Case Study: Good and Bad Design on Job Finder Platforms.
In the past few months, we have an agenda called “Good and Bad Design”. Every month, a designer presents a website or an app of their choice and discusses the good and bad design aspects of the website or app.
Introduction
In order to fulfill the wish of developing my design skills, I analyzed the website of job finder platform, The Hub, specifically the Find jobs page that was previously designed by Balkan Brothers. I will share my thoughts on what can be improved about this website. I chose this website because of the complexity of the functions it has to serve different users with different job requirements. In addition, my personal perspective on the job search will provide greater insight in identifying improvements and user interface enhancements to improve the overall job seeker experience.
Approach
I chose the Common Design Patterns approach to create an efficient and user-friendly design that increases engagement and retention rates. To support this approach, I identified and comprehended the design patterns currently used by The Hub, and compared them to those used by several popular websites. The research helped to identify the advantages and disadvantages of each design pattern used.
Implementation
1. Filtering
Problem.
When users applied many filters to find a particular job and wanted to cancel the filter, the user needed to cancel them one by one. It’s time-consuming.
Solution:
Allow users to clear all filters. This will allow users to clear all the filters applied with one click so it can save user’s time and effort as well.
2. Banner
Problem:
The contrasting green color of the banner is placed between the header and the content, creating a variation that is too flashy and quite distracting.
Solution:
“As banners are easy to ignore, make them stand out but not too jarringly.” Placing the banner position above the navigation bar so that the banner still stands out but is not too distracting.
3. Header
Problem:
No hierarchy. The menus in the header have the same hierarchy, there is no difference between the primary, secondary, and tertiary menus.
Solution:
Create a hierarchy by making the most important menu start from primary, secondary to tertiary. For example:
Button Sign up > Primary
Button Log in > Secondary
Navigation Menu > Tertiary
4. Search Bar
Problem:
There is no action to delete the query directly or in one-click on the input that has been entered.
Solution:
Make it easier for users to delete queries directly by adding a delete action, either with an icon or by writing delete.
5. Copywriting
Problem:
There are no active filters in the sidebar but it still says “Showing: 829 filtered jobs”.
Solution:
Make the copywriting more general: “829 Jobs results”.
6. Active Navigation
Problem:
Unclear distinctions between active and inactive navigation.
Solution:
Make the distinction clearer by:
1. Make the divider even closer to the menu label.
2. Use the primary color for the active label.
3. Play with the font weight
7. Featured Job
Problem:
The primary blue outline on the featured card is quite ambiguous because it looks like the card that is being selected. This is quite confusing when we try it directly.
Solution:
“It should look attractive but not too needy or demanding.”
1. Change the outline color to a secondary color so that it doesn’t get too distracting.
2. Remove the outline color.
4. Try to use a different style.
8. No Timestamps
Problem:
The website does not display when the job was posted, so the user cannot estimate how long the job vacancy has been posted and how many people have applied in 1 day, or 1 week.
Solution:
Provide a display of when the job was posted when it was updated, and if it is still relevant. Add timestamps on each card so that users know and can consider before applying.
Outcome
From this analysis, it appears that by implementing these solutions, The Hub’s platform has the potential to provide a more efficient, intuitive, and informative job seeker experience. Simplifying the interface and adding necessary information, such as a timestamp on a job card, will provide a better guide for users. As such, these improvements will not only increase user retention but also enhance business effectiveness in providing suitable job opportunities to job seekers.
There are no conflicts of interest for this analysis. This analysis is purely based on personal research with a limited understanding of the business angle The Hub and Balkan Brothers wanted to achieve as the agency that developed this product.
