AiTou is website developed to help international job seekers in
finding jobs and companies that are willing to sponsor work visas.
They also provide access to key information about the organization's sponsorship history and general information that is crucial for
international job seekers.
AiTou is in its nascent stages and thus, wants to revamp its existing
website. To do this they want to leverage UX Design principles to
make the website user-friendly, intuitive, and an indispensable tool
for international job seekers.
For this website redesign project, we worked in a team with the focus
on making changes to the website as suggested by the research and
data synthesis. The information architecture was changed, a new
filtering system was added, company cards and job details were
modified, and a new comparison features were added in the
companies page.
Client | AiTou Technology
Role
I served as UX Designer and lead the UX research phase of the project.
Responsible for sourcing and conducting interviews, data collection and synthesis, ideating concepts, wire-framing, prototyping, user tests, and building high fidelity prototypes.
Methods and Approach
User Research, Tree Testing, Heuristic Evaluation, Business Research, Affinity Mapping, Persona, Journey Mapping, Feature Ideation, Feature Prioritization, MoSCoW Mapping, Wire-framing, Prototyping, and Usability Testing.
Tools
Figma, Adobe XD, Zeplin, Miro, Optimal Workshop, Slack, Zoom, Keynote.
Timeline
Jan - Feb 2022 | 3 weeks sprint
Challenge
Nearly 1.5 million international students obtain OPT authorization to stay and work in the USA after graduation. Thus, there is a huge demand for international job seeker-centric job search websites. AiTou is developed with the goal of helping international job seekers but currently needs to improve the design and functionality of their website, update the information architecture, and improve the users experience.
Outcome
The existing design and information architecture were revamped with the focus of making the website easy to navigate, more interactive, intuitive, and a crucial tool for international job seekers. With these improvements, AiTou has the potential to become the top choice job searching tool for international job seekers because of its focus on work visa sponsoring jobs, improved heuristics, and necessary design changes.
Solution
A revamped website that is easy to use and navigate, informative, intuitive, and a game-changer for international job seekers as it provides all the necessary sponsorship related information and data helpful to the applicants.
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Jobs Page
Filters were added to the jobs page that helped applicants quickly find jobs and increased the success rate of tasks by 23% Sponsorship information added to job postings increased the easiness rating by 28%.
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Company Page
Company cards and job details that can be viewed simultaneously and displayed most important information and this lead to an average decrease of 58 seconds in finding jobs
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Resources Page
Brand new resources feature dedicated to learning, practicing skills, succeeding, and eventually, sharing added to the website and highly appreciated by international job seekers.
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Home Page
Created a revolving banner with secondary information to declutter the home page, improve layout, redesign the primary navigation and make the website more intuitive to the users.
Streamlined Search
Provide users both micro & macro views at the same time!
Seamlessly view job descriptions in-depth on the right and view multiple jobs from a high level simultaneously using the list view.
Added a search bar and more filters that would make the search more comprehensive and user-driven.
Trends Decoded
Helping users gather all the sponsorship data they need!
Created a landing page that gives information about sponsorship history and international recruitment trends helping company prioritization.
A-Z filter option created and increased visibility by creating a row of 5 company cards replacing the row of 3.
Added comparison feature to compare historic sponsorship of trends of two employers.
Intuitive Navigation
Reduced redundant elements and defined primary navigation elements.
Added the goal of the website in the top banner and removed distractions.
Updated the primary navigation with IA and UI and added preview functionality to secondary navigation options.
Decluttered the page by adding a revolving banner and making more space for other options.
Empowering Users
Provide a wide array of information that will help in all aspects of the job search process.
Organized the content by creating the following categories: FAQ, Language & Culture, Quick Tips, VISA Immigration, and Read.
Created a Resources page that provides crucial information to aid the job search process.
How exactly did we get here?
Read about the overall design process below
Initial Discovery
Discovery phase included understanding client goals, consolidating research, defining our scope and uncovering existing
information architecture.
