Greenovate Hub

Our interactive assessment tool maps your existing skills to green career opportunities. This helps to motivate users, showing they are not starting from zero - they already have valuable, transferable skills. The result provides personalised career pathways based on a user's background and goals. 

Jobs, training, funding, and mentorship resources are all provided in one place, which makes it easier for users to gather information. Plain language explanations of what different green careers actually involve enables newcomers to understand what roles are available to them. Real salary ranges and entry requirements enhance transparency, setting realistic expectations. 

Greenovate Hub is built FOR underrepresented communities, not just ABOUT them. The community feedback system allows users to shape platform development. Peer networking and experience sharing encourage community connection. 

Direct connections to mentors from similar backgrounds can make underrepresented groups feel welcome. Information about grants and funding for underrepresented groups is available on the hub. Childcare-friendly training options and flexible learning paths increases accessibility. 

A skills-based approach that highlights your strengths and step-by-step guidance that doesn't assume prior knowledge can increase users' confidence in their abilities. Success stories from a diverse range of people can help users feel comfortable and motivated. 

Feature that allows users to submit feedback on how to help support diverse communities. Users can track the status of their submitted ideas (in progress, accepted, rejected), which demonstrates our commitment to acting on their suggestions. 

Perhaps our most significant challenge was finding the right balance between simplicity and comprehensiveness. We had lots of ideas and features we wanted to add, but not all were feasible within our deadline. Beyond this, we didn't want to overwhelm users with the entire spectrum of green careers to explore. Our solution consisted of refining our design whenever it began to grow too complex and to use a tiered approach with a pyramid structure of progressing for users.

A key aspect that we needed to keep in mind was accessibility. We needed to ensure the platform appealed to users of different abilities and experience levels. Adhering to the Octopus Energy brand to better showcase how our project could be used in real life was important to us, too. We managed these requirements by building accessibility features from the ground up (such as screen reader support, keyboard navigation, and visual adjustments) and applying Octopus Energy's colours in a systematic, contrast-appropriate approach. The colour scheme we used included: octopus-dark, octopus-white, octopus-green and octopus-pink.

As the core feature of our project, the assessment tool presented us with the challenge of keeping users engaged. The data collected had to be sufficient for developing a useful action plan, but we didn't want to bore users with a long, complex questionnaire. To prevent users from abandoning the process, we broke the assessment into ten digestible steps, with clear progress indicators and the ability to save or resume their progress.

The time-constraint of this hackathon limited the possibilities for Greenovate Hub. By focusing on structured feedback and voting systems, we were able to create a meaningful community engagement system without building complex social features.

Technical Skills:

• How to leverage different AI models to achieve quick MVPrs (v0, cursor, claude, chagpt)

Design Skills:

• Creating inclusive user experiences

• Balancing information density with usability

• Color theory and contrast for accessibility

Problem-Solving:

• How to research and understand complex social problems

• Breaking down large problems into actionable solutions

• Prioritising features for maximum impact

Teamwork:

• Dividing primary goals into tasks

• Collaborative brainstorming (including methods such as Crazy 8s)

We have built a helpful platform that adheres to our aim, complete with a comprehensive career guidance system, community engagement features, a mobile-responsive design, and a dedicated tool for extended accessibility support. By collecting user feedback, the platform is designed to increase its effectiveness and ensure that the features address genuine barriers faced by underrepresented communities. We have provided a service that can provide actionable career advice, which can make a real impact in increasing user prospects.

Technically, we have produced a clean, maintainable codebase with a detailed component library and performance optimisation managed through Next.js. Intuitive navigation and consistent design have created an enhanced user experience.

We all pitched our initial ideas to the problem, listening and providing feedback, and building on each other's ideas. Our diverse backgrounds lead to a range of mindsets and innovative solutions.

Before starting development, we created a high-fidelity mock-up of our key user journey in Figma, leveraging its components feature to ensure consistency and efficiency across the design.