Empowering carers to find well-suited and supportive careers
Client Contribution
Outpace UX Designer
May - Jun 2022 (6 Weeks) UI Designer
Team
Tal Adler-Levi, Emily Carvalho, Su Chen, Elaine Fang, Amanda Denning,
Hannah Dimmock
Tal Adler-Levi, Emily Carvalho, Su Chen, Elaine Fang, Amanda Denning,
Hannah Dimmock
OVERVIEW
After the Aged Care Royal Commission revealed that the industry was in a bad state and the training was severely lacking, Outpace Training focused on providing carers with a carer-centric platform aimed at improving training standards. As part of this initiative, they sought to develop a marketplace for job seekers and businesses to find and recruit for jobs.
RESEARCH
Demographic: Users approaching retirement age and/or users whose second language is English
We conducted 5 1:1 interviews with participants who fit the primary demographic and surveyed 23 participants. As we had limited access to the primary user group to conduct research, our solution was the create a secondary user group consisting of a broader group of workers.
Along with direct competitor analysis, Airbnb and Gumtree were analysed as indirect competitors. Both websites had unique features that could be transformed and adapted to be useful in a job searching platform.
As this marketplace focused on carers, this provided the opportunity to apply a "featured category" bar on the homepage, similar to bother Airbnb and Gumtree, which could be used to group aged care roles and allow users to discover other roles.
Airbnb also had a feature which allowed you to see your trip details, which in turn might be useful if translated into "Application Process Details". An example would be if Check-in/Check-out time could be replaced with interview start and end time or 'Get Directions' could give you directions to the hiring company's address.
MAPPING
In conjunction with our affinity map, an empathy map was utilised to gain a better understanding of our user's needs. The insights under "pains" and "gains" were especially useful as they guided the direction of our design work.
GOALS
A list of “How might we?” questions were generated to ensure that the design phase would consider the outcomes of the research in a meaningful way. We narrowed down 10 HMW questions into three key questions.
1. How might we improve the job search process for carers so that they can search based on specific filters/categories?
2. How might we provide personalised job recommendations for carers based on their desired location(s)?
3. How might we make finding a good and reputable company easier for carers so they are not at risk in work for a poor-quality organisation with a lack of support?
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
It was now time to start mapping out the flow of the website to allow users to navigate between screens with minimal effort. From the homepage, four main tasks branched out within the website:
• Job Search
• Sign up/Sign in
• Create Profile
• Apply for a Job
Below is a section of the IA which depicts the finding, comparing, and applying for job task flow.
DESIGNS
We designed mid-fidelity wireframes to show the layout of the website as an initial concept, working through the actions of profile creation, viewing job listings, comparing job listings, company reviews, managing alerts and applying for jobs. With the insights we discovered during the research phase in mind, we applied features that would alleviate the pain points of users searching for a job.
It was discovered during research that many users held onto the same job for many years and therefore did not have an updated or even a digital resume ready.
Our solution was to add a feature where they could automatically build a digital resume, this creates a digital profile on the website where companies can review your details and qualifications but can also be downloaded into a PDF for a more traditional resume.
Another key feature that was added to the job searching marketplace was a recommended jobs section.
Using your profile, recent searches, and especially your qualifications, jobs that you may be interested in are presented to you on the homepage. To improve the user flow, we added an additional pathway so you can access the recommended jobs from your profile page too.
On the homepage, we kept the search bar simple to match the user demographic, after the initial search users are able to filter further. These filters were chosen based on the insights found during the research phase.
Additionally, as the location was a key factor when considering a job, we adapted Airbnb's map view to the website which allowed you to search using a map and concentrate the job list based on where you lived.
For our last flow, users are able to undertake a company comparison using the company bio and reviews page.
One of the main insights gathered was that users were feeling unsupported by their companies so having an easily accessible page where they could read reviews of the companies from current or previous staff could alleviate the anxiety of working for an unsupportive company.
REVISITING THE DESIGN
I revisited the project after delivering the low-fidelity wireframes required by the client and made some design updates to ensure the look of the website fit within their existing brand/style guide. Below are three versions of the homepage: a public view, an account holder with recommended jobs, and a public view on a mobile.
