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UX UI design project
Background
Despite an increase of women entering the workforce and pursuing higher education globally, a gender pay gap remains among women and men. Research from Payscale indicates that in 2020, women make only $0.81 for every dollar a man makes.(1) In a lifetime, the average amount of money earned by women throughout their career is $900,000 (usd) less than that of men.

My role: UX/UI Designer | Visual Designer| UX Writer
Challenge
According to “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap.” written by the American Association of University Women, after accounting for different occupational choices and hours worked, there was an unexplained pay gap of 7% for women one year out of college, and that grew to 12%.(2)

 Yet, women negotiated less than their male counterparts. 68% of women accepted the salary they were offered and did not negotiate, a 16 % difference when compared to men (52%) with reference to the Glassdoor survey.(3)







Why don't women ask?
Research
I) Secondary Research
Thorough research Do Women Ask? conducted by faculty at the Cass Business School, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Warwick, collected data from over 4,600 Australian workers in 2016. The researchers were expected to find out the reasons women reluctant to negotiate. Instead, the analysis showed that men’s and women’s propensity to negotiate is roughly the same. The point is, they don’t get what they asked for. 

Women who asked obtained a raise 15% of the time, while men obtained a pay increase 20% of the time. (4)
McKinsey partners with LeanIn.org on research Women in the Workplace 2020, surveyed 64,000 North American workers to find that women actually negotiate for pay raises at a slightly higher rate of 31 % to men’s 29 %.(5) The same thing is they don’t receive the pay raise as often as the men do.
Survey by Glassdoor stated that men were more than 3 times more successful than women in negotiating greater pay(3). Among U.S. employees, 15 % of men reported their salary negotiations for their current or most recent job resulted in more money compared to just 4 % of women.
II) Interview
I have also conducted interviews with 6 female employees in APAC aged 23-40 on their salary experience. Out of 4/6, all under 30 years old, have never fought for a better salary in their career. Main seasons being not knowing how to ask and has no idea of the actual market rate. When asked about the success stories in % of salary increase, 3 interviewees received <~5% when they asked for 7-10%. One interviewee received a namely promotion instead of a raise in salary.
When asked about the reason for low or no rate raise after evaluation, all 6 interviewees told me either the boss or the HR said: “The economy is bad (despite its raising profit)”. Surprisingly, two interviewees have a similar experience: they outperformed by bringing extra profit stream to the company and raised the issue to the senior managers, managers promised to help but had no follow up ever since.
I have no idea how much a co-worker makes (whether it’s male or female), there isn’t any info shared among the company to compare.
Beatrice, Fresh graduate, 23 

I was already guilty of taking 9-month maternity leave. I wouldn’t ask for more when I’m returning to the workplace. 

Annie, Mother of 2, Manager, 40
I don’t know how to communicate from bottom to up to the directors, they don’t really care about the small roles in the team.
Patricia, Marketing Manager, 27

They ask, they just don't get it.
Insights
Women don’t ask is actually an internalized thought shaped from the system on women being less aggressive and quiet. 

Nowadays, women actually ask. They do not get it because
1) Lack of understanding of their worthiness 