Client Goals
Gaining insight into AiTou road map
- To kick off our design sprint we virtually met with the AiTou team consisting of Crystal An, Bin Xu, and Chelsey Qiu.
- The Beta version of the AiTou website was released in June 2021 and the official website is planned to launch before the first quarter of 2022.
- In order to have maximum impact and become an indispensable tool for international job seeker's AiTou wants to revamp its existing website.
Defining Our Scope
AiTou's existing website is based on an idea that has the potential to become the number job search tool of choice for millions of international seekers in the US. But it currently lacks refinement and features that will convert these potential users into full-fledged international job applicants using AiTou.
Our initial Design Scope Included :
To help AiTou reach its full potential we evaluated the usability of the Job search page and changed the design to make it more intuitive.
Overhauled the information architecture and overall look to improve the heuristics of the website
Updated the Companies page and added the Resources page to improve the usability and add depth to the website.
our Approach
In our approach we implemented the UX Design process for this project which consisted of 5 different stages to strategically and systematically work in all the aspects of the project.
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EMPATHIZE
Define the challenges the international job seekers are facing in the current job market and what resources are necessary for them?
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DEFINE
Delve deeper into international job seekers' point of view and understand their goals, needs, and pain points.
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IDEATE
Develop ideas based on international job seekers' interviews. Consider the whole spectrum of users and their perspectives
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PROTOTYPE
Develop a variety of designs based on insights gained and experiment with different ways to solve the challenges.
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TEST
Have international job seekers test the prototype. Do they find it useful? How can it be improved?
RESEARCH
Goal: Build An understanding of the industry and identify needs of the users
bUSINESS RESEARCH
GOAL - Build an understanding of AiTou's competitors, their features, and how AiTou can stand out. For the business research phase a Competitive Feature Analysis, Competitive Matrix, Heuristic Evaluation, and Tree Testing was conducted.
Feature Analysis
Looking at what our competitors succeeded in and where there is space to improve was key to narrowing our focus on what feature to choose. We chose five frontrunners in the industry to see what the Aitou’s user may also benefit from.
What we found
AiTou has not taken advantage of many features yet and this leaves a lot of room for growth and opportunity.
The other 5 companies seem to be very similar in their offerings.
AiTou has the potential to strike out in a new direction and create something very different from their competitors.
recommendations
AiTou should take the opportunity to differentiate themselves and lean into features that are particularly helpful to international job seekers.
Spending time and effort on international job seeker-oriented features is recommended.
Competitive matrix
Understanding where the majority of competitors are focusing their effort and resources was very helpful in understanding how AiTou is different and what direction the AiTou team must proceed ahead with.
What we found
Most job search engines are general and open to all, unlike AiTou.
AiTou is tailored towards international job applications and is very specific.
Handshake is specifically for college students but not focused only on international students.
recommendations
AiTou should continue on their trajectory and become the go-to platform for international job seekers.
They should develop features that will strengthen their specificity towards international job seekers such as crucial information and opportunities.
Heuristic Evaluations
The existing website was not designed based on UX Design Principles and thus, evaluating the heuristics of all the pages on the website was needed to identify potential areas of improvement.
What we found
The largest problem we found was a medium problem on the homepage’s value. There was not enough info notifying the user of what value AiTou could add to their job searching experience.
Next, the site posed minor problems for delightfulness across all 4 screens indicating to us that more thought needs to be put into what international applicants are really looking to achieve.
Lastly, 3 screens scored minor problems in findable evaluations.
recommendations
Add a value prop or company principles to homepage.
Add intuitive special features that to make information easier to find thus, more delightful.
We plan to make re-evaluate the user flow and examine the filtering options to address these issues
USER RESEARCH
GOAL - The goal of user research for this project was to gain a first-hand understanding of the different challenges international job seekers face and also what role AiTou was playing in their journey.
TARGET INTERVIEWEES
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES
Defining Our Target Audience
Meet Priscilla!
