Background
Finding a skilled and trustworthy professional can be difficult. People often depend on referrals, social media, or multiple websites to find the right person. At the same time, professionals struggle to showcase their work and reach potential clients.
Workss was created to make this process easier by helping users discover trusted professionals and allowing professionals to showcase their skills and connect directly with customers.
Industry
Professional Networking & Services
Timeline
4 Months
Role
Product Designer
Key Focus
Professional discovery, trust-building, portfolio showcase, and direct user-professional connections.
Workss serves two user groups: people looking for skilled professionals and professionals seeking quality opportunities. Through research, we identified several friction points affecting both sides of the marketplace.
For Service Seekers
Finding the Right Professional Was Time-Consuming : Users often relied on personal referrals, social media groups, or multiple service platforms to find professionals. The process was fragmented and required significant effort.
Lack of Trust and Transparency : Most platforms provided limited information about a professional's actual capabilities, making it difficult for users to assess credibility before reaching out.
No Easy Way to Compare Options : Users struggled to compare professionals based on skills, experience, previous work, and reviews, leading to uncertainty during decision-making.
Communication Happened Across Multiple Channels : After discovering a professional, users frequently had to switch to phone calls or messaging apps, creating a disconnected experience.
Difficulty Discovering Specialized Professionals : Finding niche or highly specialized professionals often required extensive searching and multiple referrals.
For Professionals
Limited Visibility to Potential Clients : Many skilled professionals depended heavily on word-of-mouth referrals, making it difficult to consistently attract new opportunities.
No Dedicated Space to Showcase Expertise : Existing platforms often failed to highlight a professional's portfolio, achievements, and completed work in a meaningful way.
Low-Quality or Irrelevant Leads : Professionals frequently received inquiries that did not match their expertise, wasting time and effort.
Building Trust Was Challenging : Without a strong digital presence, professionals found it difficult to demonstrate credibility and establish confidence with potential clients.
Managing Client Conversations Across Platforms : Leads often arrived through different channels, creating fragmented communication and making follow-ups harder to manage.
The goal of Workss was to create a simple and trustworthy platform where users can easily find skilled professionals and connect with them directly. For professionals, the goal was to increase visibility, showcase their work, and generate meaningful opportunities.
Business Goals
Number of professionals discovered through search and categories
Profile views and portfolio engagement
User-to-professional connection rate
Messages initiated between users and professionals
Time taken to find a suitable professional
User satisfaction and trust in the platform experience
As the Product Designer, I was responsible for leading the end-to-end design process of Workss. My responsibilities included:
User Research & Problem Discovery
Competitive Analysis
User Flows & Information Architecture
Wireframing & Prototyping
UI Design & Design System Creation
Usability Testing & Iterations
Collaborating with Stakeholders and Developers
Ensuring a seamless user experience across the platform
How might we help users confidently choose the right professional while giving professionals a fair way to showcase their expertise?
To understand the challenges faced by both users and professionals, I conducted user interviews and reviewed similar service platforms. The goal was to learn how people search for professionals, what information they look for before contacting someone, and the difficulties professionals face in getting new clients.
Key Insights
Users need trust before making contact : People were hesitant to reach out to professionals without seeing proof of their skills and previous work.
Finding the right professional takes too much effort : Users often had to search across multiple platforms, ask for referrals, and compare different options.
Previous work matters more than ratings : Users preferred viewing portfolios and completed projects to understand the quality of work.
Direct communication is important : People wanted a simple way to connect with professionals without unnecessary steps or middlemen.
Professionals struggle to get discovered : Many skilled professionals found it difficult to showcase their work and reach potential customers online.
The research showed that trust, visibility, and easy communication were the biggest needs for both users and professionals. These insights guided the design decisions throughout the project.
We interviewed four people: 2 professionals and 2 users looking for professionals. All interviews were conducted face-to-face.
Finding and Hiring Professionals
Simplifies the process of finding and hiring professionals.
Provides clear navigation and visual aids.
Allows search by profession type, city, and gender.
Provides detailed work/professional cards with essential information.
Profile and Work Management
Comprehensive profile creation for both users and professionals.
Easy profile editing and management of posted works.
Professionals can showcase their services effectively.
Users can post work works with detailed descriptions.
Language and Accessibility
Supports multiple Indian regional languages for ease of use.
Accurate translations and intuitive icons to transcend language barriers.
Includes screen readers, high-contrast modes, and larger text options.
Ensures touch targets are appropriately sized for ease of use.
Client and Professional Interaction
Chat functionality for direct communication between users.
Group creation for better organization and communication.
Allows users to provide feedback after contact.
Encourages continuous improvement based on user input.
Building Trust and Reliability
Important for users to see reliable reviews before hiring.
Crucial for professionals to receive and manage client feedback.
Includes relevant information like skills, experience, and languages known.
Verified tags and ratings to build trust with potential clients.
Finding & Posting Works
Ability to filter by profession type, city, and gender to refine search results.
Include work title, location, posted date, workplace, and required skills.
Options to show interest, call, and share work postings.
Detailed Form - Fields for title, description, professional type, experience level, etc.
Calling Privacy for Finders - Option to specify if they are open to receiving calls.
Ability to track the status of posted works and manage updates.
Name
Age
Profession
Location
:
:
:
:
Ajay Singh
35 Years
Electrician
Bangalore
Bio
Ajay is a skilled electrician with over 10 years of experience in residential and commercial electrical services. He prides himself on delivering high-quality work and has built a solid reputation in his local community. Rajesh relies heavily on online platforms to find new clients and manage his business.
Goals
To find reliable platforms that offer clear and frequent work postings.
To improve communication with clients for better service delivery.
To manage his availability and pricing efficiently.
To overcome language barriers and expand his client base.
Frustrations
Difficulty in locating trustworthy platforms for work opportunities.
Inefficient communication tools leading to misunderstandings with clients.
Lack of integrated tools for managing availability and pricing.
Challenges in dealing with clients due to regional language differences.
Name
Age
Profession
Location
:
:
:
:
Priya Sharma
28 Years
School Teacher
Bangalore
Bio
Priya is a school teacher residing in Bangalore. She often needs to hire professionals for home repairs, maintenance, and other services. Priya values clear, detailed profiles of professionals and prefers apps that offer support in her regional language to simplify the process.
Goals
To find reliable professionals for various home services.
To easily understand and compare professional profiles, including reviews and ratings.
To use an app that supports her regional language for better clarity.
Frustrations
Difficulty in finding detailed professional profiles and clear job descriptions.
Language barriers that complicate understanding of service offerings and communication.
Limited features for comparing costs and scheduling services.
We interviewed four people: 2 professionals and 2 users looking for professionals. All interviews were conducted face-to-face.
The final Workss experience made it easier for users to discover and connect with trusted professionals while helping professionals showcase their skills more effectively.
The onboarding experience was designed to help users get started quickly with minimal effort. Users can select their preferred language, understand the platform through a short introduction, verify their mobile number, choose their user type, and complete their profile setup.
The goal was to create a simple, guided flow that reduces friction, supports multiple languages, and helps users reach the platform's core experience as quickly as possible.