A UX Research Case Study
GoodPeople
GoodPeople is a job board that aims to bring humanity back to the job search.
They aim to give job seekers a safe space to find relevant, accurate, up-to-date, and descriptive job postings from companies that encourage inclusivity, transparency, and diversity.
While this case study focuses on UX research, I also worked as the UI Design Lead and as a UX designer to create the design system and mobile/desktop screens.
Overview
UX Researcher
UX Designer
UI (Design System) Design Lead
My Role
Duration
Platform
Four Month Contract
Mobile Site
Desktop Site
Team
Meg Beauregard
Emma Kopec
The Challenge
Discover how users are currently feeling about the job search process
Discover what is information is important to users when looking for a job
Discover current pain points for users when looking for a job
Determining what information users are lacking in their current job search
Discover how important company culture, benefits, diversity and salary are to people applying for jobs
Discover how user’s diverse identities effect their job search
Goals
Problem Statement
In order to make users feel respected and valued in their job search, our product will help users find jobs online that align with their values by giving them a job searching platform that values diversity, transparency, respect, and inclusivity to all users.
We will know if our product worked when we see users feel less frustrated, discourages, and marginalized by using GoodPeople's site in their job search.
Research Methods
Throughout my process, every method I use follows this general timeline from start to finish
CEO/Stakeholder Interview
User Interviews
Purpose: The purpose of the stakeholder interview was to gain an understanding of the CEO's vision for the company, her goals, and her priorities. I also wanted to learn about the company's stakeholders and how the company makes money.
Outcome: The interview was successful in providing me with the information I needed. I learned that the CEO founded GoodPeople with the goal of helping people find meaningful work. She is passionate about creating a company that is both profitable and socially responsible. The interview also gave me insight into the scope of the project and led me to information about the target audience, the company's competitors, the services provided to businesses, and the marketing strategy.
Purpose: User Interviews were conducted in order to gain an understanding of the target audience's experience job hunting. I wanted to learn about their process, challenges, pain-points, needs, and moods.
Method: I conducted 5 of the 9 user interviews. The interviews took place virtually via a 1:1 video call and lasted about 30 minutes each. Interviewees in the target audience were found by posting a message in the GoodPeople Slack channel. To qualify for the research participants must have been actively searching for a job within the past month.
Limitations: Due to budget and time restraints, interviews were conducted with a relatively small sample size of users. The sample size was taken into account when analyzing data and creating the deliverables, and I decided to back up the findings by conducting a survey with a larger audience.
Significance: After the 9 interviews with a diverse pool of users from the target audience, I created an affinity map with over 200 sticky notes featuring user quotes. This map provided insight into job seekers' wants and needs along with their opinions on job descriptions, research, networking, discrimination, and the application process as a whole.
User Surveys
Purpose: Authoring a survey was used as a way to gather quantitative data from a larger pool of users in our target audience. I wanted to uncover information that was touched upon in my user interviews, as well as gather new information that would provide insights for the best solutions to our user's problems down the line.
Method: The survey had 4 sections of questions covering demographics, job requirements, personal research of companies, and overall feelings and experiences. The survey was distributed on job hunting channels on Slack and LinkedIn. The questions were a mix of open-ended, multiple-choice, checkbox, and Likert scale questions.
Significance: The survey had 69 respondents within the target audience. This data from a larger pool backed up the data from our user interviews and provided more data such as the most common job-seeking platforms, how demographics affect the job hunt, and how much users trust job descriptions and companies.
Word cloud made using the write-in answers from the question "Use three words to describe your job hunt"
Feature Inventory
Purpose: The purpose of the feature inventory was to conduct a competitive analysis of job search platforms in order to identify the features that are most important to job seekers and to determine how GoodPeople can meet or exceed the expectations of our target audience.
Significance: After reviewing 11 competitors' sites and logging the presence features such as search bars, filter bars, log-in screens, saved searches, and job descriptions, I color-coded the list. The colors represented features that we would need to have on launch, features we would need to have eventually, unnecessary features, and features that would be nice to have if possible. The categories were determined by analyzing what features would make GoodPeopel stand out from its competitors, and what features are so commonly used by competitors that users have come to expect them.
Findings and Deliverables
Personas
Alva represents the job seekers who are applying to a large number of roles in an attempt to get their foot in the door at a company as soon as possible. These users don't normally spend time reviewing the company or doing outside research. They spend a few minutes making sure they meet the qualifications, then apply and move on to the next job that has been posted. Generally, research on the companies isn't done unless they hear back for an interview.
Nina represents the job seekers who spend time researching each company before they apply for a position. These users usually have enough years in their industry to know exactly what they are looking for in their position. Users like Nina have a list of dealbreakers and review the company thoroughly to make sure it aligns with their values before submitting an application.
Findings: The user interviews and survey revealed two distinct personas who would use the GoodPeople site during their job search. Alva and Nina both use GoodPeople to find and apply for jobs, but they have different needs and preferences. (For more on this, see the section: Impact on Design).
Significance: The findings from the personas were incredibly beneficial when it came to site mapping. The site map was designed to meet the needs of both Alva and Nina, while also providing a seamless user experience. For more on this, see the section: Impact on Design.
Journey Map
Purpose: Journey maps were created for both Alva and Nina to further personify the target users and to understand their experiences in the job search process. The user interviews and survey revealed that the job search is an overwhelmingly negative journey for all users in the target audience. It was important to map out the user's journeys to discover where GoodPeople could have an impact and to identify opportunities to improve the experience.
