Introduction
An experience of web redesign for the job hunting process on LinkedIn.
UX Designer
Miro, Figma, Illustrator
Role
UX/UI Design 2020
Tool
Redesign LinkedIn Job Application Experience
OVERVIEW
PROBLEM
Job Application Process Usually takes Time and Effort
Job-hunting is necessary for most college students, and generally speaking, it always takes lots of time and effort to look for a new position. For our job-hunting process experience at LinkedIn, we found that job description always takes us lots of time to look through. And we are not very satisfied with the accuracy and relevance of job recommendations. Even more, the weak job application status tracking makes us worried about if we apply for nothing.
GOAL
Redesign the overall LinkedIn job application experience in both efficient (less time) and effective (suitable position) ways with the focus on college students.
OUTCOME
Mainly Redesigning the Search Result Page with User’s Pain Points
Follow-up Interviews
Redesign 1: Separate the Job Description Into Sections
Divide the entire job description content to separate parts for users to find specific information. If users don’t willingly choose to click each tab, the section will automatically display through scrolling.
Design 2: Emphasize Keywords with a Highlight
It is a new function to emphasize the keywords that users care about most. Users can set position-related keywords at the beginning, and it will highlight these keywords and make it evident in the job description part. Users can also reset or turn off it at any time.
Design 3: Add Saved and Applied Button and Guide Users with Motion
Informing users whether they applied for a position and providing easy-to-find post-application status is necessary. It could improve efficiency by saving users from repeated applications and bring more clarity to applicants’ status with motion.
Redesign 4: Set Critical Message as Tags
Add critical information as tags in the search result list so that users can quickly skim those posts and find jobs that fit those tags and then decide whether to go through the job description section.
DESIGN PROCESS
RESEARCH
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Understand the Benefits and Drawbacks Across Different Platforms
We analyzed the user's experience of applying for jobs on four platforms, including Glassdoor, Handshake, Indeed, and LinkedIn.
OBSERVATION
Understand Users’ Current Performance on LinkedIn
Job descriptions are mostly plain text, making information hard to digest.
The job description section includes too much redundant information.
Hard to find the button to check saved jobs.
FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW
Understand User’s Thoughts and Behavior While Using LinkedIn to Apply for a Position
"I like using google search because it's convenient. I can get enough information from here."
“I like the layout of the company list in Glassdoor. It looks much cleaner than LinkedIn."
"I'd like to know any updates about my application; even just that my resume was reviewed."
ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT
CURRENT EXPERIENCE CRITIQUE
Identify Current Problems of Job-hunting Process
Through observing users applying for a real position at LinkedIn, I conducted a job-hunting experience critique based on what we discovered in the observation process.
Different search results between home and jobs page.
1
If using the homepage search tool, the results will only show positions and company names instead of the full job descriptions.
Home page
4
Plain text
4
Information is hard to digest.
This button is not very outstanding and only shows on the Jobs page.
1
2
Poor job recommendations
3
Jobs page
5
Apply externally: no sign that indicates whether applied or not.
Search Results page
3
No other button directs to the job tracker.
Easy Applied page
6
Only show if applied in “Easy Apply”, also no further tracking information.
Jobs Tracker page
PAIN POINT
To understand user needs and pain points with the job-hunting process, we used the affinity wall to gather data that we collected from interviews and observations, and then reorganized notes according to different steps in the job application process.
.jpg)
Why does applying for positions take lots of time?
Job descriptions are
formatted variously
Since each company has its job description structured and titled differently, users usually take lots of time to locate related information that they care about. For those companies that they are interested in, they would spend more time reading descriptions carefully.
Job recommendations do not match properly
Those recommended positions that indicate “Profile Match” do not meet users’ requirements well. It seems that they match skills that users fill in their profile, but not the real positions that users want to apply for.
Repeated information
Without using “Easy Apply”, applying externally always takes more time because users may need to sign up a new account and create profiles according to the requirements of companies.
Why do users like other platforms to apply for jobs?
More job-related information
The job description section at LinkedIn, even with enough introduction about the job, has limited information about other data, such as average salary, user reviews, company rating, interview questions, and so on.
Good job tracking status
LinkedIn offers job tracking only by displaying applied positions. All Interviewees mentioned that they wish to know if their applications have been reviewed or not, and their status in the whole application process.
Focused target user groups
LinkedIn does offer tons of positions, but for most students who are still enrolled or who will graduate soon, they prefer to use Handshake that offers more entry-level and major-related opportunities.
PERSONA
After gathering observations and interview insights, I created a persona that aims at our target user: college students.
USER JOURNEY
According to the persona, I created a user experience journey about the job-hunting process and proposed design opportunities.
IDEATION
BRAINSTORMING
Generate Possible Solutions Based on Pain Points
SKETCH
Using Storyboard to Sketch Possible Solutions
DESIGN REQUIREMENTS
Nail Down the Most Feasible Solutions
Must Have
-
Redesign the job post description to make it more digestible.
-
Redesign job tracking to eliminate repeated applications and to inform users about their application status.
Should Have
-
Relocated “job tracker” to be more obvious and remind users.
-
Redesign search results display to make it easier to skim.
Nice to Have
-
Redesign filter bar to provide more proper filters, and make it easier to interact with.
