UXPATH
Manage the job search and everything behind it.
UXPath is an all-in-one workspace that helps UX professionals manage job applications, portfolio projects, interview preparation, focus routines, and personal progress within one connected system.
Instead of switching between spreadsheets, notes, calendars, inboxes, portfolio files, and productivity tools, users can understand where they stand and what deserves their attention next.
ROLE
Product Designer
PLATFORM
Web
DURATION
2026 - 3 months
SCOPE
UX Research • UI Design • Design System • Prototyping
THE CONTEXT
A job search involves much more than sending applications.
After applying, UX professionals still need to manage:
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Hiring stages
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Recruiter conversations
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Interview preparation
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Follow-ups and deadlines
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CV and portfolio updates
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Personal design projects
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Focus and motivation
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Progress over time
The information exists, but it is distributed across different tools. Managing the process quickly becomes a project of its own.
THE PROBLEM
The work was connected. The tools were not.
Four recurring challenges shaped the product direction.
Fragmented application context
Job details, recruiter conversations, interview notes, and follow-ups were stored in different places.
Disconnected portfolio work
Applications often required CV updates, new portfolio assets, or additional design projects, but these tasks remained separate from the opportunity they supported.
Invisible progress
Users could record individual actions without understanding the overall state of their search or career development.
Mental overload
Repeated applications, preparation, personal projects, and uncertainty made it difficult to decide what deserved attention next.
WHY THIS PROJECT MATTERED
I experienced the same fragmentation I was trying to solve.
While navigating the UX job market, I noticed that the most difficult part was not only finding opportunities.
It was remembering:
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What had already happened
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Which applications needed attention
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What I needed to prepare
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Which portfolio tasks were still unfinished
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Where I had saved the relevant information
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Whether I was making meaningful progress
This led to one central question:
How might a workspace reduce the mental effort required to manage both a job search and the work that supports it?
GUIDING PRINCIPLE
Make progress visible and the next step clear.
Users should not have to reconstruct their situation across several tools.
The experience should make three things immediately understandable:
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Where each opportunity stands
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What work is currently in progress
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What requires attention next
PRODUCT STRATEGY
A broad problem needed a narrow product center.
Research revealed several connected needs: application tracking, portfolio work, interview preparation, focus, reflection, and progress.
But treating every need as equally important would create another complex system for users to manage.
I therefore separated the experience into two layers:
CORE WORKFLOW
Dashboard + Job Tracker
These became the primary experience because they address the most immediate questions:
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Where does each opportunity stand?
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What requires attention now?
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What should I do next?
SUPPORTING WORKFLOWS
Career Assets · Interview Preparation · Focus · Reflection · Progress
These tools support the wider job-search journey, but they remain secondary so they do not compete with the core application-management workflow.
PRIORITIZATION
Not every useful feature needed to become a primary feature.
The early concept gave application tracking, portfolio work, preparation, wellbeing, and progress similar visual weight.
Although each feature addressed a real need, the product lacked a clear center.
I prioritized the experience using three questions:
Frequency
Which workflows would users return to most often?
Urgency
Which information helps users decide what needs attention now?
Dependency
Which workflows provide the context that other tools depend on?
This led to a clear hierarchy:
PRIMARY
Dashboard
Understand the overall state of the search.
Job Tracker
Manage individual opportunities and next actions.
SECONDARY
Career Assets
Support applications with CV and portfolio work.
Interview Preparation
Keep preparation connected to specific opportunities.
Focus & Reflection
Support the personal demands of the process without dominating it.
Progress Insights
Make effort visible over time.
MVP DECISION
If I were shipping the first version, I would start with the smallest loop that moves an application forward.
MVP
Dashboard
Job Tracker
Application details
Next actions and deadlines
Together, these features support one complete behavior:
Review progress → identify a priority → open an opportunity → update the next step
Everything else could be layered onto that foundation after validating the core workflow.
Why not ship everything at once?
Portfolio management, focus sessions, mood tracking, achievements, and analytics all support real user needs.
But launching them with equal priority would increase navigation, dilute the product proposition, and make validation harder.
I would first validate whether UXPath helps users manage opportunities more clearly before expanding into broader career-management tools.
DESIGN DECISION 01 | DASHBOARD
Start with the complete picture.
Give users orientation before giving them more tools.
Problem
Job searching involves many parallel activities: applications, interviews, portfolio work, preparation, and follow-ups.
Showing all of them with equal importance would make the dashboard feel like another task manager.
Decision
I designed the dashboard around three questions:
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Where am I in the process?
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What needs attention now?
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What should I do next?
