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Redesigning the PeopleGrove opportunity search experience

Role
UX Designer
Solo
Context
WGU BSUXD capstone
Partnered with PeopleGrove
Deliverables
Persona, empathy map, journey map
Wireframes to final screens

Overview

PeopleGrove’s Experiential Learning platform is how WGU students find internships, scholarships, and other career opportunities in their field. The goal of this redesign was to rebuild its mobile search and discovery experience around what students actually do when they’re looking for an opportunity, not around what the platform assumed they’d need.

4student interviews
2usability testers
5graded screens
2.5–5/5usability confidence range

The current experience

Before redesigning anything, here’s what the Experiential Learning platform looks like today — a desktop web tool, with no dedicated mobile experience of its own.

The current Experiential Learning Dashboard: a welcome banner, a keyword search bar, capstone sign-up links, then a 'Recommendations for you in Accounting' row of job cards.
Recommendations lead with a subject line, then two job cards — everything else is below the fold.
The current Search screen with a sidebar of filters (Paid, Categories, Tags, Locations) beside a list of 14,791 results.
14,791 unfiltered results, with Paid/Categories/Tags/Locations each its own separate sidebar filter.
The current My Opportunities screen with Favorited, Applied, and Participated tabs down the left side.
“My Opportunities” — favorited, applied, and participated live as tabs, not a page of their own.
The current Interests screen with a Subscribed Interests sidebar next to a searchable grid of 606 interests.
606 interests to search through, with no indication of what job types any one of them actually surfaces.

So we went and listened to the people actually using it.

Research synthesis

Quickly find opportunities relevant to her field of study
Understand at a glance what's saved, applied to, or completed
Filter results down to what actually matters (location, category, work arrangement)
“The layout is too minimalist — not enough filter options.”
Fiona's persona interviews — “Says” quadrant of the empathy map

Meet Fiona

Built from interviews with 4 WGU students about their goals, expectations, and frustrations using the platform.

Fiona Hill

The Time-Pressed Applicant

  • 21
  • College Student
  • Pittsburgh, PA

Bio

Current college student actively looking for internships or entry-level opportunities in her field. Familiar with similar platforms (LinkedIn, Indeed, Handshake, Glassdoor), but this is her first time on this one. She’s used tools like it before, so she’s not intimidated. She gets the concept immediately, but how confident she feels using it well depends on how clear the layout and filters are.

Personality

AnalyticalCreative
Leans Analytical
BusyTime-rich
Leans Busy
MessyOrganized
Leans Organized
PassiveActive
Leans Active
SafeRisky
Leans Safe

Fiona

“It looks like a platform for businesses to post jobs and people to search for them.”
“The layout is too minimalist — not enough filter options.”
“It's pretty straightforward and easy to follow.”
“It's a website where you find opportunities in your field.”

User journey map

Fiona’s journey across four stages — tap one to see her tasks, feelings, and where the experience still falls short.

Tasks
  • Scans the empty dashboard
  • Types an interest keyword
  • Confirms it was added
Feelings

Starts neutral and mildly unsure, becomes confident once the interest is confirmed added.

Area to improve

Wasn't sure which job types the interest she picked would actually surface.

Before locking anything in, I put it in front of real users.

Usability testing insights

Two peers walked through wireframes of the Dashboard, Search, Saved, and Interests screens, thinking out loud as they went. Confidence scores landed between 2.5 and 5 out of 5. The dip wasn’t about understanding what the platform does. It came down to how clear the filters and layout felt. A handful of issues kept coming up, and those are what shaped the next round of wireframes — the ones that carried through to the final screens ahead.

Job tags were hidden behind a tap, so cards got info added directly.
Browsing and applying shared one tap target, so cards got two separate buttons.
Filters were scattered with no clear starting point, so they got moved behind one “+.”
Too many bordered boxes made pages feel busy, so extra boxes got removed.
Interests didn't seem to show what job types they'd pull in, so the list now spells it out.

A mobile experience built for discovery, clarity, and confidence.

What I built

PeopleGrove's Home screen with the notifications dropdown open and a 'Picked for you' UX Research Intern card popped out for a closer look.

A closer look at the final screens.

PeopleGrove's mobile Home screen, leading with a bordered Picked for you recommendation card.

Home

A bordered “Picked for you” card leads the screen, with quick tabs below.

PeopleGrove's mobile Interests screen, a search result stating the exact job types it maps to.

Interests

A searchable list, where each result states which job types it maps to.

PeopleGrove's mobile Saved screen, with Saved, Applied, and Completed shown as three clear counts.

Saved

Saved, Applied, and Completed, shown as three clear counts.

PeopleGrove's mobile filter sheet, with Category, Location, and Arrangement all set.

Filters

Category, location, and arrangement, all set in one sheet.

Every decision tied back to something a real student told me.

What worked

Letting usability testing drive the redesign, not just the visual polish. The tap-target split and the filter consolidation were direct responses to what two testers got stuck on.

What I'd do differently

Map every reachable screen before testing starts, not just the primary navigation screens. I scoped my wireframes to four core screens and left out Read More, so it never got the same round of feedback as the rest.

What I'd track

Save-to-apply rate, how often people actually use the filters, and how fast someone finds a job worth applying to.