Onward is an AI-powered web application that helps internationally educated nurses prepare for Canadian job interviews. By combining research insights with AI-driven coaching, the platform improves confidence, communication skills, and cultural readiness.

The project was created for the BCIT Digital Design and Development showcase, themed around using AI to design solutions for underrepresented and disadvantaged communities.

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Onward Practice Interview Interface with AI generated question, option to transcribe or write answer and a video feedback

Ideation

How Can AI-Driven Tools Support Newcomers?

The team explored how AI could support newcomers to Canada across areas such as services, housing, and employment. Employment quickly emerged as a critical milestone for financial stability and social integration. Within healthcare, where immigrants make up 25 percent of the workforce, internationally educated nurses were identified as a group facing significant barriers and in urgent need of support.

Problem

Barriers for Internationally Educated Nurses

Immigrants make up nearly 25 percent of Canada’s nursing workforce. Despite their expertise, many internationally educated nurses struggle to secure jobs that match their qualifications.

In 2021, more than a quarter of recent immigrants were employed in roles below their skill level, underscoring systemic challenges in credential recognition, licensing, and adapting to Canadian workplace expectations.

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Credential Recognition & Licensing

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Credential Recognition & Licensing

Many IENs face long and costly licensing processes, often requiring extra exams, bridging programs, and courses. These hurdles delay re-entry into their profession and contribute to underemployment.

Cultural & Communication Barriers

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Cultural & Communication Barriers

Canadian healthcare interviews emphasize soft skills, cultural competency, and local practices. IENs often struggle with unfamiliar formats, terminology, and ways of presenting experience.

Performance Anxiety & Feedback Gaps

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Performance Anxiety & Feedback Gaps

Interview anxiety is heightened by unfamiliar hiring practices and limited culturally relevant preparation. Since the STAR method is often new to IENs, they struggle to communicate skills confidently without tailored feedback.

Government Support Falls Short

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Government Support Falls Short

Programs such as the Foreign Credential Recognition Program address licensing challenges, but few initiatives focus on interview preparation and confidence building. This gap became the focus of our project.

Nurses collaborating outdoors, reviewing a tablet — Onward’s target users

More than one in four recent immigrants in Canada are employed below their skill level.

Research

What Interviews Look Like for IENs

To better understand these challenges, surveys and interviews were conducted with both internationally educated and local nurses. Findings showed overlapping struggles with anxiety and preparation, but also revealed distinct barriers for IENs.

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Common Challenges

Unique IENs Challenges

Anxiety & Nerves

Both IENs and local nurses feel nervous, especially when underprepared.

Recognition of Experience & Credentials

IENs feel their international qualifications are undervalued during interviews.

Limited Preparation

Many nurses struggle to find time and effective ways to prepare.

Language & Terminology Barriers

IENs often struggle with unfamiliar phrases and terminology, adding stress.

Critical Thinking Under Pressure

On-the-spot thinking during behavioural questions is difficult for both groups.

Cultural & Style Differences

IENs find it difficult to match Canadian expectations for self-promotion and structured responses.

Confidence & Self-Presentation

Cultural norms around modesty make it harder for IENs to confidently promote themselves.

Common Challenges

Anxiety & Nerves

Both IENs and local nurses feel nervous, especially when underprepared.

Limited Preparation

Many nurses struggle to find time and effective ways to prepare.

Critical Thinking Under Pressure

On-the-spot thinking during behavioural questions is difficult for both groups.

Unique IENs Challenges

Recognition of Experience & Credentials

IENs feel their international qualifications are undervalued during interviews.

Language & Terminology Barriers

IENs often struggle with unfamiliar phrases and terminology, adding stress.

Cultural & Style Differences

IENs find it difficult to match Canadian expectations for self-promotion and structured responses.

Confidence & Self-Presentation

Cultural norms around modesty make it harder for IENs to confidently promote themselves.

These insights highlighted the need for a platform that goes beyond generic interview prep by offering culturally aware, healthcare specific coaching.

My Role

UX Research and Full-stack Development

I contributed as both a UX researcher and frontend developer.

Conducted surveys and user interviews, analyzing findings into personas and key insights
Shared research results with the design team, collaborating on how insights shaped wireframes, prototypes, and overall direction
Developed core features in Next.js, including uploads, transcription, and AI integration
Collaborated with the team to prepare and deliver the final showcase presentation

Preparation should bridge cultural gaps, not just knowledge gaps.

