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Hireminder

This job application tracker app is for entry-level job seekers in the US to feel empowered by keeping track and managing their job applications

Hireminder landing.jpg

Client             Abigail Adams, New York University

My Role          UI/UX Designer, Project Manager, UX Researcher

Project Time     September - December 2023

Overview

Hireminder is an application designed to empower recent college graduates in the U.S. to take greater control of their job application process. Although job openings exist, many graduates struggle to secure employment. Through user research, I found that the primary challenges our target audience faces are tracking applications and communicating effectively with potential employers. Guided by these insights, I developed a job application tracker that serves as a central hub for users to save and manage job applications while receiving clear, actionable steps throughout their job search journey.  

Target Audience

  • Job seekers looking for entry/junior-level positions in the US

  • Students/recent graduates from a US college or university

  • Those living in the US

  • Most likely have less than 3 years of professional experience

  • Mid/early 20s (22-26 years old)

My Role

  • As one of the UX designers on the team, I took on several tasks through the process, from project management, user research, UX writing, to lo-fi and hi-fi prototyping. 

Team

Problem

Currently in the US, many recent college graduates have a difficult time getting hired for an entry or junior level position that relates to their interests. There are job openings available, but having limited work experience puts the users in a disadvantage.

My team's research will investigate the job application experiences of college-graduate entry/junior level job seekers in the US, to understand how we might alleviate the unique challenges they face and support them in this process. 

Solution

A job application tracker that allows users to: 

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  • Save jobs listings from various platforms

  • Organize and manage all applications in one central hub

  • Receive actionable next steps through the process

Interviews and Affinity Mapping

We interviewed 5 participants, then created an affinity map as we analyzed the interviews and tried to summarize our findings. This was the method that helped me come up with the 6 themes shown above, and eventually led me to the user needs statement. 2 of the 7 themes were more about personal preferences/values about a job (Expectations & Location) , 3 of them were mentioned by many but not as problems they were facing, rather as things they knew were important and had strategies for that worked for them (Networking, Job Boards & Preparation). For example, most participants talked about the value of networking, some used online job boards that worked for them, some used AI for preparation etc. However, two themes had common pain points the participants were experiencing (Lack of communication with employers and Tracking applications).

Surveys

We had 25 participants in the survey. Their answers helped me get a better idea of the pain points and informed my user personas. 

Key pain points we identified were:

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  • Not having an efficient/suitable way to keep track of applications → having to enter info manually, dealing with too much info, forgetting info (like application deadlines)

  • Feeling uncertain and/or anxious after sending applications → being unsure about next steps, not getting updates, long waiting times, “not knowing” causes stress but most participants either only “patiently wait for a response and do nothing else” or “keep track of the time that has passed since their last contact with the employers”

  • Pressure to apply to many places to land a satisfactory job (but also applying selectively to find things that interest them) →  management gets harder, keeping track can cause demotivation, and finding interesting opportunities from all the postings and different sites can be difficult

Insights

  1. Not having an efficient and suitable way to manage job search and keep track of job applications.

    • “Forgot information and lost track after applying for too many jobs”

    • “Hard to track when there is a large amount of information”

    • “Entering each company (website) manually is a trouble”

    • “Used to have a spreadsheet to manage job applications, but not doing this anymore as I apply for too many jobs.”

  2. Staying in a passive situation after sending job applications causes feelings of uncertainty and anxiety.

    • The majority of participants: just keep track of the time that has passed since their last contact with the employers, or patiently wait and take no other action.

    • 64% feel uncertain and 44% feel anxious while waiting to hear back. 

    • “Not knowing” causes stress; “a long waiting time” for the interviews

  3. Job seekers have pressure to target interested positions selectively among numerous places and positions to apply.

    1. 64% of the respondents apply to jobs selectively, focusing on finding job opportunities that interest them/align with their career goals.

    2. Finding interesting opportunities from all the postings and different sites can be difficult.

    3. Use AI tools to help with application materials.

User Needs Statement

Entry/junior level job seekers need to actively engage in their job application progress because job seekers feel uncertain and overwhelmed when they lack control over their job application process.

