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Chicago.gov is a government website that provides local members of the community with news, programs & initiatives, job opportunities and more. With a current unemployment rate of 5.30% it is vital to the community that citizens have access to learning about new job opportunities and applying for them with ease. Half a million people in Chicago work for a diverse group of labor unions and they are currently able to find available union job postings on the chicago.gov website.
While most of the website is cohesive, modern and accessible, there are a few pages that are not. After taking a close look at what www.Chicago offers I learned that the Job board functionality for union workers is not conducive to an efficient user experience. I closely analyzed three pages realizing that they needed to be redesigned.
I kicked off my research with a competitive analysis. Knowing that the feature and redesign I would be implementing were very niche, I decided to focus my research on widely known online job boards. I analyzed Zip Recruiter, Indeed and Linked In, among many other online sources. I created accounts and tested the different websites to educate myself about their user experience and performed a thorough UI analysis. I had discovered what the most popular job boards contained, and it was then time to focus on my audience.
Typically, I would create a minimum of two personas for a project. However due to the specifications necessary to interact with this specific aspect of the Chicago government website, I decided to create one. This persona captures the essence of the average blue collar Chicago worker who relies on consistent and reliable employment.
I needed to redesign 2 screens, create a job board and a new application working within the constraints of the pre-established design system. Using pre-existing components and adding new ones, I would be able to keep the design cohesive and easy to understand. Before I could begin sketching and conceptualizing the designs, I decided to Interview 5 people via zoom, who all had experience applying for jobs online.
Through User Interviews I made both expected and surprising discoveries that were going to help me move forward with my design. I gathered all my data compared my data and made note of the most important features necessary before moving on to sketching.
Chicago.gov has a pre-established design system that I worked with for this project. I had to remain within the boundaries of the system, but I was also able to expand the system with unique design elements. Any changes that I made to the design system had to be cohesive withe palette and branding.
Before I could begin working on the visual elements for this project, I needed to identify the current task flows that I was aiming to improve based on user frustration. The original task flow is depicted on the left side of this model, showing that the login begins after the job search. The improved task flow would allow the user to log in or sign up before they even began the job search. It allows for a smoother uninterrupted experience.
After concluding my user research I began conceptualizing my screens. After sketching a few possibilities I settled on the 4 screens depicted below. These designs would move on to the high fidelity process so that I could begin usability testing.
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I performed moderated usability testing with 5 participants who had previously used online job boards to apply for employment opportunities. I had the participants work through specific tasks on the original screens and the new screens that I designed. Working the process as if they were union workers, they were asked to Sign in to begin their job search, view details about an accountant job and fill out an application for the account job job opportunity. I received feedback on both the experience and visual elements the users were all very pleased with the new UI and felt the website was much easier to navigate. The users were pleased with the quick apply option and were pleased that they did not have to navigate to a new page to fill out an application. There were concerns about the application entry forms amongst 3 of 5 users which were addressed before I moved on to my final product.
After applying the changes brought to my attention through usability testing my designs were officially completed. The final screens are cohesive and well balanced with the pre-existing www.Chiago.gov website. These screens will improve the overall user experience for thousands of Chicago citizens who are looking for new employment opportunities. The process will be smoother, more efficient and less overwhelming. The pre-existing design system did have its boundaries, but I was able to bring new and unique features to the design system that modernized this portion of the website, which could be used universally across the rest of the website going forward.
Working with a pre-existing design system did prove to have its challenges. Many of the components were not the updated versions that are currently on the Chicago.gov website and I needed to edit them and make sure that they were pixel perfect. I had to restrain creative freedom at points, but found ways to add new unique elements while remaining on brand. The biggest challenge was altering my research process. The feature I added as well as the re-design were very specific to a small percentage of people. I needed to alter my research methods to better suit my needs so that I could design with a purpose.
karenelizabethsuter@gmail.com
© Karen Suter 2022