Enabling change and inclusion
A 4-week project through General Assembly working with Invisible Strengths to incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as part of their hiring process.
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As a UX designer, I lead the designs for the job post with accommodations feature.
Team:
3 UX Designers
Areas:
Wireframing, Usability Testing, Mobile Design
Timeline:
4 Weeks
Introduction
What is this project about?
This 2.5 week design sprint paired students with an early-stage startup. As the lead UX researcher, I facilitated the analysis and synthesis of research findings and led the design of the main job post user flow.
At the end of the sprint, our team provided high fidelity wireframes based on three user flows, which are currently used by Invisible Strengths in their investor and pitch decks.
Who is Invisible Strengths?
Invisible Strengths ("IS") is an early-stage startup providing a social networking app that connects intersectional (BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ disabled) candidates in the public health field with inclusive work environments.
Their goal is to create a platform that prioritizes accommodations and provides diversity, education, accommodation, and inclusivity ("DEAI") focused education and training.
"Centering on ADA compliance and DEAI accommodations is what sets us apart"
- Mariah Barber, Founder and CEO
Their ask
IS recently finished a mobile-focused design sprint based on the job seeker as the user and brought our team in to research and ideate on the employer/job provider as the user with three features.
For conciseness, this case study will focus on ask #2 - creating a job post with accommodations.
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While the entire team collaborated on creating components and conducting usability tests, I led the design for the job post section.
Three requested features:
Onboarding and account creation
Creating a job post with accommodations
Accessing the company profile page to respond to reviews.
Research
Surveys and interviews
The first thing we wanted to do after our initial meeting with IS was to conduct research to guide our design decisions and understand what our users needed or were concerned about.
Our survey and interview questions were organized into two themes
1. General recruiting processes and challenges
Which job posting application(s) does your company currently subscribe to?
Walk me through your process of searching for/finding candidates?
What are the biggest challenges facing your job in recruitment today?
2. Employer related DEAI questions
DEAI is an important part of my company’s mission statement (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree)
I feel knowledgeable about how to address the subject of DEAI in the workplace (1 - strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree)
What is your company currently doing to accommodate for individuals with disabilities?
Takeaway #1: Importance of DEAI in the workplace vs. the reality
One of the most revealing takeaways from our research was that there was a disconnect between what our interviewees were saying versus what was actually practiced.
Interviewees mentioned that DEAI was a priority for their company, but there was a lot of uncertainty when we asked what their company provided and how they were accommodating for DEAI.
Takeaway #2: Education and the desire to learn more
While many interviewees understood that their company offered DEAI accommodations, they didn’t fully understand what they were or how to incorporate them into their recruiting process.
In addition, they needed to know the business base behind DEAI - how does accommodating for DEAI help their bottom line?
Exploration and Ideation
Initial greyscale wireframe
Our research helped confirm that there was a use case for Invisible Strengths' accommodations focused application. Because there were certain features we wanted to prioritize, we jumped straight into creating user flows and mid-fidelity wireframes.
Designs and processes based off existing apps such as LinkedIn for familiarity to reduce learning curve.
Focus on DEAI education throughout the process, which ties into the ethos of Invisible Strengths
Collaborative design to support the shared process of recruiting.
The persona and user flows are not visually included in this case study, but can be viewed in my Invisible Strengths Documentation Figma file.
Testing and iterating
Since we were building from the ground up, we knew we needed feedback to guide our iterations. We conducted two rounds of usability testing and made the following key changes to the job search flow:
Change #1: More options for searching and adding accommodations
To find an accommodation, users have to search through 78 unique accommodations under 10 categories. During usability testing, users would select the incorrect category and told us the process felt overwhelming.
I added a search bar in a visible location and 50% of users opted to use search the feature during the second round of usability testing.
V1 greyscale
V2 w/ searchbar
Change #2: Clearer feedback on selected accommodations
After finding the requested accommodation, several users continued searching even after activating the checkbox. The prototype did not provide enough visible feedback to the user.
I updated the number tracker to a brighter, secondary yellow and added a summary feature for a concise view of selected accommodations.
V1 greyscale
V2 w/ brighter indicators
Finalizing
The high-fidelity prototype
IS's ask was mid-fidelity wireframes and we delivered high-fidelity wireframes that the Client is including in their investor decks.
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The user of this application wants to create a job post with two behavioral accommodations: additional training time and flexible schedules & deadlines.
Landing page. Select 'Add' to browse accommodations.
Open Behavior Aids section dropdown
Select 1st accommodation, additional training time
1st accommodation selected. Use search bar for accommodation #2
Search fields populate
Select 2nd accommodation, flexible schedules & deadlines
Accommodations view reflects 2 selected under behavior aids section
Drag or 'x' out of the accommodations overlay
Select and update for remaining fields
Select and update for remaining fields
Post or save as a draft
Jobs dashboard with active and draft posts
Wrapping Up
What I learned
#1: Maintain a consistent and organized design system
For efficiency, we took a divide and conquer approach for the three separate flows. However, client feedback during one of our walkthroughs was that it seemed like we were creating three separate apps.
Next time, we'll create a component library and discuss styles earlier to reduce redesign time at the end.
#2: Keep accessibility at the forefront
Are our buttons spaced properly? Are the colors contrasting enough? In order to make sure our application and content was inclusive and accessible, we consistently referenced the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
KPIs on my mind
As an early stage start-up, the Invisible Strengths team is still in the ideation and fundraising phase. I brought up following key performance indicators (KPIs) to show the impact we made on IS's overall business.
Market potential
Responses to our survey and interviews validated the market potential for an accommodations and DEAI focused employment application. Hiring managers and recruiters want to learn more about DEAI and have accommodations they are not incorporating into their hiring process.
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About 50% of our survey participants were interested in being an early subscriber to Invisible Strengths' platform.
Profitability
We ran into an unexpected roadblock when we found that while job seekers could access employment sites for free, there were a lot of paywalls for employers. This limited our ability to research job post features, but sparked the idea to provide IS with a spreadsheet documenting competitor pricing plans.
We did research through surveys, company page FAQs, and Google forums to map out the differences between free vs. paid access, which we provided to IS as a resource to guide their pricing plan in the future.