Personas

I created 2 user personas who were differentiated according to their work experience, personalities, and skills. One user persona represents the entry-level job seeker with no experience and is unsure about what to expect. The other one represents the user group with some work experience, and is struggling with organization.

Sketches & Lo-fi Prototypes

A major insight I had from our initial user research was that users need a way to actively engage with their job application process, as the process is inherently passive and there is very little users can do once they submit an application. To overcome this challenge, I made decisions in the design to support users with useful information (e.g. typical wait time from employers, follow-up steps), but also allow room for users to take control over the waiting period by having action steps to complete.

One typical persona I built according to the user research was a job seeker with little work experience looking for an internship or an entry-level job. This kind of job seekers can easily feel stressed to prepare for all kinds of application materials like resumes and cover letters, as well as feel uncomfortable to follow up with the employers mainly because of a lack of confidence and fear of being annoying. Considering these issues, I incorporated three subdivisions - Follow-Up Email, Community Reviews, and AI Feedback in the “Applications” section to support job seekers and guide them to actively engage in the process after applying for a job.

Additionally, the product includes a calendar view and a “My Task” feature so as to help users better organize different job applications and schedule tasks for each of them. Since I learned from our user research that many job seekers have a trouble in dealing with a large amount of job applications and are very likely to forget the progress of a specific job, I also allow job seekers to set a deadline for each personal task and to show them in the calendar, which is a straightforward way to remind users of what they need to do during a specific time.

Usability Testing

​Research Questions

  • Can users easily find what to do next in their job applications?

  • Are users inclined to take some actions through the app while waiting to hear back? (or more specific question: can the users find what to do while waiting to hear back?)

  • Do users know where to organize different types of information (e.g. application in progress, calendar information, etc.)?

  • Can users navigate through the different views of the tracker?

User Tasks​

  • Based on the research questions, I asked the participants to think aloud as they navigated through the lo-fi prototypes in the three given scenarios. 

Usability Testing Results​

Hi-fi Prototype

I made significant changes to our low-fidelity prototype for this iteration. I considered the same scenarios, but redesigned the layout and interactions to maximize usability and visual design.

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  1. Navigation Bar: In the low-fidelity prototype, I essentially had 2 navigation bars. One where the only two options were “Board” and “Calendar” in the header (next to the search bar), and one on the left side. For this iteration, I kept it consistent and put all the tabs under the navigation bar on the left.

    1. Proximity: Similar elements (in this case the tabs) are placed together to achieve cohesiveness

    2. Repetition: All tabs have an icon (from the same icon set) and text, the component is repeated.

  2. Look & Feel: Our low-fidelity prototype already had a “friendly” and “welcoming” feel to it (through large, rounded icons, a simple font and negative space). I wanted to take that a step further by changing our font from Inter to Nunito, which matched perfectly with the friendly look. 

    1. As our goal was to create a website prototype but I didn’t have time to think thoroughly about each and every design component I would need (calendars, widgets for a dashboard, tables etc.), so I went with this route and used UI components from this kit- which ensured that everything was consistent

    2. Color & Contrast: Our primary color is a lively purple, which passes the accessibility contrast ratio. I used this purple as a background for buttons, in a slight gradient on the navigation bar, in charts... This quickly draws attention to important parts of the page.

    3. Typography: Changed our font to match the brand identity, and used various sizes and weights of Nunito to achieve appropriate hierarchy.

    4. Negative Space: Through an improved layout and larger breathing space between lines, I was able to increase the negative space on our pages.

  3. Status: I realized that the status of tasks and status of applications are two different things. In order to avoid confusion, I clarified the goals for  “My Tasks” and “Applications” pages. For the visual design of these pages, I considered the Rule of Odds while improving the overall usability heuristics.

    1. Rule of Odds:  My tasks page has three sections “To Do, In Progress, Done”. Application page (when user clicks on an application and gets to the application details) uses the rule of odds throughout (statuses, AI suggestions, community…).

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