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Sparc is a startup and career networking platform looking to foster direct communication between hiring managers and diverse student organizations. Sparc’s platform offers students professional development opportunities such as on-demand career coaching and networking events but would like to encourage communication between students and hiring managers.
QUICK SUMMARY
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Many career networking & employment websites create barriers to communication between applicants and employers. For this project, I needed to upgrade Sparc’s ‘Entities’ page and design user flows that encourage both employers and students to search for each other.
CHALLENGE
ROLE
I was the sole designer at Sparc. This project was worked on from May to August 2023.
User research, competitive analysis, sketching, wireframing, prototyping, design iteration
Tools: Adobe XD, Material Design
METHODS
APPROACH
I started by meeting with stakeholders to identify flaws in the previous interface. The ideas were motivated by encouraging communication between students and employers.
Understanding the problem…
Sparc’s previous user interface allows users to search for companies, schools, and various organizations. However, it is missing elements than can encourage communication and engagement between both students and hiring managers.
PREVIOUS INTERFACE
Notes from Stakeholders
• Search function needs to be optimized
• Students need to be able to send messages and request info sessions
• Employers need to be able to send job posts and invite student orgs to events
USER RESEARCH
At a startup, time and resources can be very limited but, it is always important to understand and prioritize users needs. Along with a competitive analysis, I had weekly meetings with the company stakeholders to understand the needs and motivations of both the students and employers.
STUDENT PAIN POINTS
1
Building a Network
Many students have a had time jumpstarting their professional network and need a more approachable method.
2
Lack of Communication
The job search can be difficult and many students feel discouraged by the lack of communication between them and employers.
3
Lack of Visibility
Students are looking for new ways to stand out from the crowd in the job search process.
EMPLOYER PAIN POINTS
1
High Quality Applicants
Employers are looking for quality applicants that have a passion and deep interest in the work they do.
2
Event Attendance
Employers want make sure that recruiting events are attended in large by high quality applicants
3
Attrition Rates
Employers are looking to backfill their voluntary and involuntary terminations each year and need new methods of doing so.
ARCHETYPES
The Graduating Job Seeker
“As a student preparing for graduation, I want to contact employers directly to secure a job.”
Secure a job before graduation
Contact hiring managers for possible employment options
Attend networking and recruiting events
Goals
Frustrations
Cannot communicate with employers directly
Nervous about not being able to find a job
The Busy Hiring Manager
“As a hiring manager, I need an easy way to contact strong applicants and fill open positions.”
Want to communicate directly with high quality applicants
Need to fulfill recruitment quotas
Goals
Find high quality applicants fill open positions
Increase attendance to recruiting events
Frustrations
Both the graduating job seeker and the busy hiring manager are in need of new ways to contact each other directly. The job seeker is new to the job market and needs to stand out while the busy hiring manager is eager to fill positions. They both want an efficient way to find each other and communicate to learn about what they both have to offer.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
WHAT’S THE NEED?
The Graduating Job Seeker & Busy Hiring Manager need…
A career networking platform that allows hiring managers and student organizations to communicate directly.
The new Sparc feature will allow student organizations to contact hiring managers and request informational interviews. For employers, they will be able to contact student organizations and invite them to recruiting events hosted by their company. This provides both users with direct access to each other and allows them to learn more about the other.
MARKET RESEARCH
Interactive feed for users
Search jobs by keyword, title and location
Direct messaging between users
Recommended jobs based on work.history
Extensive filtering feature
Hire Black Now
Search jobs by keyword, title and location
Wide variety of job listings
Map view of open jobs in your area
Extensive filtering feature
Indeed
Over 12,000 job listings
Shows company reviews from past and present employees
Salary transparency search tool
Search jobs by keyword, title and location
There’s a ton of career networking apps and websites out there targeting potential job applicants. The three main apps we looked into were LinkedIn, Hire Black Now and Indeed. They all had complex job search features and some variation of filtering through the content.
Starting the design…
INITIAL DESIGNS & SKETCHES
So, I began by sketching designs for the employer view of this feature incorporating market trends and requests from company stakeholders.
DIGITAL WIREFRAMES
INITIAL PROTOTYPE
STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK
Sleek user interface that incorporates all the details requested
Great additions to the search bar
Engaging design solution for user painpoints
Hero image and page layout is inconsistent with other pages
Use Material Design guidelines
Grid of cards layout can cause information overload
After presenting my prototype to stakeholders, I received a lot of positive feedback on translating user pain points into design elements. The stakeholders thought the design was creative and moving in right direction but ultimately needed more work . I needed to adjust the page layout to be consistent with Material Design guidelines as well as consider information overload & site-wide consistency.
Refining the design…
DESIGN SYSTEM
So, I began familiarizing myself with Material Design guidelines and design components.
Since Material Design is used for all of Google’s products, I took inspiration from Gmail for the ‘Send Job Post’ feature. See incorporations below:
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
To avoid information overload for users, I opted to replace the grid view with a list view. I also made changes to improve readability and navigation for users.
SITEWIDE CONSISTENCY
After those changes were made, I was left with a page layout that was far more consistent with the other pages of Sparc’s website.
Job Listing Page
Events Page
RECRUITER USER FLOW
STUDENT USER FLOW
Reflection
What did you learn from this project?
This project taught me how to work with a design system and collaborate with stakeholders to create an informed design solution. I also learned how to leverage limited resources to improve user experiences.
What’s next?
Working with start-up organizations can be challenging due to limited resources but I’m very proud of the final iterations of the user flows. I would have loved to incorporate user interviews to further inform my earlier iterations of the design. Although my research was largely informed by market research and company stakeholders, it would have been great to hear from users more directly.
The new feature is currently being developed by Sparc’s CTO. Next, I will begin working on mobile views of the user flows and presenting ways to showcase the feature on Sparc’s homepage.
What would you have done differently?