A Foot in the Door

A Foot in the Door is a next generational job-search platform aimed at job seekers with 0 - 5 years of professional experience. They aim to provide a space where recent graduates or career changers can utilize video, social media, and epic profile boosting features to showcase who they are to employers.

In this project I used my skills as a hands on project manager to lead a team of 4 designers. This project optimizes the user experience for job seekers while improving user engagement, satisfaction, and retention.

Project Overview

PROBLEM

‘A Foot in the Door’ seeks assistance in optimizing the user flow for job applicants while maintaining their current design style.

SOLUTION

  • Use user research to design an updated AFITD website that fixes usability flaws and drives engagement

  • Present a list of design recommendations to the team

ROLE

Project lead for team of 4 designers

TIME

2 week design sprint

TASK

Improve the user experience for job-seekers

TOOLS

Heuristic Analysis, Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Contextual Inquiries, Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability testing

Through research, our team wanted to:

  • Learn what features are common among popular job boards

  • Identify UX violations present on the AFITD site

  • Discover the goals, needs, motivations, and frustrations of AFITD’s users

  • Validate direction through contextual inquiries

Empathize

Research

Taking a look at AFITD’s competitors I selected 5 top job board’s to evaluate. These included LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Monster, Indeed, and Zip Recruiter. I wanted to compare the strengths and weaknesses of each to see what a mainstream job board needs to succeed but also if there was any place for AFITD in the current market.

Competitive analysis

Competitors

Strengths

  • Extensive Network

  • High-Quality Job Listings

  • Content Sharing

Weaknesses

  • Competition

  • Premium Features

  • Expensive for Employers

Strengths

  • Company Insights

  • Transparency (salary, employee reviews)

  • Variety of listings

Weaknesses

  • Smaller job pool

  • Requires an account

Strengths

  • Resume database

  • Diverse job listings

  • Advanced search options

Weaknesses

  • high volume of applicants

  • Less appealing UI

Strengths

  • Detailed search filters

  • Resume Download

  • Job Alerts

Weaknesses

  • Limited networking

  • Posting Accuracy

Strengths

  • One-Click apply

  • Job Alerts

  • Mobile-Friendly

Weaknesses

  • Varied quality of job posts

  • limited networking

We also administered 10 contextual inquiries aimed to uncover the intricacies of job applicants' interactions within the site. By witnessing firsthand how users navigated the platform, their pain points, and their moments of success, we were able to collect qualitative data that would inform design decisions.

Utilizing Usertesting.com we focused our testing on users with recent job search experience. This method provided both audio and video responses to each task, which are detailed below.

Contextual Inquiries

Navigate to the '“Job Center”

Create a Profile

Find Job Posting Details

*Videos from test participants

Define

During our research, we encountered a diverse array of job seekers, but I deliberately shifted my focus towards recent graduates entering the job market. This choice was driven by my intention to avoid designing on my personal experiences. This strategy allowed us to adapt and enhance the platform, creating an inclusive and efficient user experience that extended beyond my personal viewpoint.

Centering on the User

To better visualize the total experience of a recent graduate on AFITD I created a journey map. Informed by in-depth user interviews and contextual inquiries, it illuminated key touchpoints, emotions, and decision-making moments users encountered while navigating the platform. It also served as a powerful tool for aligning our team's efforts and driving user-centered decisions throughout the project, ultimately resulting in an enhanced user experience.

Journey Map

Ideate

Blending the competitive analysis, user research, and contextual inquiry insights, we formed solutions that included industry best practices, genuine user needs, and real-world authenticity. This synthesis yielded design solutions firmly rooted in user-centricity, with a focus on recent graduates.

Exploring Solutions

Based on the feedback and pain points, our priorities included

  1. Streamlining navigation

  2. Expand the onboarding process

  3. Enhancing job search filters and indicators.

  4. Reformat job posts

Streamline Navigation

  • Clear up inconsistencies

  • Show users where they are on the site at all times

  • Limit opening new tabs

1

Expand the onboarding process

  • Begin onboarding immediately after profile creation

  • Detail each part of ‘My Dashboard’

  • Give user’s the freedom to exit at any point

Enhancing job search filters and indicators

  • Add a clear all button

  • Eliminate single check boxes

  • Reword confusing options

Reformat job posts

  • Make text easier to read

  • Change company link to side panel to avoid user confusion

  • Move apply CTA to top of post

4

3

2

Now that the problems defined had tangible solutions, I collaborated with the project design lead to convert our sketches into high-fidelity mockups. This allowed us to visualize changes immediately before moving each frame into a working prototype.

Changes Visualized

Prototyping and testing

  1. Only shown when navigating to ‘My Dashboard’

  2. Limited explanations

  3. Unable to exit

Onboarding

  1. Begins directly after sign up

  2. Added Welcome, My Profile, My Calendar, My My Jobs, and My Messages cards

  3. Ability to close out at any time

Revamped Onboarding

My Dashboard

  1. ‘Job Center’ lost among cards

  2. Inability to write in text fields

  3. Unclear system status

  4. Hidden Share feature

Revamped Dashboard

  1. Moved ‘Job Center’ to global navigation

  2. Allow text field input

  3. Clearly defined location

  4. Improve CTA UI for share feature

  1. Separate link on posting card

  2. Apply disappeared below scroll

  3. Unorganized filters

  4. Unclear system status

Job Center

Revamped Job Center

  1. Moved Company information to side panel

  2. Adjusted CTA location and text formatting

  3. Improved filters to match competitors

  4. Clearly defined location

The end product is a streamlined and user-friendly prototype that seamlessly integrates user needs, industry best practices, and the real-world experiences of our users. It was a culmination of our commitment to user-centric approach, resulting in increased user engagement, satisfaction, and retention.

Final Prototype

Set Up for Success

Find Your Perfect Job

My role as the project lead for 'A Foot in the Door' has been a journey of self-discovery and professional growth. Focusing on recent graduates among our users provided me with fresh insights and perspectives, distinct from my own experience. This connection reinforced the importance of empathy in design, highlighting that understanding diverse user experiences is at the core of creating meaningful solutions.

Furthermore, this project underscored the value of collaboration. Working closely with our researchers and design lead illustrated the collective strength of our team in developing user-centric solutions. It reinforced the leadership skills I have developed throughout my professional skills in bringing a team together to reach a common goal.

Reflection

Continuous Testing

Since the website is already live, it’s important to track metrics to better define what features are working and what still needs to be improved. KPI’s such as job post engagement, user conversion rates for job applications, and new account registration numbers will all give insightful quantitative data on the website’s performance.

User feedback and satisfaction is also critical in an industry with so many competitors and sending out a brief satisfaction survey to current users would also be a smart way to gauge usability.

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