
Career Key
Overview
Career Key is an EdTech platform helping students navigate career and academic decisions with confidence. Their flagship product, PathAdvisor, is a B2B web tool used by colleges and universities to match students to degree programs and career paths based on their individual strengths, values, interests, and personality profiles.
Deliverables
Brand strategy and positioning
UX strategy and sitemap
App design and development
AI chatbot
Designing Ariel: A first of its kind AI career mentor & guidance counselor

The challenge
First-year business students often arrive on campus without a clear sense of direction. At Texas State University's McCoy College of Business, over 1,200 incoming students needed structured, evidence-based guidance — but only four faculty instructors were available to support the entire cohort. Career Key needed a scalable solution that could deliver personalized career clarity without overwhelming their academic staff. Devblock identified an opportunity to go beyond a traditional assessment tool and proposed a more ambitious vision: an AI-powered chatbot named Ariel, designed to act as a always-available personal advisor for every student on the platform. Ariel was conceived as a conversational AI guide embedded directly into PathAdvisor — capable of responding to student questions in real time, delivering personalized guidance based on each student's assessment scores and conversation history, and connecting students to mental health resources and external support when needed. Unlike a standard help tool, Ariel was designed to accompany students through their entire career decision-making journey, proactively nudging reflection, surfacing insights, and helping students identify the blockers and drivers behind their growth. Alongside Ariel, Devblock also set out to redesign PathAdvisor's Comfort Tile — a key feature tracking student confidence over time — to better visualize growth, prompt meaningful re-engagement, and encourage students to retake career assessments as they evolved.
The solve
Devblock led the UX research, product strategy, and interface design for PathAdvisor's redesigned B2B platform. We analyzed how students were engaging with intake and assessment forms, identified friction points in the decision-making journey, and redesigned the experience to feel personal and intuitive. The result was a curriculum-integrated tool that guided students through self-discovery — connecting their strengths and interests to real academic and career options at their institution.


The impact
Texas State's Fall 2024 pilot delivered measurable results across 621 students who completed both pre- and post-course assessments. 35% gained stronger self-understanding, 30% reported greater career confidence and decisiveness, and 27% expanded their knowledge of available majors and career paths — all supported by just four instructors managing a cohort of 1,200.

Juliet Jones-Vlasceanu, GCDF, J.D.
President & CEO