DESIGN AND ITERATION
LO-FI PROTOTYPE AND TEST
Fulfill Users’ Basic Needs, But Still Exist Unclear Features
Conducted two usability tests that show the design concept and goal is clear. But users were confused about some features and cared about seeing more information related to them. They expressed positive critiques on some redesigned features and also pointed out unsatisfied points.
Search Result Page
Search Page
Redesign the "Track my Job" button and make it evident on the job search page.
Filter Bar
Redesign the filter bar to offer more options based on user needs.
Search Results
Redesign search result list with more tags labeled.
One user thought that the tags meet his requirements.
Job Description
Redesign the job description section by dividing
whole content to separate parts.
Two users were satisfied with the divided content of the job description, making them master important messages with ease.
Highlight
Design a "highlight" function to help emphasize keywords during skimming.
Two users were glad to see this new function, but both agreed that there are more or less issues of interaction and interface.
Save and Tracker Button
Add "saved" and "tracker" buttons on the search result page.
Two users satisfied with the newly added job tracker button in the search result page.
Two users agreed that the overall experience seems smoother, more comfortable to skim and seize the critical messages, compared to the current LinkedIn job application experience.
Synthesize pain points from tests and indicate how they will change in the high fidelity prototype.
Pain Point
Change
Looks like the main button in this page.
Resize and relocate the button, and replace with saved and applied.
Not intuitive
Use applied instead
Don't want to spend extra effort to click and confused with the meaning of the word "Highlight."
Set highlight feature as a switch, and users can turn it off anytime; Change the "highlight" to "keywords," making it easier to understand.
Care about this part and hope it more obvious.
Add color contrast
Not like a filter
Redesign it again with dropdown menu
HI-FI PROTOTYPE AND TEST
Fulfil Users’ Pain Points at Lo-Fi Tests, But Come up with UI Design, Interaction, and Accessibility Issue.
Conducted five usability tests that indicated the lo-fi prototype problems solved well. However, users pointed out the inconsistency UI design might cause misunderstanding while using the new function. Also, as designers, we should be mindful of the accessibility and visibility of the setting icons.
The dropdown menu.
Make it more visible.
The switch can be turned on and highlight the keywords. The wheel icon allows users to set the keywords.
Keywords are highlighted with bright yellow color.
Saved and applied are added with the numbers.
More tags labeled on search result list
-
Two users agreed that these tags make them easier to skim and meet their requirements.
-
One user said that she didn’t notice the difference with the current LinkedIn page.
-
One user pointed out that she was willing to see her networks and the number of applicants.
Separate job description into sections
-
Three users were satisfied with separate sections and agreed that it could reduce their reading stress and help them look through crucial information that they care about the most.
-
One user mentioned that she didn’t want to click each tab because it leads to extra work for interaction even though this divided section indeed reduces tedious reading.
New function: keywords
-
All users were glad to see this new function with fair understanding.
-
Two users pointed out that the self-defined keywords might raise extra work for users at the beginning.
Newly added saved and applied button
-
Four users were satisfied with the newly added job tracker button.
-
One user pointed out that the icons are inconsistent with LinkedIn’s.
Explanation: When we designed the saved and applied icons, LinkedIn only had a button named “Track my Job” on the job search page. To solve one of the pain points of hard to find where to check saved or applied jobs on the search result page, we decided to add these two buttons. However, LinkedIn updated its interface at the end of March with two new buttons, also named “saved” and “applied” buttons on the search page, which has the same thought as us. In order to solve the inconsistent interface issue, we will update icons the same as LinkedIn, but we will also keep them on the search result page for users’ convenience.
Things Need to Change
-
Update icons and make them consistent with LinkedIn
-
Add networks and applicants as always.
-
Set the separate section shift automatically while scrolling.
FINAL DESIGN
Follow-up Interviews
REFLECTION
LIMITATIONS
The College Student Is the Only Target User
The target user group we chose to redesign for is the college students, who might behave very differently from other user groups such as mid-level or experienced employees.
The job application experience is not only related to people who are trying to find jobs, but also to other stakeholders, especially recruiters. However, due to the limited access to this group, we decided to not include them in the research.
Should Include More Stakeholders in the Research
We only considered that the added features might address user needs very well, but not thought twice about maybe there are some features that exist that users do not prioritize and therefore removing them would also address user needs. Such as the “See you Commute” section, definitely not the user's priority.
Only Adding New Features Instead of Removing
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS PROJECT?
Iteration Is Also Essential for Redesign
While usability tests would always uncover design issues, iteration on different-level of prototypes would usually generate new questions. Indeed, there is no completely perfect design. Iteration can always bring me useful feedback to evaluate the design and discover in-depth problems with micro-interaction or inclusive design.
Design critique is a powerful way of getting feedback and chances to unveil a few points that I have not fully aware of before. For example, I asked myself why we only decided to design new features instead of removing them at the end of the project. The simple reason is the added feature solving user's needs very well. However, it cannot explain why removing cannot address the user's needs. If I asked this question during my design, I might be capable of generating new design ideas.
Critique Thinking Is Crucial All the Time
Even though narrowing down our target users could help us have a focus on real pain points, in this case, applying for a job not only relates to applicants but also involves recruiters. It is necessary to include research on the recruiter aspect, which we ignore on our design. For future research and design, I should always think about related stakeholders first and then narrow down to focus groups.
Not Limitate on Small Group
