hope akello | creative careers

Creative Careers

Designing a system to help users explore identity and role within a creative community.

Overview

CLIENT

Emily Carr University's Career Development + Work Integrated Learning Office

ROLE

Design Lead and Project Manager; I guided a talented student team through the design process.

PROBLEMS

Career resources were siloed and dispersed across multiple university departments, and the Career Development Office was at limited capacity with only three staff members supporting the entire student body.

SOLUTIONS

A digital hub for career resources with interactive tools to help support the work of the career advisors.

Impact

Designed and launched a centralized digital platform that streamlined access to career and work-integrated learning resources, supporting over 1,800 students, alumni, and prospective applicants annually.
Extended the reach of the Career Development Office by transforming formerly in-person services into a 24/7 accessible digital resource, increasing off-campus and asynchronous access.
Consolidated 30+ fragmented resources into one user-friendly hub, reducing friction in the advising process and empowering users to find support independently.
Created a digital advising toolkit staff now reference during appointments, improving advising efficiency and consistency.
Improved capacity of the Career Development Office and student autonomy by designing an intuitive, self-serve portal that addressed common student challenges and FAQs.
Integrated into curriculum; the platform was adopted by faculty teaching Professional Practice, the university’s mandatory career development course for students, and has been shared with faculty at other institutions.

Final Design

The final design is a comprehensive digital hub for the Career Development Office, offering students and alumni centralized access to career resources, interactive tools, appointment booking, and success stories. Built with Figma, React, GraphQL, and Sanity CMS; the platform delivers a seamless and responsive experience.

Live🡭

Career Resources

The resources section was designed as a centralized, self-serve hub where students could find all university career-related learning materials without needing to book an appointment or search in another area of the school.

The design priorities were the following:

Scannable Layout

Used collapsible sections and visual hierarchy to reduce scroll fatigue and cognitive load.
Consistent Voice

Worked with CD+WIL staff to ensure resource descriptions used encouraging, student-friendly language that didn’t assume prior knowledge, while aligning with the university’s brand guidelines and tone.
Accessibility

Designed with WCAG 2.1 standards in mind; clear contrast, keyboard navigation, descriptive link text, alt text, and mobile responsiveness.
Scalability

Developed a modular structure that allows staff to easily add or update resources without breaking the layout.

Design Priorities In Action

Expandable sections to reduce scroll fatigue

Consistent language, as determined by the Career Development Office

Modular design for easy updates and additions

Designed for diverse users: current students, alumni, and prospective students.

By considering prospective students, our design is relevant and accessible to other post-secondary institutions offering art, media, and design degrees

Career Tools

The tools page features three interactive and dynamic tools designed to help students tackle the most common challenges identified by the Career Development Office. These tools support exploratory, self-guided learning while reducing pressure on staff by proactively answering frequently asked questions.

The design priorities were the following:

Support both staff and students:

Designed as conversation primers staff could refer to during advising sessions, or students could use to prepare before meetings.
Guided decision-making:

The Career Path Finder and Skill Identifier tools are designed to help students navigate ambiguity and consider career options in a structured, approachable way.
Warm and Playful Visuals:

Abstract shapes and simple objects like stepping stones and telescopes to visually echo ideas like growth, exploration, and choice without being prescriptive or overwhelming, or too childish.

Design Priorities In Action

Career Pathfinder

I took the lead on the design of this tool because the students team struggled with the scope of the challenge. In our research (and my experience as an educator) students ask the career advisors ‘what should I do after I graduate?’ The primary challenge for this tool was how to address this question without being redundant (photography major = photographer, illustration major = illustrator, etc.) or vague (’you can do so many things with your degree!’) The secondary challenge involved how we would present the many career options and their interconnectedness.

Process

We began by locating all the career resources on campus. We contacted faculty, researched careers, including pausing films during the credits to write down the different positions. In my role as Design Lead/Co op Supervisor, I conducted a precedent study of career websites and prepared resources for students, including university brand guidelines and concept sketches from meetings with the Career Development Office. Since the bulk of this project took place during the lockdown and heatwave, I lead remote user testing with alumni.

How it Works

Students are guided through three questions: What am I passionate or curious about? What are my skills or interests? What are my workplace values?
They respond by dragging answers into a central circle. Once all three questions are completed, a downloadable PDF is generated with their selections and a worksheet for further reflection.
Alternatively, students can explore industry-specific resources or a participatory infographic that includes local resources and an answer key mapping career titles to each degree major.

Reflection

Since launch, the Creative Careers site has continued to evolve. While the current design reflects updated university branding, the core functionality, layout, and structure remain true to our original goals of making career resources more accessible, student-centered, and actionable. This progression reflects one of my biggest takeaways from the project: good design should adapt, scale, and serve the needs of its community over time.