In late April 2017, I participated in "Redesigning the Candidate Experience", a hackathon hosted by the UX Lab NYC Meetup and the Talent Experience team at Jet.com. The focus of the event was a close look at what could be done to improve the job candidate experience. I teamed up with Lindsay, Brian, Michael, Carla, and Andre, and together we focused on improving the experience of applying for a job online.
Looking for a job online can be a tedious, frustrating experience. Job descriptions are often long and tedious to read through, application forms are time-consuming, and feedback from hiring managers is almost always non-existent. This is a problem for both job seekers who give up on applying to jobs, and for companies who need to hire new talent. We wanted to focus on one aspect of the job search experience, so we decided to head outside, talk to people, and gather some insights.
We split up and walked around the Hoboken waterfront area to talk to people about their job-search process, in order to identify frustration points and possible solutions. After interviewing 10 people, we did an affinity map of all the complaints in order to help narrow down our focus. Based on our user interviews and survey results, one of the worst parts of looking for jobs online is reading long job descriptions that are filled with jargon and vague terms. Even after reading a job description, it's sometimes difficult to gauge if the candidate meets the qualifications, suss out exactly what the job would entail, and figure out whether or not the candidate would be a good fit. Furthermore, after reading several job descriptions, they all start to sound the same. Our team decided to focus on coming up with a better job description page for Jet.com.
Interviewing people in Hoboken's beautiful waterfront.
After the interviews, we sketched out ideas for designing a better job description page. We all agreed, and our research validated this, that reading long, text-only job descriptions is tedious and not a good user experience. We pooled our ideas together, and came up with a list of improvements and information that should be included in order to make job descriptions better for a candidate:
a job description that is more visually appealing, using graphics, photos, and stats (instead of just long paragraphs of text)
key information related to the job's salary range (because that is one bit of information that everyone is interested in knowing)
an org chart showing how the candidate would fit in to the company structure
video testimonials from current staff that give the candidate a sense of the company culture
info-graphic element showing a breakdown of the role's key tasks, and how a typical day might be spent
Our team spent some time sketching out ideas about what types of information and interactions would make for a better job description page experience, and then we came together to review all the various sketches. Based on our collective ideas and user research, we created a paper prototype showing an outline of the new page design.
Our paper prototype showing how a job description page might be laid out, and what kind of information candidates want to see.
We tested our paper prototype on three people, and made some adjustments to our design and content based on their feedback.
Our three testers giving us valuable feedback on the paper prototype.
Here is a side-by-side look, showing Jet.com's current job description page design (left), and our suggested design (right). We felt that our design would provide the candidate with a more pleasant way to digest a job description, but more importantly give them a better sense of a) whether they are qualified, and b) whether they are a good fit for the company.
The existing job description page (left), and our suggested design (right).
The proposed design
It was great to watch all the teams present their innovative ideas for making the candidate experience better. Here are some photos from the pitches in front of the judges. Our team didn't win, but we had fun hacking together in Jet's beautiful waterfront office, and were inspired by all the other teams' presentations.
A big thanks to Sean and the UX Lab NYC meetup for organizing the event, Travis and Juan for judging the pitches, and to Jet.com for hosting and feeding us in their lovely space.
The Jetsons team (Andre, me, Carla, Lindsay, and Michael (not pictured: Brian), posing in the lounge at Jet.com's Hoboken headquarters.