The interface prioritizes active applications, upcoming actions, and progress signals, while secondary tools remain accessible without dominating the first view.
Trade-off
Adding more modules to the dashboard would increase immediate access to features, but it would also increase cognitive load and weaken the product’s primary purpose.
I prioritized orientation over feature visibility.
Why it matters
The dashboard becomes a decision-making surface rather than a collection of shortcuts.
Users can understand the state of their search before deciding where to go next.
DESIGN DECISION 02 | JOB TRACKER
Make application status visible without turning the experience into a spreadsheet.
Problem
Applications are often managed across spreadsheets, notes, email, and calendar reminders.
While spreadsheets provide flexibility, they require users to manually interpret what needs attention.
Decision
I organized applications by hiring stage so that status becomes visible at a glance.
Each opportunity keeps the most actionable information close to the card:
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Current stage
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Company and role
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Upcoming interview or deadline
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Next action
More detailed information remains inside the application view.
Trade-off
Displaying more information directly on each card would reduce the need to open individual applications, but it would also make the tracker harder to scan.
I kept the card focused on status and action, while moving deeper context into the application details.
Why it matters
The tracker helps users move from:
“What applications do I have?”
to:
“Which application needs my attention next?”
VALIDATION
I tested whether the product helped users understand and manage their job search more clearly.
The goal of validation was not to confirm whether users liked the interface.
I wanted to understand whether the core structure made the process feel easier to navigate and whether users could identify what required attention without relying on external tools.
Testing focused on three questions:
Orientation
Could users quickly understand the current state of their job search?
Prioritization
Could they identify which application or action needed attention next?
Continuity
Could they move between overview, application details, and preparation without losing context?
WHAT I LEARNED
The centralized structure made the search feel more manageable.
9/10 participants described the overall process as more manageable when applications, stages, and next actions were visible in one place. This supported the decision to keep application management at the center of the product.
Users saw value in replacing fragmented tools.
100% of participants said they would prefer a dedicated workspace like UXPath over managing the process through tools such as Notion.
The important signal was not simply preference for the interface.
It suggested that users recognized a real cost in maintaining their job search across disconnected tools.
ITERATION
Validation reinforced the need for a stronger product hierarchy.
The earlier concept gave several areas — application tracking, portfolio work, preparation, wellbeing, and progress — similar prominence.
Testing strengthened my decision to simplify the primary experience around:
Dashboard → Job Tracker → Application Details
Supporting tools remained part of the wider concept, but were moved away from the center of the experience.
This made the product proposition clearer:
Manage opportunities first. Support the wider job search second.
FINAL EXPERIENCE
One workspace for moving the job search forward.
UXPath connects application tracking with the portfolio, preparation, and focus work that supports it.
The product does not try to automate every part of the job search. Instead, it creates structure around the information, actions, projects, and personal tools users need throughout the process.
It helps users understand:
Where have I been?
What am I working on now?
What requires my attention next?
2 primary views
Dashboard · Job Tracker
4 supporting areas
Career Assets · Preparation · Focus · Reflection
1 connected workspace
Applications · Projects · Progress · Wellbeing
OUTCOME
A clearer product built around one core job-search loop.
The redesign gave UXPath a more focused product structure.
Instead of treating application tracking, preparation, portfolio work, wellbeing, and progress as equally important, the experience now revolves around one primary loop:
Review → Prioritize → Act → Update
This created:
A clearer product center
Dashboard, Job Tracker, and Application Details became the primary experience.
Stronger prioritization
Users can identify which opportunities and actions need attention first.
Less fragmented context
Application status, preparation, notes, and next actions stay connected to the opportunity they belong to.
Room to expand without overwhelming the core
Supporting career tools can grow around the main workflow without competing with it.
HOW I WOULD MEASURE SUCCESS
If UXPath were launched, I would evaluate whether the product improves the management of an active job search over time.
Key measures would include:
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Time required to identify the next priority
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Missed follow-ups or deadlines
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Frequency of application updates
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Return rate to the Job Tracker
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Completion of planned next actions
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Reliance on external tools for tracking applications
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Retention across an active job-search period
I would also compare which supporting features users repeatedly return to before deciding where to invest further.
REFLECTION
Prioritization became the most important design decision in the project.
UXPath started with a broad question:
How can one product support the complexity of a job search?
But the more useful question became:
What is the smallest set of workflows that helps users move an opportunity forward?
That shift changed the product.
Instead of optimizing for the number of needs the platform could address, I focused on creating a clear hierarchy between the core workflow and everything supporting it.
The project reinforced a principle I now bring into product work:
A feature can solve a real problem and still not deserve equal priority in the product.
