Designing the MVP for a Blue-Collar Job Marketplace
AamDhanE | 2021 | 6 months
TEAM
1 Founder, 1 Developer, 2 UX Designers
MY ROLE
UI Design | UX Design | UX Research | Usability Testing | Insight extraction | Design strategy | Mockups and Prototyping​​
TOOLS
Figma | FigJam | Adobe Illustrator | Miro
Background
AamDhanE is an India-based blue-collar job matchmaking and workforce management platform that connects workers with employers across garment, manufacturing, and construction sectors. The platform aims to replace informal, middlemen-driven hiring with direct, transparent, and informed connections, giving workers access to verified opportunities and employers access to reliable talent.
I joined AamDhanE at its earliest stage to design core user flows for the mobile app MVP that later scaled to 150,000+ job listings across 100+ cities.
PROJECT CONTEXT
- Joined at earliest stage to design core user flows
- Designed for mobile app MVP
- Later scaled to 150,000+ job listings across 100+ cities
Impact
150,000+
Job listings
100+
Cities
40%
Higher adoption
The Challenge
India's blue-collar workforce, comprising hundreds of millions in the unorganized sector, continues to rely heavily on traditional job search methods: newspaper classifieds, word-of-mouth referrals, and in-person networking.
While these methods have served workers for decades, they're often inefficient, geographically limited, and lack transparency. ​
​"How might we design a mobile-first job platform that feels intuitive, trustworthy, and accessible for blue-collar workers across India, while providing a better experience than traditional job-searching methods?"
Blue-collar job platforms existed, but workers still relied on middlemen
Blue-collar job platforms existed, but workers still relied on middlemen, word-of-mouth, and informal referrals. Something wasn't working. Through competitive analysis and research into India's unorganized sector, I set out to understand the gap between solutions and actual user needs.
WORKER PAIN POINTS
• Lack of transparency on actual wages, working conditions, or job requirements
• Unable to access opportunities in new regions
• Dependence on middle-men and contractors who take salary cuts
• No options or preferences on the type of job
EMPLOYER PAIN POINTS
• Lack of skilled and reliable workers
• Dependence on middlemen and agents to provide workers
• Workers leave without notice, disrupting production
​• No standard recruitment process​​
I discovered four key challenges
Through competitive analysis and research into India's unorganized sector, I discovered four fundamental challenges that shaped how I approach the design.
1
It's a three-way marketplace
WHAT I FOUND
There are three players, workers, middlemen, and factory owners., and each group has different needs.
2
Language isn't optional
WHAT I FOUND
57% of users are more comfortable with regional language and 70% struggle with English keyboard.
3
Building trust is difficult
WHAT I FOUND
90% of workers find jobs through word-of-mouth, and contractors. Most don't have formal work history.
4
Complex flows
WHAT I FOUND
With only 25% digital literacy in rural areas, complex forms and too many options at once cause people to drop off.
From these insights, I developed a multi-layered design strategy that addressed each user group's needs
Translating Insights to Design
These insights revealed specific pain points for each user group. I mapped these pain points to design solutions that would build trust, reduce friction, and ensure accessibility.
Design Solution
I designed a three-way ecosystem that formalized the role of middlemen while protecting workers' interests, with accessibility and trust at the core of every interaction.
1. The three-way ecosystem
Instead of removing middlemen, I decided to formalize their role through a unified ecosystem, while protecting the interests of workers.
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Worker module
Single entry point
Agent/Middleman module
Factory owner module
2. Comfort-first language
Research showed that users speak a mixture of regional languages and English technical terms. I moved away from "pure" translation toward a hybrid vernacular UI.
THE INSIGHT
Words like 'mechanic' and 'operator' were not translated into regional languages, but rather, written in regional scripts
Multiple languages
Hindi welcome text
Regional script
Technical terms in context
3. Building Trust within Stakeholders
Building trust in a digital ecosystem means competing wth the value of human recommendations. To overcome this issue, it was important that the app provides enough proof and transparency, while also being easy and comprehensive for low-literacy groups.
Identity verification using Aadhar
Transparency in salary, work conditions, experience required, number of hours required, etc.
Feedback on successful application, pointing to follow-up actions and expectations
Employers need to add every single detail about the factory/workplace for transparency
4. Simplifying Complex Workflows
Migrant workers often face anxiety in complex hiring processes. Traditional multi-step hiring processes lead to massive drop-off rates when users feel overwhelmed by technical data entry or complex navigation.
I designed the hiring flow such that information is progressively disclosed, making sure that workers are not bombarded with information all at once.
Choose the type of work/industry
*Adding least amount of type-entry to reduce friction in multilingualflows
Read job details
Get feedback for successful task completion
Breadcrumbs to track progress in hiring process - Call HR button becomes available once accepted
What I learned
This was my first UX/UI role, and it fundamentally shaped how I approach design.
I learned that accessibility isn't just about following WCAG guidelines. It's about understanding barriers like language, digital literacy, and trust, then designing solutions that address root causes rather than symptoms. It taught me to connect user research directly to interface decisions. I also learned to apply skills I had only used in case studies and classroom projects.
If I could go back in time, I would
Conduct direct usability testing myself, to understand more about the actual environments of blue-collar workers, their constraints, their needs, and validate assumptions about digital literacy. I would go on ground to understand my users to design for them.