Solution

Personalized Interview Coaching

Onward is an interview preparation platform designed to address the challenges faced by internationally educated nurses entering the Canadian workforce. Grounded in user research, the app combines AI-driven tools with culturally aware coaching to help users practice effectively and build confidence.

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The platform centers on three core capabilities:

Personalized Practice: users upload a resume and target job posting to generate tailored interview questions
Real-Time Transcription: Azure Cognitive Services captures and transcribes responses, highlighting filler words and clarity issues‍
Targeted Feedback: RoughlyAI analyzes responses against resume content and job requirements, returning structured feedback to guide improvement

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Two personas guided the design direction:

Marco Dizon, an internationally educated nurse preparing for Canadian interviews
Heather Lamont, a mentor supporting IENs in adapting to the Canadian healthcare system

By aligning research insights with these personas, Onward delivers a tailored interview preparation experience that bridges cultural gaps, builds communication skills, and helps IENs present their experience with confidence.

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Competitive Analysis

Where Other Tools Fall Short

Several AI-powered tools exist for interview practice, including Yoodli, Google Interview Warmup, and PrepMeUp. While effective for general job seekers, these platforms are not designed for healthcare or internationally educated professionals.

Key gaps identified:

Lack of cultural adaptation for communication and self presentation differences
Generic content that fails to address healthcare contexts
Candidate needs secondary to recruiter-focused features

Onward fills this gap by offering a culturally aware, healthcare specific interview preparation experience.

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Design Process

Built on Growth, Confidence, Storytelling

Our iterative design process combined research findings, user feedback, and usability testing. Three values shaped the solution:

Growth through feedback
Confidence through understanding
Effective storytelling

Deliverables:

Sitemap and wireframes
High fidelity prototypes and style guide
Interactive MVP

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App Walkthrough

Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi Wireframes

Development

Technology and Features

The Onward MVP was built with Next.js and React on the frontend, with Supabase handling authentication and file storage. My primary responsibility was developing the core functionality that powered tailored interview practice, including file uploads, real-time transcription, and AI-driven feedback.

The app was designed in modular components so each feature could be tested independently while contributing to the overall experience.

Resume & Job Posting Uploads:

Users can upload resumes and job postings through a drag-and-drop interface powered by Uppy. Files are stored securely in Supabase Storage and passed into the AI pipeline.

Resume and job posting upload — drag and drop interface with a Supabase upload code snippet

Video Recording & Playback:

The platform also records the user’s video responses using the device camera and stores the recording in Supabase Storage. Users can replay their interview session to review their non-verbal communication and overall performance.

Webcam recording UI and code using MediaRecorder to capture and save practice answers

AI-Powered Questions & Feedback:

Uploaded files are sent to RoughlyAI by passing their public URLs, where the service analyzes resume content and job posting requirements. It returns parsed JSON containing tailored interview questions.

Question preview listing generated interview questions with prompt-builder code and category filters

After the practice session, the user’s transcribed responses are also sent to RoughlyAI, which compares them to the resume and job posting, returning structured feedback on content relevance, communication clarity, and alignment with job expectations.

AI feedback panel with STAR tips and filler-word highlights beside the analysis prompt code

Outcomes

The Value of Cultural Context in Action

Delivered a working MVP that demonstrated AI-powered, culturally aware interview coaching for internationally educated nurses
Received positive feedback from faculty and peers for addressing a meaningful, real-world challenge
Presentation was recognized for its clarity and storytelling, highlighting the team’s ability to communicate both process and impact effectively

Accessibility is not a checklist. It's what makes practice possible.

Lessons Learned

Bridging Design & Code

Wording guide user choices.

‍Testing showed that what felt obvious to us as builders was not clear to new users. Terms like practice interview and mock interview caused hesitation. Renaming them to practice mode and mock interview gave people a clearer sense of progression and made their choices more confident.

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Design shifts in implementation.‍

Working as both researcher and developer meant translating designs into actual functionality. In code, small details such as how an upload flow handles errors surfaced gaps we had not considered in Figma. Experiencing these edge cases firsthand sharpened how I think about feasibility and designing with implementation in mind.

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Clarity and context are accessibility

For internationally educated nurses, preparation was already high stress. Any added complexity such as unclear instructions or inconsistent labels raised the barrier further. This made accessibility feel less like a checklist and more like a matter of cultural context: clear, low cognitive load design was what made the product usable at all.

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Together, these lessons also reminded me to stay realistic about scope, focusing on MVP features within a tight timeline so progress stayed centered on what mattered most to users.