Priscilla is a Electrical Engineer who is about to graduate from University of Pennsylvania. As her student visa is expiring soon, she will be seeking employment in the US. She has 90 days to find employment, post graduation, and is in a stressful situation to find a job in her field.
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goals
To find employment in the US
To find American companies that sponsors work Visas for international job seekers.
To find better career opportunities in the US that provides better salary and benefits
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Needs
Educational resources regarding sponsorship information
To be able to find and secure a job quickly by knowing whether or not she meets visa qualifications early in the process
Access to a wider network of professionals.
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Frustrations
Can’t find many resources that help out international applicants
Sometimes finds out about sponsorship availability only after interviewing
A dAY IN THE LIFE OF PRISCILLA!
Revised Problem Statement
After analyzing all our research we were happy to see our initial problem statement was validated by our insights international applicants need. We then went on to write a more specific revised problem statement.
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INSIGHT
Priscilla is an international applicant facing strict deadlines when looking for work, but finds that a lot of her time in the job hunt is used on search engines looking for companies that provide H1B sponsorship.
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PERSONA
As a result, Priscilla feels overwhelmed and unconfident in her ability to secure a position in the United States in a timely matter.
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GOAL
How might we better connect international applicants to American companies wanting to employ the best talents from all over the world?
IDEATION & DESIGN
The design and ideation stages were carried out with the goal of developing new designs, features, and prioritizing them based on impact and effort needed.
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MoSCoW
By ranking features in terms of what is absolutely necessary for the product tow rod we are able to find a clear start point to build off of and can maintain control of the project instead of letting it spin off into multiple directions that aren’t necessary yet.
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Feature Prioritization
The feature prioritization matrix allows us to sort the features one step further. By adding the element of effort it help us work with within the realm of what is possible to accomplish now
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Design Studio
After our feature prioritization matrix and MoSCoW mapping, we narrowed down the features that needed to be in our low-fi designs. Each team member used a pen and paper to deign their version of the screens.
Usability Testing Round 1
The usability testing was conducted on the Medium Fidelity prototype and the results, insights, and recommendations from this testing will be used to inform the High-Fidelity Prototype.
Mid Fidelity Scorecard Round 1
Key Insights from Round 1
The average success rate of the task of finding jobs is 70% and thus, there is potential for improvement.
The lowest success rate of 70% and highest time of 1m 27s were needed to find internships as this could not be found directly using the jobs page.
The shortest time of 25s, the highest success rate of 80%, and the easiest task was finding what E-Verified meant and thus, the Resources button was a success.
Final design solution
The research synthesis, persona point of view, and usability testing from the medium-fidelity prototype were all integrated to develop the Final Design Solution that was to be presented to AiTou.
Comparing Site Screen Flow Task 1 -
Please search for more information about career opportunities at Netflix
EXISTING REVISED
comparing Site Screen Flow Task 2 -
You want to learn more information about a full stack developer job at Robert Half. Please find the information you need by using the website’s navigation
EXISTING REVISED
comparing Site Screen Flow Task 3 -
Please look for an internship opportunity in Data Science Customer Success at Zoom
EXISTING REVISED
Revised Site Screen Flow Task 4 -
You’ve seen job postings advertising they are “E-verified.” Use AiTou’s site to learn what “E-verified” means.
EXISTING REVISED
Usability Testing Round 2
The High-Fidelity prototype was tested for the same tasks as the Medium-Fidelity prototype. A comparison of the usability test results is provided here.
High- fidelity Scorecard Round 2
Key Insights from Round 2
The time it takes for users to complete tasks using the proposed design had decreased at an average of 58 second.
Their rate at success had increased by 23%.
Moreover, results show that our users had responded that completing tasks using the proposed design was easier by an average of 1.4 points on a 1–5 scale of easiness ratings.
It was a great experience working with the AiTou team where we were challenged and we saw our growth as a team as well. The outcomes were gratifying and hope that it helps international job seekers in their journey.
Next Steps and Recommendations
Addition of the referral section
Building out community oriented features.
Enhancing the company page to provide better and more concise information.
Conducting further usability testing and user research.