ApplyReady

AI-powered resume builder for career-changers.

Website

Spring 2025

Tools

About The Project

ApplyReady is an AI-powered resume builder designed to help career-changers create clear, ATS-friendly resumes. Over a 10-week sprint, I led the design process from research to high-fidelity prototyping, developing a style guide, branding, and an intuitive interface. Through user testing and iterative design, ApplyReady reduced resume errors and gave users greater confidence in their job search.

Prototype

Most existing resume builders focus only on resume creation, not job asset optimization..
They also fail to provide relevant, actionable guidance for job seekers.
A potential ATS (Applicant Tracking System) compatibility check to improve results

Problem

Solution

Modular Resume Builder
Job Asset Storage
Real-Time Guidance
AI Assistant (Jobbi)
ATS Compatibility Checker
Clean, Professional Templates

Design Process

Applied the Goal-Directed Design process to focus on users’ core goals, ensuring design decisions were driven by real behaviors and pain points. This approach involved developing personas, mapping their goals, and designing features that directly supported their needs.

Research

Requirements

Refinement

Modeling

Frameworks

Research Phase

We conducted user interviews and competitor audits to better understand the frustrations and needs of job seekers. Key insights revealed that users wanted more guidance, easier customization, and clarity around ATS requirements when building their resumes.

Resume advice is outdated and insistent

Lack of personalization and intelligent guidance

Design and user experience matter

Lack of awareness of ATS systems

Role-specific suggestions and customization,

ATS compatibility with human readability

Competitor Audit

Conducted competitor audits to analyze industry standards, uncover gaps in existing solutions, and identify opportunities to differentiate our design.

Interviews

Through user interviews, we gathered valuable insights that revealed common frustrations with resume building. The feedback helped us identify key pain points, like formatting issues, lack of ATS knowledge, and the need for clearer guidance, allowing us to design a solution that truly meets user needs.

Mixed Feelings Toward AI

Most agree AI can be useful for grammar checks, keyword suggestions, and formatting help.

Lack of Educational Support

Most platforms don’t teach users why certain resume elements are important.

Lack of Knowledge & Confidence

Users are unsure what to include in resumes and how far back to list experience.

Resume & Job Asset Storage

Most users store resumes in Google Drive, desktop folders, or downloads with no clear system.

Formatting Frustrations

Formatting takes too long and often leads to resumes spilling onto extra pages unnecessarily.

The Process is Time-Consuming

It takes 45 minutes to an hour to apply to a single job.

Modeling Phase

During the modeling phase of ApplyReady, we mapped interview subjects to behavior variables and identified patterns across motivations, goals, and pain points. These findings allowed us to define key behavior variables and create a primary persona that represented our target user. This persona guided our design decisions and ensured ApplyReady directly addressed the real needs and behaviors of job seekers.

Behavior Mapping

Persona

Jared Miller

32 years old
Assistant Manager at Walmart
Located in Chicago, Illinois
Bachelor of Arts in English
Writes visual novels in his spare time

Persona Narrative

Jared Miller is an Assistant Manager at Walmart with a degree in English. After struggling to find internships in his field, he took an entry-level role in retail and worked his way up. Though he enjoys writing and wants to pursue a career aligned with his degree, he lacks confidence in his resume-building skills. Jared tailors his resumes manually in Word but finds the formatting frustrating and feels unsure about his job descriptions. He avoids online resume builders due to trust issues and paywalls but actively searches for tips and would appreciate guidance on improving his job applications.

End Goals

Learn more about creating a competitive resume.
Efficiently format his resume using a simple tool.
Update their resume and download it in under 15 minutes.

Life Goal

In a secure job in his desired career field.
Confident in his resume building skills
A newspaper editor.

Requirements Phase

To bring our primary persona to life, we crafted a scenario that shows how Jared interacts with ApplyReady in a real-life setting. This narrative highlights his goals, frustrations, and how our product fits into his workflow.

Scenario Breakdown

Setting

Trigger

Goal

Device

Interruptions

Other Tools Used

Product Used

Key Activities

Emotional Shift

Outcome

Living room couch

Frustrated after a long day at work

Apply to a creative writing job

Personal laptop

Message from boss asking to work extra shifts

LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed

ApplyReady resume builder

Browse jobs → Choose one → Open ApplyReady → Select template → Add experience → Use AI help → Customize → Export resume

From frustrated to motivated and hopeful

Sent off a strong, customized resume

Setting

Element

Description

Framework Phase

color

Color and Typography

Primary Color -01

Blue Green

HEX : #0096C7

RGB : 0 | 150 | 199

CMYK : 100 | 25 | 0 | 22

Primary Color -02

Black

HEX : #000000

RGB : 0 | 0 | 0

CMYK : 0 | 0 | 0 | 100

Primary Color -03

Lapis Lazuli

HEX : #00578F

RGB : 0 | 87 | 143

CMYK : 100 | 39 | 0 | 44

Primary Color -04

Anti-flash White

HEX : #F4F4F5

RGB : 244 | 244 | 245

CMYK : 0 | 0 | 0 | 4

Typography

What can I help with?

How do I improve my resume?

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgH IiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

Meet our AI bot,

Jobbie

Crafting a standout resume can feel

overwhelming, but AI bot jobbie

makes it simple—just like filling in

the blanks. In fact, our AI bot goes

the extra mile and fills them in for

you.

Istok Web

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Geist

Body 1

Body 2

Refinement Phase

During this phase, we focused on developing the high-fidelity prototype and conducted three rounds of usability testing. These tests helped us identify broken links, unnecessary features, and areas where users experienced confusion. Based on this feedback, we refined interactions, removed non-essential elements, and improved overall usability to ensure ApplyReady was clear, functional, and user-friendly.