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Background

NXTGEN was a conceptual project developed during one of my university classes, where my team and I tackled a key technological challenge in the corporate world: employee onboarding. Traditional training methods often lead to disengagement and lack flexibility or accessibility. As the UX Lead, I focused on reimagining onboarding as an interactive, personalized experience. Drawing from gamification and AI, we designed NXTGEN to be intuitive and scalable, addressing the needs of diverse workforces. This project allowed me to explore innovative design strategies and collaborate with my team to create a fresh, user-focused solution.

Challenges

As the UX Lead for NXTGEN, one of my biggest challenges was managing the team’s workflow while keeping everyone aligned with our shared vision. Balancing creative ideas with tight timelines required clear communication and quick decision-making. Testing feedback often meant pivoting rapidly, adding pressure to maintain focus while staying on track. Making sure the project came together cohesively while keeping the team motivated through deadlines was a constant balancing act that helped me grow as a leader.

Accomplishments

One of my key accomplishments as a UX Lead was implementing effective project management tools and practices to guide our team. I introduced Gantt charts to visualize our timeline, set realistic milestones, and ensure everyone understood how their work fit into the bigger picture. To refine our designs and improve decision-making, we ran A/B testing on different dashboard layouts, which allowed us to gather actionable insights and make data-driven adjustments. Regular feedback loops, combined with structured weekly check-ins, kept the team on track and fostered collaboration. By creating a clear plan and promoting transparency, I contributed to the team   team staying focused and motivated, resulting in a polished conceptual prototype that reflected both user needs and team creativity.

Members

Bryan Jones, Nymeesh Sreedharala, Richard Kwon, Yousef Abudalal, Sophia Musa, Ryan Bellog, Santiago Martinez, Sol Choi, Angela Kim
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  • Type
    Project Management

  • Role
    UI/UX Lead

  • Timeline
    Jan-May 2024


01 Research
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Defining Research Goals
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Identify common frustrations, such as lack of engagement, accessibility issues, and one-size-fits-all training solutions.

Explore the role of
Research how interactive and adaptive learning methods can improve user engagement and knowledge retention.


Test the platform’s features, navigation, and overall experience to ensure it meets the needs of diverse employee groups



Defining Project Management Goals
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Identify tools and processes that ensure clear communication, task ownership, and timely progress across all project phases.

Explore methods for narrowing down features and add feedback without disrupting project timelines or scope.

Assess the effectiveness of Gantt charts, weekly check-ins, and A/B testing in aligning team efforts and meeting milestones.



Understanding the Space

Employee onboarding tools are plentiful, yet many still struggle to keep up with the evolving needs of modern organizations. As companies adapt to remote work, shifting workforce expectations, and diverse learning styles, there’s an increasing demand for tools that are not only functional but also engaging and flexible.

Competitive Analysis
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• Limited Engagement in Traditional Platforms
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• One-Size-Fits-All Learning Approaches
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• Poor Integration and User Experience
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Limited Engagement

Many onboarding tools rely on passive content delivery like lengthy documents or videos, which fail to keep employees engaged. Platforms such as SAP and Workday offer robust functionality, but often lack interactive and gamified features that modern learners crave. They also focus less on the learning aspect of onboarding.
‍NXTGEN Solution:By incorporating gamified elements, interactive quizzes, and progress tracking, we aimed to enhance engagement and make learning feel dynamic and rewarding.
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One-Size-Fits-All

Popular tools like BambooHR and Zenefits provide standardized training workflows, but they rarely adapt to individual learning styles or paces. This rigidity can make the onboarding experience impersonal and ineffective.
‍NXTGEN Solution:We focused on personalization by designing modules that adapt to user progress, preferences, and skill levels, ensuring each new hire feels supported and valued.

Poor Integration/UX

The process of building playlists often feels mechanical rather than enjoyable or expressive. Limited tools for adding context (e.g., mood, stories, or visuals) reduce emotional connection. Despite offering a variety of features, tools like Onboard by HROnboard can feel overwhelming due to cluttered interfaces and a lack of intuitive design. Navigation barriers often frustrate users, slowing down the onboarding process.
‍NXTGEN Solution:By prioritizing a clean, intuitive user interface with easy navigation, we set out a plan to create a platform where users can easily access resources, track their progress, and stay connected without friction.