Significance: The journey maps had significance to the research and design of the GoodPeople site. They helped to identify the pain points that users experience during the job search process and to prioritize features and functionality that would address these pain points. The journey maps also helped to create a shared understanding of the user experience among the GoodPeople team, which was essential for ensuring that the site was designed with the user in mind.
Impact on Morale: An unintended yet exciting outcome is that the journey maps also had an impact on morale when shown to the CEO and the rest of the GoodPeople team. The maps helped to solidify the belief that a site like GoodPeople would make a difference to people and that the work that is being done and money that is being spent would well worth it.
Nina's Journey
Alva's Journey
Research Report
Purpose: Keeping the CEO and development teams in the loop regarding the research was a top priority throughout the project. Data synthesis methods such as affinity maps and spreadsheets can sometimes be messy and confusing for people outside the team. By writing research reports, I ensured that digestible key data was able to be shared easily across the teams. While writing a research report can take up some extra time, the ability to keep the rest of the team up to date is well worth the effort.
Outline: The document outlined the research goals, the methodology, the timeline, participant demographics, the key themes and findings, and final takeaways and quotes from the participants.
Spec Sheet
Purpose: The purpose of the spec sheet was to ensure that the design and development teams implemented all of the features and functionality that were identified through user research and analysis, as well as to provide a blueprint for the site's development.
The Impact of Research on Design
Search Bar
Background: Based on the feature inventory, surveys, and interviews, a search bar was an integral part of the site. I had added it to the spec sheet and included it in the mid-fi design that was being usability tested. During a weekly meeting, while reviewing the spec sheet, the dev team raised a concern with the request for a search bar to be implemented in the initial website launch. According to the developers, the budget was not large enough to include one, and the proposed solution by the dev team was for the search bar to be scrapped entirely.
Solution: The search bar was one of the most important features for users. In the feature inventory, all of the direct competitors had a search bar. In the surveys and interviews, users mentioned using the search bar to find jobs that were a good fit for them. In the usability tests, I observed that the search bar was the first thing they clicked on when they visited the site and were given a task to locate a job. Using this data, I presented my findings to the CEO and development team, and a solution to increase timeline/budget to ensure the ability to have a limited search feature at launch was agreed upon.
Information Placement
Background: Using the information from the two personas, I determined what type of user was spending time on each type of page, and from there, based on the data synthesis was able to pinpoint where certain data would be most beneficial to users.
Solution: Information such as job role, salary, experience level, key responsibilities, and location would be easily identifiable on the job description page for users like Alva who just want to make sure they qualify for a role at a trustworthy company and apply. Information such as a company's mission statement, core values, diversity stats, and promo videos would be found on the company's profile for easy access to users like Nina, who are interested in a deeper dive into the company.
Search Filters
Background: Being able to sort through the jobs on GoodPeople using specific filters was high on the list of priorities for users. All survey respondents listed at least one must-have or dealbreaker that they wanted to filter by when job searching.
Impact: I used the affinity map from the survey and the interview to determine what filters would be the most utilized by users while navigating GoodPeople. These were then sorted into broad categories to determine the main filters that needed to be listed on the site.
Colors
Background: Using a word cloud generated from survey responses, it is clear that people feel overwhelmingly stressed, frustrated, and negative while navigating through the job market. To combat this, I performed color theory research and determined the best colors for the site to bring about calm, peaceful, and hopefully mood of the users.
Outcome: The information on colors was presented, however, the founder decided to move forward with a lime green color scheme instead to remain cohesive with the logo.
Usability Testing
Purpose: Usability testing was done twice throughout the timeline to learn how users interact with the design and identify any opportunities to improve the service. The first round of testing was done on the mid-fidelity prototype, and the second on the high-fidelity prototype.
Method: In both rounds of testing, we asked 5 users to complete 3 tasks.
Find a job that is hybrid in Illinois and save it
Locate the diversity stats for XYZ Company
Locate the job you saved earlier and apply to it
The results were input into a spreadsheet that recorded the time to complete the task, the number of errors made, if the task was completed, any notes or comments the users had, and my personal key takeaway from the task as the author.
After each round of testing, the improvement opportunities were analyzed to determine solutions, and then those solutions were charted on a prioritization matrix in order to determine which solutions were feasible and plan out the next steps.
Prioritization Matrix
Outcome: The usability testing showed great improvement from round one to round two. All tasks saw a significant decrease in time to complete the task as well as the number of errors that occurred during completion. In this case, a decrease in time spent per task is seen as a positive because users were able to locate the desired jobs and necessary information faster with less frustration, resulting in more possibility of users applying to jobs instead of leaving the site.
Next Steps
While the contract I had with GoodPeople was short-term, had the project continued I would have done the following research in order to uncover any further challenges or pain points in the site that could be improved upon.
Complete more rounds of usability testing on the final website
Working with users on the developed site would provide all the benefits of a usability test, while also removing any challenges associated with users working from a prototype, and it would allow the developers to find errors in their code.
Attain feedback from customer service teams assisting users
The customer service team works directly with customers and will have first-hand knowledge regarding how users are interacting with the site. Allowing researchers to communicate with the customer service unit gives insight into aspects of the site that confuse users and highlights their concerns, problems, or frustrations regarding their journey through the site.
Gather insight and feedback from the clients (job posters)
GoodPeople will work directly with companies that wish to post jobs on the site. The companies may have insight such as feedback from applicants they are interviewing and stats regarding an increase or decrease in the number of applications.
Gather site analytics
Analytics is research that can only be gathered once the site is launched. Data such as how many users are visiting the site, what pages they are going to, how many return accounts are coming to the site, and how long users are on the site, would all be helpful in determining if the site map and flow are working properly for the users.