Pasada
the cost of looking.

01 · Overview

What Pasada is

Pasada is a prototype for students who look for work while studying and holding a part-time job. It puts the day's schedule, the budget, application statuses and the commute in one place, so the search's real costs are visible instead of felt vaguely.

The name comes from the Filipino word for hailing a jeepney stop: each application is another stop on a route.

02 · Problem

Looking for work is expensive before it pays

A job search consumes time, money, energy and attention even when no offer arrives. Fares, meals, printing and mobile data are spent on every application. The hours come out of study and rest. Then comes waiting, which often ends in a rejection or in silence.

Most tracking tools record outcomes: applied, interviewed, rejected. Pasada's premise is that the effort and the waiting also need to be visible. This is a design premise, not a research finding.

03 · Scenario

Mika, day 24

Mika is a fictional third-year student in Metro Manila. She has classes, part-time shifts, a commute made of walking, a jeepney and the MRT, and applications to write. The demo follows one day in a search that is 24 days in.

Class 5hCommute 3h 39mShift 4hApplications 1h 55mMeal 45mFree 0h 41m

Of the six applications, two were rejected, one has been silent for 21 days, one reached an interview, one is waiting at 7 days and one was sent 2 days ago.

Fares, prices and application details are round example numbers chosen for the demo. All are editable in the prototype.

04 · Product approach

Five views, one question

Each view answers a version of: what is this search costing me, and where does it stand?

05 · Design decisions

Making hidden costs visible

• Time, money and energy sit side by side. The Today screen opens with three tiles so a day's trade-offs are visible together. Red marks spending and friction; teal marks time, routes and progress, and the same rule runs through every view.
• Waiting is a status, with a counter. "Silent" is separate from "Rejected" because not hearing back is a different kind of uncertainty. Each card counts the days since it was sent.
• Calculations are defined on screen. Cost per application states its denominator: every status except Draft. Energy is computed in schedule order from completed items and kept between 0 and 100%.
• Past costs are not silently rewritten. Logged ledger entries keep their amount when assumptions such as fares change, and the interface says so.
• Everything is editable and labelled. A permanent banner marks the demo data, and the assumptions panel lets a viewer change the numbers.
• The board adapts on phones. At phone width the six-column board becomes stacked sections with a 44px status control beside each card, and the add form moves above the list.

Design rationale, not evidence. These are reasons I made choices. No user testing or interviews were run, so I can't claim they work for real job seekers.

What self-review changed

I reviewed my own screenshots and test runs and revised the product once: the commute route labels collided, the mobile board clipped to a single column, and the calculations had edge cases (energy that depended on tick order, possible duplicate ledger entries, and a reset that relied on a dialog that embedded previews can block). I fixed these. This is self-review with automated checks, not a usability study.

06 · Showreel

Sixty seconds, six scenes

The showreel uses the same figures as the product. It moves from pressure to a grounded close and doesn't promise a job. It has play, pause, previous, next, replay, scene buttons, a timer, keyboard controls and a full text transcript.

1. 0:00
   PressureDay 24. A rejection, 21 days of silence and a still-waiting application arrive as messages.
2. 0:09
   The dayClass, a shift and the commute leave 0h 41m of 16 awake hours.
3. 0:19
   CommuteThe route draws itself while fares and road time count up to ₱129 and 3.7 hours.
4. 0:30
   WaitingSix applications are stamped with where they stand. The silent one reaches 21 days.
5. 0:41
   Pasada₱961 spent, ₱160 per application sent, and energy falling from 96% to a projected 14%.
6. 0:52
   Close"Not a promise of a job." A clearer view of the search, so Mika can decide where her time, money and energy go next.

The first version of the reel used a dark stage. I revised it to a warm ivory theme because text and counters read more clearly, and I narrowed the red transition wipe so it supports the story rather than covering it. Motion is limited to scene entrances, a route draw, counters and the wipe, and with reduced motion the reel does not autoplay.

07 · Limitations

What this is not

What would come next

• Talk to working students about what a job search really costs, and replace the invented figures with their real ones.
• Test the Today and Applications flows with real users on real phones.
• Check accessibility with assistive technology.