Indeed Redesign Case Study

Kewei Li
Kewei Li
Jul 22, 2017 · 5 min read

by Kewei Li, Annie Wang

Indeed Overview
Indeed is an American worldwide employment-related search engine for job. As a single-topic search engine, it is also an example of the vertical search. Indeed allows job seekers to apply directly to jobs on Indeed’s site and offering resume posting and storage.

Core Challenges
- Usability and Aesthetics need to be improved in Mobile App.
- Need new competitive differentiators to face the competence with Linkedin, Glassdoor, and Monster.

Design Process
Basically, we followed IDEO and Stanford D-school Human-Centered Design method to make sure our design decisions solve the real core challenges in the App.

Design Process_IDEO

Persona
Based on the Interviews, we came out two main personas which are experienced job seekers and new graduates.

Persona 1_Professionals who might change their jobs
Persona 2_New graduates who will start their career life

Competitor Analysis
We tried to consider the UX design not only from a user-centered perspective but also from a business perspective. We listed Glassdoor, Linkedin, and Monster as Indeed’s main competitors and analyzed the service and design on their applications.

Competitor Landscape

We found that:
- Glassdoor has a great User Generate Content for companies as its key differentiator.
- Linkedin leverages the job-based social network to build personal career reputation and trust as its differentiator.
- Monster and Indeed focuses on providing online job opportunities.
What if focusing on providing job opportunities, is there any else Indeed could do to help its users to get more valuable job opportunities?
Based on interviews, we found that in North America, attending meet up and job fair is a good way to get potential job opportunities and develop career life. Providing offline job opportunities is ignored by all the four companies.

Offline Job Opportunities

Design Assumption
Based on the interviews and walkthroughs, we came out the following assumptions that meet mobile-first trends as well as Indeed’s focusing strategy:
1. Offline channels such as Job Fairs and Meetups are important for job seekers.
2. Job seekers mainly check job information on both mobile phone and computer.

Survey
We started a survey to verify our assumptions.
Participant information :
Occupation: 31 of 39students, 8 employees
Gender: 21 of 39 males, 17 of 39 females, 1 of 39 prefer not to answer
Work Experience: 5 of 39 no work experience, 15 of 39 less than 3 years, 13 of 39 3–5 years, 4 of 39 5–10 years, 2 of 39 over 10 years.

From the result, 15% job seekers get their job information through attending job fairs. Over 25% job seekers mainly check their job information through mobile phones. That is the reason why Indeed does not consider mobile apps as important as its website. We still consider app should play a better user experience for its great frequency and freedom.

Information Architecture
Based on the issues we want to solve and the information architecture of Indeed, we created the following information architecture which mainly focuses on Search, My Jobs and Job Fairs.

Considering Job Fairs as a new key feature and differentiator, we put it in the Dock Icons.

User Flow
On one hand, we created our own user flow, on the other hand, we did task analysis to the competitors’ flows to try to understand whether we had an opportunity to create a better user experience.

User Flow_ Apply for a job/ Job management
Task analysis_Indeed_Job filters
Task analysis_Glassdoor_Job filters

Wireframe
On one hand, we created our own user flow, on the other hand, we did task analysis to the competitors’ flows to try to understand whether we had an opportunity to create a better user experience.

About wireframe, we mainly focused on redesigning four parts as follows:
-Filter criteria​ (Key feature improvement)
-Resume management (Ordinary feature improvement)
-Job application management (Key feature improvement)
-Job Fairs (Key differentiator)

Wireframes
Wireframe

UI Elements
We chose color and typography from IOS design guideline.

Color
Typography

UI Design
-Job application management

Job application management

-Job fairs

Job fairs

Usability Testing
Participants: 3 female, 2 male
Age: on average 28
Cases and results:
1. Set filter to narrow down jobs;
(5 of 5 users completed this case)
2. Apply for Amazon’s senior interactive designer role and upload the resume from Dropbox;
(5 of 5 users completed this case)
3. Mark Amazon’s Sr. interactive designer as “Marked as no response”
(3 of 5 users completed this case) (the gesture here is swipe but click)
4. Check the detail information of Canada Education Job Fair, check the upcoming events hosted by Canada Education host
(5 of 5 users completed this case)
Findings:
- the swipe gesture needs users to try more times
- for android users, they are not as familiar with the swipe gesture as iPhone users.
Solution:
- add an affordance animation to provide a swipe clue

The animation affordance (in app, only show one time)

Final Prototype

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