Job search platform UX design

Industry

Activities

UX Research, UX Design, User Testing, User Interviews

Task

Design a recruitment platform with a strong competitive advantage

Overview

Goal

Pixel Perfect is a conceptual job search platform tailored for the IT industry. I created this website during a UX design course to enhance my design research skills and refine my approach to project methodology.

Design a competitive MVP solution for an IT specialist recruiting platform. After the recent war, many skilled IT professionals lost their jobs. The job market now requires new skills, including relocation options, workplace safety, and remote work opportunities, which are important for Ukrainian talents. As a designer, I had to consider this background in my project.

Project timeline

01. Discover

Competitors analysis

Analyzing competitors to understand the features and functionalities that set their products apart.

I examined four direct competitors and two indirect competitors. Using the Points of Parity/Points of Difference methodology, I identified essential similarities and unique features that differentiate my competitors' products.

In-depth interviews

Lack of feedback and transparency are major challenges for young IT specialists during recruitment in Ukraine.

Main research questions

What functionality do users value on job search services?
What functionality is missing?
What is the process of job searching on a website like?
What frustrates users during the job search process?
What could help users find the most suitable job more quickly?

Utilizing the pains-gains-jobs framework, I systematically categorized user challenges, benefits, and tasks, providing a comprehensive understanding of their needs and motivations. This informed subsequent design stages, enhancing effectiveness.

02. Define

User persona

From the interviews, two user types emerged: active seekers and passive observers.

Passive observers, often experienced professionals not actively job hunting, monitor the market. I opted to prioritize unemployed individuals seeking career opportunities. This led to designating the passive observer as the secondary persona and the active seeker as the primary persona.

Customer journey map

Survey + Hypotheses building

Surveys reiterate the significance of obtaining feedback and accessing truthful information about the company.

Based on the results of the user research, I’ve formulated several hypotheses to help me ideate in the next stages of my design process:

We are convinced that showing candidates the status of their application (read/unread) will elevate user engagement with our platform, as 87% of survey participants expressed the significance of this feature.

We are convinced that requiring recruiters to specify a salary range will lead to higher user engagement and a greater number of job applications because 77% of users have expressed frustration with job postings that lack this information on job search platforms.

We are convinced that the integration of a job search organization tool within our platform will lead to boost in user engagement, because 70% of respondents have indicated a need for keeping track of their job search progress in one form or another.

03. Develop

Ideas prioritization

To structure my ideas, I prioritized them using implementation difficulty and user impact as the primary benchmarks.

Wireframing

Designing and testing mid-fidelity prototypes.

Based on the user flow and information architecture, I developed mid-fidelity wireframes. During this stage, I solidified the flow and structure of potential design solutions.

These wireframes were subsequently transformed into prototypes, which I then subjected to usability testing with four potential users to identify design issues and explore opportunities for enhancement. The testing phase allowed me to implement several minor design adjustments. Subsequently, I progressed to developing the visual design. I assessed the final outcome using Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics, which revealed additional minor issues. This led to another round of iterative improvements, ultimately resulting in the final design.

The design has been developed exclusively for the desktop version, as 70% of respondents mentioned that they primarily use job search platforms on desktop devices. However, this doesn't negate the need for a mobile version; it remains a necessary aspect of future plans. Due to resource constraints, it has not been created at this stage, but it's acknowledged as a vital consideration for future development.

04. Deliver

UI

Jobs page

Cohesive template for concise job descriptions, featuring easily scannable tags.
Incorporated a diverse range of search filters, empowering users to refine their searches based on key criteria, including salary range, experience level, and more.
The advanced search functionality now enables users to include or exclude job vacancies containing specific keywords in both job titles and descriptions.

Profile: Career preferences

Users are prompted to complete their career preferences on the jobs page, allowing the platform to provide personalized job recommendations that align with their individual needs and preferences.
Users can further refine their career expectations by specifying what they prefer to avoid. They can access the "stop-list" tab to save companies and domains they prefer not to be contacted by.

Job description

Jobs display a match metric when users set their career expectations, indicating the level of compatibility with their preferences.
All job descriptions conform to a standardized template, a response to user feedback during interviews expressing dissatisfaction with unstructured job listings.

Board

The "Board" is a tool designed to help users organize their job search progress. In-depth interviews and surveys validated the need for this structured approach.
The "Board" is a customizable Kanban board for users to categorize jobs. It automatically sorts platform jobs as users save, apply, or interact with recruiters.
The "Notifications" tab lets users select their preferred channel for job vacancy updates, addressing user concerns about excessive notifications from job search services.

Messages

The messages section enables users to chat directly with recruiters within the platform. The user interface allows for simultaneous viewing of the vacancy, personal notes, and the chat window for added convenience.
The platform notifies users if their CV has been read while preventing excessive messaging. Users can communicate with recruiters through the platform only if the recruiter has granted permission for further messaging.

The next steps

The MVP is just the starting point.

If Pixel Perfect were an actual product, the next steps would include:

Mobile version of the platform
Recruiter’s side of the platform
Integrate company reviews
Salary and labour market analytics
Anonymous search
Incorporate AI for improving CV writing, messaging, and enhancing match-making