The Apprentice (Site/App) – User Experience…7 seconds, 7 Minutes, 7 Days

The user will first encounter an attractive CGI flash website. A series of bold messages such as ‘Make your move’, ‘It’s your future, Make it happen’, ‘What’s your calling?’ will hit the screen; intended on beckoning the user to delve deeper and plot their futures. A series of tools for a number of different trades appear and as the user hovers over them a character pop’s up with a tag describing there trade. Upon clicking on a character the user is transported into their workplace and given a brief insight into their job. The number of clicks required will be minimal and much of the maneuvering around the site will be done by simply hovering over objects, allowing for a smooth and pacey experience.

Following an introduction to the characters and their trades the user would be asked for some details about themselves (Drop down menus/ Multiple choice) such as the subjects they take, estimated grades, location, age, strengths, aspirations. The user would be required to input these details after choosing a trade to investigate, after approximately seven seconds. This allows enough time to make an impression on the user and not put anyone off by being asked to participate too early on in the experience.

The strong game play and fun but yet constructive nature of the Apprentice game would ideally keep the user hooked for longer than seven minutes but in today’s culture of choice this is far from guaranteed. Insight of this the game will move at quite a pace, every three tasks equates to a year in that industry and the user is able to move up the career ladder quickly and experience new sides to that sector. Also the game is easy to leave and go back to and is never far away from thought with sticky Facebook notifications/status updates – ‘Paul has just banked a cool one million on the Apprentice stock exchange’. If the user has left their computer they have the option of taking the service with them on their mobile.

The Young Apprentice will be a weekly show and that in it’s self will ensure some loyalty and return hits on The Apprentice careers site. The site will be an important supporting service for anyone approaching a decision about the career. Users will be encouraged to return to update there personal information, including predicted grades and preferences – The service can then in turn update the availability of courses, jobs and apprenticeships that are available to them and there circumstances.

The aim of the site is to provide a fun and informative way of learning about different jobs and this is a service that has a relatively long shelf life with a user. Circumstances and career directions often change in young people – They don’t often land a career job for some years and even after higher education many don’t know where there skills are best applied. This service has the potential to be the site where the user can visit following a change in circumstances and apply transferable skills to other trades and asses there next move, ensuring strong return-ability.

The service will be available on online and mobile platforms opening up the opportunities for use. Ideally the service would be taken on by local school authorities and be used in conjunction with career guidance delivered in class. The service would become particularly useful to school/sixth form/college leavers. The game elements, guidance and information would need to be aethestically pleasing and fun to use in order to ensure popularity out of the classroom – Evening’s and Weekends.

The service will hold quite a lot of personal information on the user and this can easily be translated into regular emails on course and job availability that is relevant to the user.

~ by trinityrich on April 1, 2010.