Designing a new feature
The Pathbrite online portfolio engineering team had tried to build a resume feature without any design help, but it was not usable. They needed to have it ready for release in 4 weeks, so they brought me on to design an MVP.
Project details
My Role
I was essentially a one person "Fixer" and UX team for this project.
Results
After the design changes were implemented, analytics showed that users were creating more resumes more quickly and spending more productive time in the tool.
Creating an interactive, skills-based online resume tool
As part of an initiative to connect two distinct Cengage online products—Career Services and Pathbrite portfolio tool—the engineering team quickly added a resume creation feature to their online portfolio platform.
The feature is intended for students who are new to the workforce and may have very little job experience, but want to show their competence through gained skills in non-paid work experience or through education.
The architecture was based on existing portfolio features, but no user research had been conducted, which led to several critical flaws that needed immediate attention.
"So, we built this feature. We know it has problems, but we don’t know what they are. Oh, and we go live in two weeks.”
Research triage
Because of the tight deadline, I wanted to prioritize the UX problems I found in terms of severity so that we could be tactical in how we implemented changes.
Cognitive Walkthrough
Finally, I conducted an unmoderated usability test with 3 users which identified several major usability issues with the current UI. For example, none of the users could accomplish the first task, creating a new resume, due to navigation, discoverability, and other fundamental problems.
Heuristic Evaluation
Next, I did a heuristic review to evaluate the current design based on its compliance with usability standards. About 1/3 of the found issues were rated “must fix/ major usability problem."
Cognitive Walkthrough
Heuristic Evaluation
User Testing
Finally, I conducted an unmoderated usability test with 3 users which identified several major usability issues with the current UI. For example, none of the users could accomplish the first task, creating a new resume, due to navigation, discoverability, and other fundamental problems.
Next, I did a heuristic review to evaluate the current design based on its compliance with usability standards. About 1/3 of the found issues were rated “must fix/ major usability problem."
I started with a cognitive walkthrough, approaching the current design as a new user would, focusing on specific tasks involved in editing, and sharing a new resume. I reviewed my notes with the team, noting where the workflow was unclear.
Usability Research
Iterate, get buy in quickly
Low fidelity wireframes were an effective way to gain meaningful feedback from the team, consensus from stakeholders, and approval from senior leadership to move forward.
Collaborative meetings informed round 1 of designs which I tested with our first set of users
Discovery research and user testing with primary users
In order to get as much data as possible in a limited time, I opted to combine user testing and usability testing. I created a prototype and ran an online user test with 9 participants, which included a set of exploratory questions intended to reveal more about user goals and expectations.
Actionable insights lead to new solutions
Users were insecure about content, tone, format, and how to get started. This provided a good opportunity to leverage value from the career services center which included a skills database tagged by job description.
So, I iterated on the design to include a feature that lets users filter by position, then populate their resume with skills based on the selected position.
Discovery research with secondary users
Since the audience for these resumes are both recruiters and hiring managers, I conducted several interviews with HR recruiters who work closely with hiring managers to understand their goals and needs better. Based on this research I designed a presentation view of the resume to better fit their needs.
For these users, the ideal resume should:
take no more than 30 Seconds to scan, make skills easy to find have a professional visual design tell a clear storyare available in a compatible format (txt) for talent systems
Presentation view
Before
After
Impact
User behavior analytics measured before and after design changes show that users are creating more resumes more quickly and spending more productive, engaged time in the tool.
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