Empowering Inclusive Career Exploration
During the kickoff project in Digital Innovation (2DI), our entire cohort collaborated on a socially impactful platform: a modernized Work Interest Test for MPI Oosterlo.
The original tool had been utilized for years by MPI Oosterlo and roughly one hundred other healthcare institutions across Flanders to gauge the vocational interests of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Because the legacy codebase (originally developed by applied psychology students in partnership with the University of Volgograd) faced declining maintenance and support, we were tasked with building a modern, reliable, and easily maintainable replacement.
How the Assessment Works
The core philosophy of the application is providing an accessible, objective foundation for exploratory conversations between clients and their counselors:
- Visual Work Scenarios: Clients are presented with curated media showcasing various vocational activities and workplace settings.
- Intuitive 3-State Interaction:
- 🟢 Green: “I want to do this”
- 🔴 Red: “I don’t want to do this”
- ➡️ Arrow: “Ignore this photo / No preference”
- Dialogue Catalyst: The resulting interest profile serves as a concrete starting point for mentors and job coaches to plan personalized guidance.
Key Features & Architecture
1. Privacy & Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Structured separation between Institution Administrators, Mentors/Counselors, and Clients.
- Privacy-first data isolation: individual client results are strictly confidential and accessible solely by their assigned mentor, while anonymized aggregate metrics can be leveraged for administrative analytics.
2. Multi-Format Media & Accessibility
- Flexible media handling: supports static photography, animated GIFs, YouTube video embeds, and audio clips to accommodate diverse cognitive and sensory needs.
- Multilingual Assessment: The client-facing test runner supports multiple languages, ensuring individuals from diverse linguistic backgrounds can complete it comfortably.
3. Dynamic Test & Asset Management
- Administrators can dynamically configure custom tests, group items into categories, and manage media libraries directly through the admin panel.
4. Response Analysis
- Response Latency Tracking: Records the time taken per question, highlighting hesitation patterns that help mentors identify topics needing deeper discussion.
5. Data Intelligence & BI Capabilities
- Seamless migration and integration of multi-year historical assessment data.
- Architected for integration with Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards to support strategic decision-making regarding employment trends at regional and national levels.
Collaborative Teamwork
As the kickoff project for DI, this was both a technical challenge and a team-building journey for our entire student cohort. Over the course of six weeks, we discovered each other’s strengths across project analysis, UI design, frontend engineering, and backend architecture, delivering a production-ready application.
Technology Stack
- Backend & Framework: PHP & Laravel
- Reactivity: Livewire & Alpine.js
- Styling: Tailwind CSS
- Database: MariaDB
- Analysis & Design: Project Analysis, UI/UX Design with Figma & UML