Fixing usability and legacy issues for start-up that optimizes tech recruitment

HireFirst is a recruitment platform built for software engineers looking to work in Paris. It uses machine learning technology to match suitable candidates with the relevant available jobs.

AUX Studio provided UX analysis to fix usability issues and improve the interface design – working closely with the team in Paris and New York we worked under the tight constraints of the existing technology and current platform.

Timeline

3 Months

Engagement

UX Retainer

Team

UX Engineers

Services offered on this project

The Challenge

Making adjustments to the user interface design using solid UX principles and building a design system for better developer handoff

The HireFirst website had some usability and colour hierarchy issues, along with some interface patterns that were incorrectly selected. We see these mistakes quite often – inexperienced designers that get the foundation of typography, colour, hierarchy and interaction design patterns wrong. It causes users to become frustrated and leave the platform. We audited the system and had discussions about how we could make effective changes that would greatly improve the usability and utility of the software, without creating major headaches for the engineers.

We conducted remote UX workshops with their sales and support team in Paris and were able to quickly identify the biggest friction points for their customers. We prepared for these sessions with video analytics and mapping the existing customer journeys.

Hirefirst old UI — The hiring manager dashboard — before our UX design consultancy

Wireframes and flows

Getting to know the product and the customer using collaborative online workshops and video analytics

Together with HireFirst, we mapped out some of the crucial problem areas in the customer journeys. We also used these sessions to ideate and look for missed opportunities that would enhance the product with useful features that were feasible to implement.

First-time user customer journey — analysing the biggest friction points during registration process — First—Time user customer journey — analysing the biggest friction points during registration process

Streamlining the customer journeys with flow diagrams

Based on what we had learned from the workshops we were able to create better flow diagrams. This approach allowed us to iterate, collaborate and refine the user experience and remove barriers that users were struggling with the most.

There was no documentation for emails and notifications — Creating detailed flow diagrams to understand the system.

Digital design system

Building a modern, digital design system for Software as a Service teams.

Building a design system in Sketch was an important part of the handover to the New York team. It was critical that we delivered components that would work for the engineers to minimize development time and maximize efficiency, but also to correctly implement the interface recommendations througout the legacy software system.

Digital design system overview — restting the interface with clear colour, button and typographic guidelines. — Digital Design System overview — resetting the interface with clear colour, button and typographic guidelines

Conclusion

Quantifying the results – rolling out the new HireFirst software interfaces

The interface designs have increased the usability and utility for users generally and increased product adoption and satisfaction. We are now in implementation and analysis mode to monitor the changes and improvements with the HireFirst team, providing ongoing support for the user experience and digital design system.