Women generally do not have transparency over the pay of the company or the industry, there are several websites online like glassdoor and paylab that let the user search for the salary of a particular job, yet it doesn’t specify the gender difference. They don’t actually know what they are worth. The information is scattered everywhere, making it difficult to consume, digest and act accordingly.
2) Lack of support from the company and society
The actual problems behind the gender pay gap are institutional. It falls on the workplaces and the society we live in. Women alone cannot overcome the pay gap, but it’s important to keep asking. The more women ask, the higher chance they are heard, the more opportunity the company is willing to make a change.
Persona
Two persona are created to reflect the typical situations women faced in different life stage and career according to my target interviewees.
II) Interview
Mandy just graduated from university with a degree in filmmaking. She aspires to be a film director and now she is working on various projects referred by friends. She is paid a student rate on most projects given her green experience in the field. Mandy is grateful for the opportunities but wonders if she deserves more.
About
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Be able to land a creation job in the film industry
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Be able to get a proper salary instead of doing free work
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Gain useful connections within the community
Goals
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Not able to find proper paid gig under the bad economy
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Pay are usually non-transparent and decided by the employers on a case by case basis
Frustrations
II) Interview
After working in the event field for 10 years, Emma was just fired recently due to Covid 19. It is formidable for her to find a new job, let alone negotiating for a better salary.
About
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Be able to land a stable job to pay off her rent
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Secure a clear career path and be promoted to director eventually
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Get useful work connections within the community
Goals
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Has to cut expenses in social gatherings and adapt to a change of lifestyle
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Being stressed out of unemployment at this life stage
Frustrations
How might we assist more women to ask for a better pay in smarter and effective ways?
Design question
Affinity diagram
Solution
Women should never stop asking. They should ask smarter, better, with numbers and data backing the request. They should let their voice be heard and hopefully to narrow down the pay gap step by step.
A job searching + resource hub that provides pay transparency and resources for women to gain back the negotiation power.
#1
Provide resources and education on how to ask for better pay
#2
Capture all the online information on salary specified by gender roles
#3
Connect with experts and mentors to train up negotiation skills
#4
Connect with women of similar experiences with a support group
User flow
I have created 4 user flows to demonstrate the key functions of the app.
Wireframes
Onboarding
Style guide
Nunito
Regular and bold
Aa
Colours
Logo
A quick sneak peak to the app!
Onboarding
Onboarding
Minimum design layout for easy browsing
Today's motivation featuring a different quote everyday to boost social media engagement and sharing
Five main category for easy navigation
Home page
Job Application
One tap to view company, job details and reviews in one page
2 steps quick application with one question tailed made by company
Statistics on Gender Pay Gap
Categorised by job type, provide detailed data on salary sorted by experience and gender
Resources hub
4 resources grouped under Read, Watch, Listen and Write for easy differentiation
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Read money negotiation stories from experienced females (audio available)
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Watch to learn negotiation skills from money coach
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Listen to podcast interviewing females in different work situations
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Write your own career goal journal
Community
Schedule a consultation session coach directly on the app by selecting the time and date
Google Link will be provided for the chat upon booking
Directly reserve a seat at the community event exclusive for app members only
Learnings & Takeaway
In the initial stage of the project, I made a huge mistake of being distracted with facts, data and numbers while creating the design solution. My initial question was “why is there a pay gap” and that was way too broad which cannot be solved or helped by a single app. Thus I dug deep into my question and looked for reasons for the pay gap, one of the popular statements listed are “women negotiated less than men”. And there it is, I found the angle to cut into the issue --- “Why don’t women ask?”
It is very interesting to work on the project, as I myself and my friends around are all facing this similar situation in life. We raised many questions during the discussions, along with a lot of frustrating stories and self-doubt. Although everyone has a different career, the struggles are generational and collective. I realised a lot of us are lost in our career path and in need of a support group.
However I have to bear in mind that I am not the user here, I should not see my needs as all the women job seekers’ needs. One struggle I had was to always put my need first and assume others would like them. Not wanting to limit the design aspect, I brought the first stage design to my friends and asked for their opinions. From a young female user respective, they provided constructive feedback that helped me finalised the features and design.
LevelUp is the first-ever project I created from scratch without any standard course guidance. I’m truly excited about the idea and hopefully one day it can really go live and benefit the community.
Thank you for reading :)
Credits: (1) Payscale, 2020, https://www.payscale.com/data/gender-pay-gap#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20women%20make%20only,every%20%241%20a%20man%20makes.
(2) “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap.” American Association of University Women, 2016, http://www.aauw.org/aauw_check/pdf_download/show_pdf.php?file=The-Simple-Truth
(3) Glassdoor, 2016, https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/3-5-u-s-employees-negotiate-salary/
(4) Research: Women Ask for Raises as Often as Men, but Are Less Likely to Get Them, Harvard Business Review, 2018, https://hbr.org/2018/06/research-women-ask-for-raises-as-often-as-men-but-are-less-likely-to-get-them
(5) Women in the workplace, 2020, https://womenintheworkplace.com/
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