Key Takeaways

Users value onboarding experiences that adapt to their pace, skill level, and preferences rather than rigid, one-size-fits-all workflows.

Gamified features, progress tracking, and interactive modules drive higher user motivation and retention, making learning feel rewarding and impactful.

The research revealed an opportunity to transform traditional onboarding by combining flexibility, engagement, and user-friendly design. NXTGEN aims to fill this gap, offering an adaptive, intuitive platform that supports users while keeping them actively involved.

The research revealed an opportunity to transform traditional onboarding by combining flexibility, engagement, and user-friendly design. NXTGEN aims to fill this gap, offering an adaptive, intuitive platform that supports users while keeping them actively involved.

Getting to Know Users

To understand the gaps in employee onboarding systems, we interviewed five participants who had experienced both traditional and digital training programs. These individuals, including HR professionals, new hires, and team leads, provided valuable insights into the frustrations, needs, and aspirations they associate with onboarding processes.

User Interviews

Interview Goal 01
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How Do New Hires Experience Onboarding?
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Explore participants' feelings during onboarding, focusing on their first impressions, challenges, and suggestions for making the process smoother and less overwhelming.


Interview Goal 02
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What Keeps New Hires Engages in Training?

Uncover what motivates users to stay engaged during training, such as interactivity, progress tracking, and role-specific content. Gather feedback on gamification, quizzes, and visual learning tools.



Interview Goal 03
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What Tool Do Users Currently Use?
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Examine participants' experiences with onboarding tools (e.g., Workday, SAP, or homegrown systems) and why they fall short, highlighting the need for better organization, personalization, and a modern interface.
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Interview Goal 04
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What are some gaps in personalization and engagement?

Learn how users perceive the relevancy of onboarding content to their role and what could make training more tailored and engaging.

The Results

After interviewing 5 participants from different professional backgrounds, we uncovered key themes regarding their onboarding experiences. These themes reflect a mix of frustrations, challenges, and desired improvements:

Theme 01

"I’m bombarded with too much information too quickly."

Theme 02

"I never know who to ask for help when I’m stuck, and it feels isolating as a new employee."

Theme 03

"The onboarding felt generic—like they didn’t care about what I actually needed to do my job."

Key Takeaways

Users want an onboarding platform that feels tailored to their roles and avoids information overload.

Tools that don’t adapt to individual roles or learning speeds left users feeling frustrated and unmotivated to complete their training.

Moving forward, we focused on refining our solutions to address these issues, such as progress tracking, role-specific content, and gamified learning elements. The goal is narrow our development of a training platform that feels both efficient and rewarding to use, while being flexible enough to adapt to diverse learning needs.


02 Define
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Meet Olivia

To better understand the challenges faced by HR professionals and new hires, we created a persona grounded in user interviews and research findings. Olivia represents the frustrations for onboarding employees while balancing their day-to-day tasks. During research, we learned that HR managers like Olivia struggle with onboarding platforms that are too rigid and fail to engage modern learners. Olivia described wanting tools that simplify her workflow, make onboarding dynamic, and help her track employee progress without adding extra work to her plate. Many expressed a desire for personalization options to better support different learning styles and reduce employee turnover. NXTGEN addresses these needs by offering a platform that combines interactivity, personalization, and actionable insights—transforming onboarding into an engaging, seamless experience for both HR managers like Olivia and their new hires.


Team Planning

I focused on keeping everyone on the same page through regular weekly check-ins. These meetings were a chance to talk through progress, tackle any challenges, and make sure each part of the project was coming together smoothly. To guide our workflow and keep things organized, we utilized tools and charts such as:

Gantt Chart: Helped us break the project into manageable steps, set realistic timelines, and keep track of deadlines.

Cross-Functional Flow Diagram: Mapped out how users, developers, and HR teams would interact with the platform, giving us a clear understanding of the process.

