#bastoy

Overview

#bastoy helps people with employment barriers re-enter the job market by making their abilities visible to employers and support facilities. I joined in Regensburg (January to November 2025) as a working-student UX/UI Designer & Business Developer and designed the platform end to end.

The role sat between design and business: I worked directly with the CEO and the business team, so every design decision had to hold up against revenue goals, not just usability.

Research

Methodology: Analysis of 40+ real user profiles, and co-design sessions with 5 partner facilities that support people with employment barriers.

Key insights:

• Facilities and employers each hold part of the picture; nobody sees the whole person.
• Standard CVs hide the actual strengths of people with non-linear work histories.
• Trust and transparency are critical for collaboration.
• Digital and physical touchpoints both matter for engagement.

Problem & solution

The problem: People with employment barriers are invisible to the job market: their skills do not fit standard CVs, and the facilities that know them best have no shared tool to represent them.

The direction: One platform, co-designed with the facilities, that:

• Makes candidates’ real abilities visible to employers.
• Gives partner facilities a shared way to represent the people they support.
• Enables community participation and volunteering.
• Facilitates knowledge sharing and good practice exchange.
• Aligns incentives across stakeholders.

Implementation

Service touchpoints:

• Discovery: organizations and initiatives by impact area.
• Collaboration hub: coordination and communication.
• Impact dashboard: progress and metrics.
• Community engagement: participation pathways.

Principles: Accessibility, transparency, equity, and community-first thinking.

Impact

Outcomes from the first year:

• The full platform designed end to end, from first research to hand-off.
• Product requirements shaped by 40+ analyzed profiles and 5 partner facilities.
• Design decisions tied to revenue goals with the CEO and business team.
• A scalable model for different contexts.

Learnings

• Service design must balance many stakeholder needs at once.
• Community trust grows through transparent communication and listening.
• Digital tools alone rarely fix systemic social challenges.
• Visible impact increases commitment from participants.
• Co-design with communities produces stronger outcomes.