Better secure future career
In 2024, I collaborated with Tap 3D to design Cece, a college education-supportive tool focused on helping manufacturing students tackle career challenges.
This is our Capstone project at MHCID. We chose this topic because we recognized that college graduates, particularly those in manufacturing disciplines, face significant challenges in the job market.
All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tap.
The gap in manufacturing
-Talent Shortages VS Unemployment
While college graduates face significant unemployment, the industry is experiencing a shortage of skilled technicians.
However, recent years have seen a substantial increase in investment in the real economy, leading to a pressing demand for technical talent. (Deloitte Insights）
So, what's wrong here?
Unemployment rate of engineering college graduates in the US February 2023（average 4.1%）
The Manufacturing industry faces a labor gap of about 250,000 technical positions.
The challenge
The timeline for our project is 6 months.
Our goal is to understand the underlying reasons for the disconnection between campus education and the job market. We aim to better support technical program students in overcoming job-hunting challenges upon graduation.
My role
I led the design of Cece and developed the virtual avatar, animation, and prototype from February 2024 to August 2024, alongside two other designers.
Additionally, I collaborated with my team to conduct three rounds of research and perform data analysis.
Kickoff
Understanding the reality
At the outset of the project, we identified students in manufacturing programs as our primary stakeholders.
To understand the real challenges they face, we visited four local college campuses, where we engaged with both students and their career service centers.
Early Insights
Why can't the students find a job?
Interviews: 11 students + 4 advisors
Participants: Technical program students and new graduates
SME: 4 college career advisors
Focus: Career navigation experience, challenges, enablers
Uncertainty in Career Planning
Many students struggle with defining clear career goals because they lack exposure to real work environments or an understanding of job realities during their time in school. This gap limits their ability to make well-informed decisions about their future careers.
Disconnect Between Education and Industry Needs
Many students feel that school courses do not adequately meet the rapidly evolving demands of the job market, as traditional curricula often fail to adapt to new technologies and hardware.
Gaps in Skills and Experience
New graduates often struggle to meet job requirements and face reduced competitiveness due to a lack of specialized skills and practical work experience. This gap makes it harder for them to secure roles that align with industry demands.
Limited Professional Networks
Graduates often rely on personal connections within their social networks for job opportunities, which limits their career options and reduces access to diverse positions.
Discovery
I was quite surprised by this finding. Although I have also gone through the job search process after graduation, I did not realize that the disconnect between education and the job market in manufacturing programs creates such significant challenges for students. This is especially true in today's rapidly evolving hardware and software technology landscape.
" The school didn’t offer much practical experience, especially in large hardware operation scenarios. "
A participant mentioned
Deeper Insights
Why can't them hire new graduates?
After gathering insights from students, we recognized the need for market perspectives.
With Tap's connections, we engaged in six conversations with industry professionals, including senior technicians who act as hiring managers and mentors.
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Stakeholder mapping
Training Costs
Employers prefer skilled technicians due to the high costs of training new hires. Consequently, they are more inclined to recruit candidates with relevant work experience or established technical expertise.
Lacking Skill And Experience
The company demands talent with proficient skill sets and work experience to enhance production, but new graduates typically lack these qualifications, making it difficult for them to stand out among candidates.
Unstable Work Status
new graduates are often unstable in their first job due to career exploration, which can pose challenges for companies. As a result, employers prefer candidates with industry insights and experience.
lacking Soft Skills
Graduates often rely on personal connections within their social networks for job opportunities, which limits their career options and reduces access to diverse positions.
The problem space
There is a noticeable skills gap between market requirements and campus education. Many graduates lack hands-on skills, resulting in significant training costs for employers.
What makes this issue worse is that schools often fail to provide students with real insights into the job. As a result, many new graduates, after going through professional training, find that the job does not align with their interests and choose to leave. This poses a threat to employers’ demand for a precise production process
" I’ve spent a lot of time training new people without experience, but many of them later found out they didn’t like the job and quit partway through. "
An SME mentioned
Our solution
Introducing Cece
A VR college course plugin designed to enhance career development for students in technical programs.
3 core values we provide
VR Career Exploration - to explore the work reality without leaving home.
Goal Setting - set career goal bases on exploration insights.
Market Standard Skill Training - Leveraging TAP's industrial training course pool, Cece provides VR-based skill training to help users achieve their career goals.
Step 1. ONBOARDING
Conversational voice interaction
At the outset, Cece collects key user information—such as major, interests, and career preferences—using voice recognition to assist in creating a personalized profile. This enables Cece to tailor her services to meet the user’s unique needs.
Step 2. Career Exploration
Insights about different jobs
Cece provides users with a VR environment to explore potential careers， so users can gain a more realistic and detailed understanding of the work environment, job responsibilities, and other specifics.
Step 3. Goal Setting
Industrial standard goal-oriented skill training plan
After the user defines a clear career goal based on exploration insights, Cece offers industry-standard skill enhancement courses (From TAP's course pool) to help them meet the qualifications for their target job within a customized timeline.
Step 4. Skill Training
Market-standard and immersive VR training.
By leveraging TAP's market-standard training experience, Cece serves as a virtual coach in the VR training environment, guiding users throughout the entire skill enhancement process.
Step 5. Progress Tracking
Ensure users acquire the necessary skillset within the timeline.
By leveraging TAP's market-standard training experience, Cece serves as a virtual coach in the VR training environment, guiding users throughout the entire skill enhancement process.
How did we do it?
After analyzing our research data, three main questions frequently emerged:
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How can we provide students with advanced insights into their future careers?
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How can we facilitate targeted industrial standard growth for students?
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How can we make their goals feel tangible and achievable, rather than merely theoretical?
User-centered design principles
We extracted user characteristics from the data, and unexpectedly, we found that our users are highly diverse. They have varying motivations, needs, and plans regarding their careers.
"I’m pivoting， After working in the insurance for 20 years, I decided to pursue a better income and support my family. My goal is to work at Boeing."
-Quat from a participant
These diverse needs and varying user characteristics have inspired several key design principles for us
Explore the scenarios users may encounter
This step aims to identify the various options available to users when facing the 3 key questions mentioned. I mapped out these possibilities and evaluated each option to uncover potential solutions.
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career goal uncertainty
Explore the goal
unclear about the job requirements
Offer required skills courses
lack of upskilling path
accessible VR training
A Goal-Driven Approach Clarifies The Problems
After understanding the users' goals across the three stages, the challenges became clearer, and the initial abstract questions became more concrete:
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How can we help them discover their career goals?
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What are the market requirements behind those career goals?
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How to upskill？
Refine the design
Opportunities brought by VR
The market-oriented VR skill training provided by Tap has already enabled thousands of individuals to successfully enter the job market, creating an opportunity for us.
as we are exploring cost-effective ways for users, the high cost of VR equipment seems to conflict with our design principles.
However, our designed experience will serve as a supplementary tool for university courses, owned by the universities themselves and shared among students, thereby alleviating the financial burden on them.
Understanding users through wireframes
Before formally starting to craft the prototype, we aim to clearly outline the experience we want to provide through simple wireframes.
Subsequently, we conducted mock tests with six potential users to gather their thoughts on this design concept
More conversational design
Based on user testing of our low-fi prototype, users preferred having a conversational partner, as this would make interacting with Cece feel more personal.
Additionally, to align with TAP 3D's branding opinion, we designed and created Cece's avatar.
We focused on creating Cece as a companion that is professional, friendly, flexible, and enthusiastic—much like a trusted friend. The development of Cece's appearance involved the following structured steps
Avatar design
Take Away
