Making Space

Creating a design that actively supports and guides the user, ensuring the experience feels intuitive, seamless, and empowering.

Year
2024-Present

Client

Making Space

Services
Product design, Market and User Research, Prototyping and Testing, Collaboration and Continuous Learning

A laptop on a wooden desk displaying a job posting for a Group Director of Product Management in E-commerce, next to a metallic mug, a book, a notepad, and a phone, with string lights and greenery in the background.
A person holding a smartphone with a webpage for job opportunities open, showing a search bar, posted date, and a job listing for a Walmart Group Director, with a camera and some papers in the background.
Website homepage for Making Space, an organization connecting neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled professionals with career opportunities and resources.

  • Making Space is a talent acquisition platform, creating new pathways to employment and career advancement for Disabled professionals. They were looking for a contract-to-hire product designer that was conscious of the imbalance within the employment sector for individuals with disabilities.

  • I was offered the position as the exclusive Product Designer for Making Space, a Talent acquisition platform creating new pathways to employment and career advancement for Disabled professionals. I needed to keep in mind the high level need to be AAA WCAG accessible with my designs and research, keep in mind both the partner (employer) users and talent (employee) users, and distinguishing the brand of Making Space as a stand-alone product.

    • Develop innovative product designs that are visually appealing and user-friendly to ensure a seamless user experience.

    • Design products that align with user needs and preferences, ensuring consumer satisfaction and product relevance.

    • Integrate emerging trends and technological advancements into the design process to enhance product functionality and efficiency.

    • Customize product aesthetics to align with the style and expectations of specific target audiences.

    • Continuously research and apply global design innovations and ensure compliance with accessibility standards such as AAA WCAG.

First Steps

Research to establish scope of each feature that was presented to me every quarter.

Flowchart showing steps for an online course registration and application process, with color-coded sections for starting, logging in, selecting courses, viewing content, taking quizzes, and submitting applications.

Story mapping a new sign-up flow

Screenshot of a user story template with two example stories about seeking employment and exploring career options.
A digital bio and traits profile of Izaak featuring his photo, personal details, and preference sliders for traits like introversion, creativity, activity, and risk.

User Stories

1 of the personas developed when expanding the Making Space AI chatbot.

Flexibility

Given new and ever-changing projects to focus on for the ever-evolving start-up dynamics and needs.

Screenshot of a quiz interface with a 'Begin Quiz' button, and information about a course on simple game design and an episode on video game design.

Tasked to redesign the quiz-taking element and incorporate a new AI assistant to make the chat more personable and sympathetic.

Online course titled 'Prompting Power: AI Skills to Advance Your Career' with a dark purple background, orange header, and white bold text, promoting learning techniques for effective prompt engineering, AI confidence, and emerging technology.

Restructured course details page to assist in course tracking and increase ease of user flow.

Website page titled "Let's Get Started" with a progress indicator, options for exploring services such as "Actively Hiring," "Seeking Internal Training," and "Both," and a purple "Continue" button.

Designed a new user sign up flow for our partner users. Originally, Making Space would be sent an email of an interested party, then they would set up a website tour, then establish the contract and details.

Consistency

With taking Making Space into its next stage of evolution, the team and I wanted to make sure we had a consistent layout and visual language to the pages in between the professionals, employers and expert marketplace.

Online course platform with a section titled 'Courses'. Features a search bar, sorting options, filters for purchased courses, free courses, and professional paths. Displays course cards with titles, episode counts, company names, and category tags, including 'Communication', 'Engineering', 'Design', 'Data', with some courses marked as 'Most Enrolled' and 'Enrolled'.
Screenshot of an online course webpage for creating space opportunities, featuring course categories such as coming soon, completed, linked jobs, and enrolled courses, with filters and sorting options.
Webpage screenshot of Making Space platform showing job opportunities with a search bar, filter options on employment type and location, and six job listings for roles such as Associate Merchant, Digital Marketing Strategist, Critical Environment Technician, Chief Operating Officer, and others, posted on January 1, 2025.