Nikisha Roberts
Instrument x Team Future
Client: Instrument
Timeline: June - August 2021
Team: Interdisciplinary intern cohort of strategists, writers, and designers
Role: Strategist
Tools: Figma, Figma Jam, Google Docs
Project Overview
Across seven weeks, Instrument tasked Team Future (Instrument’s first summer intern cohort) to create a webpage marketing Instrument’s summer internship for the Summer 2022 recruitment cycle. The team was encouraged to deviate from Instrument's existing design system and copywriting voice.
In this case study, I will be highlighting the parts of the project I've impacted the most.
Recognizing Audience & Competitor Analysis
One of the first steps in this project was to research and understand the audience of webpages featuring a company's internship program. As current interns, we created a list of information we previously sought after to learn more about a given internship. We then organized the list by which information is integral for the applicant to know in order to make the informed decision of applying to the internship. For example, whether or not an internship is virtual or in-person is valuable information to some applicants. We then created profiles of companies offering summer internships with similar roles. The companies profiled covered a spectrum of company size and industry fields. This research was used in our strategy brief to the clients.
The strategy brief is a document delivered to the clients lamenting the client’s goal for the project, the team’s initial research insights, proposed strategy for the project, and potential project challenges. My main contribution to the strategic brief was my analysis of pain points within the competitor webpages and how we can address them in this project.
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Webpages were mostly made up of text and only contained technical specifications about the internship
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Some of the webpage CTA leads applicants to random pages with no to low amount of web interactions
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Copy language assumes that only college students are applying to the internships
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Generic copy about the organization and the internship made the internship program seem selective and exclusive
Pain Points
Guiding Questions
1. How can we create a website that features all of the necessary information to make prospective applicants comfortable applying for the Emerging Futures Internship?
2. How can we employ personable language and unique visuals that would encourage prospective applicants to stay on the website?
3. What is personable language to our target audience? How do we make the page inviting to primary targets (college students) and secondary targets (non-college students)? How can we create a safe space in which prospective applicants of different backgrounds and skill levels feel comfortable applying to this internship?
Guiding Questions #1: How to Get Prospective Applicants to Apply
A focal point in developing the webpage’s strategy was incorporating all of the information necessary to allow prospective applicants make an informed decision when applying to the internship program. Under the webpage fold features an overview of what the internship program entails. The page also features the roles applicants can apply to, including a description. To entice prospective applicants, we highlighted the perks of participating in the internship which are intern-only AMAs and Lunch and Learns (series of guest speaking engagements featuring Instrument employees). Also the inclusion of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section gives applicants insight into Instrument's application and interview process. The webpage also highlights quotes from past interns so prospective applicants can read testimonials for the internship.
Overview of Internship Program
Carousel of Past Intern Testimonals
Guiding Questions #2: An Unique Web Experience
To make the webpage stand out from their competitors, we wanted to create a fun and memorable experience for prospective applicants to interact with. Some of our initial ideas for interactive moments on the page included a madlib which asked various fun questions for applicants to answer (type in your favorite color) to downloadable easter eggs of images and messages hidden throughout the webpage. The interaction we chose for the final deliverable was a five question Buzzfeed style emoji quiz. This idea sprouted as the team thought of ways to learn about the applicants’ personality and wanted to incorporate Instrument’s library of custom emojis. Outside of its entertainment value, prospective applicants will learn that Instrument values different personalities and perspectives so it's okay to apply to the internship regardless of the quiz result. As an incentive for taking the quiz, applicants can input the quiz result into their application. The quiz results can be shared on various social media platforms to gather more traction to the internship webpage.
Run-through of the Emoji Quiz
Guiding Questions #3: Personable Copy
The strategy team worked with the writer to develop inviting and engaging content for the page. To make it personable, some of the sentences in the role description directly refer to the applicant by using the word ‘you’. This helps the applicant envision themselves in the roles as they read through the descriptions. The FAQs clarifies and invites college and non college students to apply under the same question. The webpage doesn’t feature minimum or preferred qualifications for any of the roles which encourages applicants of different skills levels to apply to the internship.
Example of Personable Copy
Workshop For North Star Statement
To uncover the north star statement (the ‘why’/guiding purpose of this project), the strategists (team of three) created and facilitated a workshop for the rest of the team and clients to complete. In creating the workshop, I developed the format and few of the questions posed to the participants, and designed the FigJam used in the workshop. In our conceptualization process, some recurring words and themes used by Team Future were ‘inclusive’, ‘technical’, ‘human’, ‘accessible’, and ‘collaborative’. In the first part of the workshop, participants were given two minutes per word to write their initial thoughts and associations. After we cycle through all of the words, we asked the participants to verbally share and elaborate with the group what they wrote for each word. We encouraged them to add FigJam stickers to each other's responses to support or challenge the variety of thoughts and opinions.
Part 1 of the Workshop
Part 1 of the Workshop (Close Up)
After completing the first exercise, we gave participants two minutes per word to write tangible design and strategy ideas that could convey their interpretation of the word. From the workshop, the team was able to gather ideas to corporate into the webpage, some of which were included in the final deliverable. For example, a tangible idea under the word ‘human’ suggested for us to include screenshots of our intern team meetings to show the community in a virtual environment. In the final deliverable, we included a gif of the intern cohort at a team meeting, screenshots of the affinity groups at Instrument, and a screenshot of the intern cohort completing the workshop referred to in this study. We also developed the initial North Star Statement of ‘Through our research, briefing and brainstorm, we have uncovered that Instrument’s unique positioning is in the deeply collaborative process of the work experience, and the high bar for output. Great people, real clients, real work, real money. We see this page as a place that must reflect that in a clear, creative and inclusive way.’ which would later become the ‘The Future is Bright’.
Part 2 of the Workshop (Close Up)
North Star Statement: The Future is Bright
To create a more concise statement and theme for the webpage, Team Future developed ‘The Future is Bright’. We felt like the theme encapsulates the purpose of Instrument’s intern program which is to give young designers, strategists, and writers the opportunity to trail-blaze the future of design through working on client projects and receiving mentorship. This statement shines through the use of the bright prism color gradients employed on the webpage, youthful copywriting language, pictures of the work environment, and a fun quiz interaction.
Emerging Future Webpage
Final Deliverables
Displayed below is the final version of the webpage. This project will be live in Spring 2022.
Walkthrough of the Emerging Future webpage (without interactions)
Takeaways
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It was a great experience working with my peers to create a unique webpage for Instrument’s next recruitment cycle. As our internship progressed, we got to experience Instument’s core values of collaboration and learning from each other and other employees so we tried to capture those moments into the final project deliverable.
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Asking many questions to the clients' help gave us further insights into what they envisioned for the final project while also pushing them to elaborate on their feedback.