Stakeholder Map: Showed how NXTGEN would serve different audiences, like employees, HR directors, and investors, helping us prioritize their needs.

Using these tools allowed me to give the team clarity and direction, making it easier to adapt as we moved forward.


03 Design
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Design Workflow

In shaping NXTGEN, we aimed to balance creativity with clear direction. We began by setting clear objectives for each phase, from initial sketches to high-fidelity prototypes, ensuring the team stayed aligned on deliverables and priorities. Using Agile-inspired methods, we broke the project into manageable sprints with weekly goals. Tools like Trello and Google Drive helped us organize tasks, track progress, and share updates in real-time. This approach allowed us to maintain momentum while accommodating the inevitable adjustments that arise during the design process.

Additionally, gathering and acting on feedback was a cornerstone of our design journey. We scheduled regular review sessions with team members and stakeholders (the participants) to evaluate our designs against user needs and project goals. Feedback was logged and prioritized based on feasibility and impact, enabling us to iterate efficiently without derailing timelines.

Wireframes

During the prototype phase of NXTGEN, we explored both web and mobile designs, starting with rough sketches and wireframes that incorporated gamified dashboards, progress trackers, and leaderboards. While mobile designs initially seemed appealing, feedback from discussions and early user insights indicated that our primary audience—HR teams and corporate trainers—preferred desktop interfaces for structured work environments. This realization shifted our focus to refining the web platform, allowing us to create a responsive, visually engaging design that catered to the professional needs of our users, while keeping the mobile app concept as a potential future development.


04 Testing
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Responding to Feedback

To refine NXTGEN, we tested our wireframes and prototypes with 5 participants representing HR managers, corporate trainers, and new hires. These participants provided diverse perspectives on the platform’s functionality and usability. Their feedback highlighted specific areas for improvement, such as simplifying navigation and making interactive elements more intuitive. This iterative testing phase gave us valuable insights into how real users would engage with the platform, helping us shape NXTGEN into a tool that effectively bridges onboarding gaps while meeting the needs of both trainers and employees.


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Goals for Testing
01: Evaluate the clarity of the onboarding flow to determine whether users could seamlessly navigate modules, track their progress, and complete tasks with minimal guidance.

02: Assess how features like progress trackers, quizzes, and leaderboards influenced user engagement and learning retention.
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‍03: Identify pain points in the platform’s layout, interactions, and overall design to improve ease of use for trainers and employees alike



Scenario & Results

Scenario: Imagine an HR manager onboarding a new employee using NXTGEN. The manager sets up a personalized learning path that includes interactive quizzes, gamified modules, and real-time progress tracking. The new hire logs into the platform for their first session and explores the dashboard, completing an introductory module and earning their first achievement badge. After a few sessions, the manager uses the analytics feature to review the employee’s progress and identify areas needing further training.

Key Takeaways

Participants appreciated the gamified elements and interactive dashboards that made learning more engaging and goal-oriented.

However, feedback also pointed to areas for improvement, such as streamlining navigation between modules.

These insights shaped the final conceptual prototype, resulting in a more cohesive and user-friendly design that prioritized simplicity and adaptability, ensuring that both employees and administrators could navigate and use the platform effortlessly.


05 Final UI
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06 Learnings
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01 Balancing Team Dynamics and Deadlines
‍ I learned the value of fostering a collaborative team environment while staying on track with deadlines. Coordinating a group with diverse ideas required clear communication and adaptability. Weekly check-ins and tools like Gantt charts kept us organized, but I also learned the importance of flexibility when we had to pivot due to new challenges or feedback.

02 Streamlining the Feedback Process
‍Incorporating feedback wasn’t just about design tweaks—it was about understanding how team members and users viewed the project as a whole. Establishing a system for feedback, with review sessions and prioritized action items, allowed us to make meaningful improvements while staying focused on our goals.
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This project showed me that effective project management is about maintaining a shared vision while adapting to challenges. By staying organized, listening to feedback, and embracing flexibility, I grew as both a team leader and collaborator. These lessons will continue to shape how I approach future projects.


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