as the team continued to grow and evolve.
When I joined the team, the primary focus was on redesigning the company website. To understand the context, I asked questions about the company's background, the product, and the existing site. In doing so, I discovered that no market research had been conducted, and the team lacked insight into how competitors were positioning themselves. Recognizing this gap, I proposed conducting a competitive analysis to inform the redesign strategy. Due to time and budget constraints, my manager requested that I focus on a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis rather than a full UX evaluation.
I began the project independently by compiling a list of competitors and analyzing their positioning, messaging, and key features. A few weeks in, another team member joined the effort, and together we evaluated 22 companies. We focused closely on 6 direct competitors and gathered insights that would be most relevant to our business goals and user needs.
We presented our findings to stakeholders across departments, providing a clear picture of where Super Purposes stood in the market. The research directly influenced design and strategy decisions for the website redesign and helped leadership prioritize where to allocate resources for the greatest impact.
As part of the website redesign initiative, we conducted usability testing to better understand how users interacted with the current platform and where improvements were needed. Our mixed-methods approach combined surveys for broad feedback and one-on-one interviews for deeper, qualitative insights.
We distributed a survey to internal team members and external users, focusing on topics such as navigation ease, clarity of information, and perceived value of the site’s content. The responses highlighted recurring pain points, including unclear page hierarchy, inconsistent messaging, and confusion around next steps for users.
Building on those findings, we conducted one-on-one interviews with job seekers to explore their experiences in more detail. These conversations revealed not only usability issues, but also emotional touchpoints—like frustration when accessing career resources or uncertainty about where to begin. We learned that users often felt overwhelmed by the amount of information presented and wanted clearer guidance on how to move forward.
Together, the surveys and interviews helped us prioritize design changes based on actual user needs. The insights gathered directly informed updates to the homepage layout, simplified navigation, and more intuitive content flow—all geared toward reducing cognitive load and improving overall engagement.
Over the course of several months, our research efforts provided a foundational understanding of both the competitive landscape and real user needs. Through surveys and interviews, we identified the most pressing pain points in the existing website experience. These findings, along with the competitive SWOT analysis, were presented to multiple teams to guide redesign decisions. Our usability testing helped prioritize user flow improvements, more consistent messaging, and simplified content structure.
This experience reinforced the value of starting with the user—no matter how confident a team feels about its direction, real user feedback often reveals blind spots and opportunities. I also learned how to manage and synthesize both qualitative and quantitative feedback in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
Leading parts of this research gave me hands-on experience in articulating insights to stakeholders and advocating for user-centered change. I also learned the importance of respectfully challenging business decisions when user research supports a different direction. It taught me how to communicate strategically and float ideas upward in a way that builds trust and promotes shared understanding.
If I were to continue with this position, I would conduct follow-up usability testing with the redesigned site to validate the changes made. Testing the impact of our decisions would ensure the redesign is meeting users’ evolving needs.
I would also expand our research to include a more diverse pool of participants—particularly users from underserved communities that Super Purposes aims to support—to ensure their voices are fully represented in future iterations.
Additionally, developing user personas and journey maps would be valuable steps to guide both design and content strategy, offering a clearer picture of how different users engage with the platform over time.
