Jaime Fowler
Case Studies
SnapNurse Job Board
Role: UI Designer
Team: Heather Kingsley, Sr Product Manager
March 2023
Goal:
Improve the UI of an existing job board with a MVP (minimally viable product) solution utilizing the existing framework and limited development resources focusing on quick wins.
Target Audience:
Travel nurses including nurses who are currently working with SnapNurse, nurses who have joined SnapNurse but have not yet taken an assignment, and nurses who are new to SnapNurse and are considering joining this nurse staffing agency.
Challenges:
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Critical urgency
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Limited development resources available
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Limited UX research available
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Must iterate design within current framework and system architecture
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No time allotted for usability testing
Research:
This was a quick moving project that did not allow time for UX research however I was able to apply UX insights to this UI design by utilizing user personas and user interviews from a previous project.
First, I was able to apply user feedback that I had received during user interviews conducted for a different project which included major skepticism around (1) the validity of the jobs posted on the job board and (2) the functionality of the call to action button on the job details page.
Secondly, I accessed website behavior data and heat maps to identify common user journeys, points of frustration, and drop off points to address in the new UI design.
And finally, I chose to approach this redesign as a mobile-first project based on both the previous UX research interviews and the website traffic data I observed.
Design process: Job cards
The first piece I wanted to address in this UI refresh were the individual job cards and their arrangement on the job board. In the current design the cards had the following issues:
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Job titles were too long for the spacing provided, often making the job title unreadable
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Not enough job details were provided at this level
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Pay rates did not accurately reflect when a stipend was available
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Users were unable to tell if they had previously applied to a position
Before:
Individual job card
Same display on desktop and mobile
As I approached this UI redesign I wanted to ensure the design was mobile-first based on my finding that 89% of users were viewing the job board from their phones. It was critical that each pain point was addressed first and foremost for smaller screens and then adapted for desktop viewing. The new UI design:
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Increases the width of the job cards for improved readability
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Improves the mobile view for small devices
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Provides more job details removing the need to open the details page to view basic job information
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Indicates if a stipend is available and lists the amount
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Includes a label to indicate if the user has previously applied for the role
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Includes space for an additional call out i.e. only 1 spot available
After:
Individual job cards mobile view
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After:
Individual job cards desktop view
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Design process: Job board
After addressing the design of the individual job cards I moved on to the design of the full job board. This redesign needed to include the improved job cards as well as create a new user flow to separate users who (1) have completed SnapNurse profiles, making them eligible for job matches and to apply for jobs, and (2) users who have do not completed a profile and therefore do not have job matches and are not eligible to apply for jobs.
To address this new user flow and guide users to the appropriate next steps for their status, I updated the UI to have a split experience. The upper section is customized based on their current SnapNurse account (1) showing users with completed profiles their personalized job matches or (2) redirecting users with incomplete profiles into the onboarding user flow where they can complete their profile. The size of this upper section adjusts as needed based on the user, allowing more space for users with a large number of job matches.
The lower section maintains the original functionality of the existing job board serving as a general view of all available positions however the existing "details" call to action has been adjusted to match the new user flow. Now users with incomplete SnapNurse profiles are no longer able to view the job details or apply to positions and will see a "not eligible" button in place of the job "details" button. Those users are directed to complete their SnapNurse profile to proceed. By adding this roadblock, we leading users back to the onboarding happy path and alleviating strain on the internal teams filtering out ineligible applicants.
Before: Full job board
After: Full job board
Design process:
Job details page
Next, I needed to address the job details page which includes the button "I'm interested" which a user selects to show interest in an individual job.
The original design lacked critical job details and did not provide enough information for users to make educated decisions about whether or not they qualified for a specific role. This was contributing to a major internal issue for SnapNurse teams who were forced to sort through large numbers of applicants who did not meet the basic qualifications as mentioned above.
Before:
Job details page
Same display on desktop and mobile
After:
Job details page desktop view
The new UI provides:
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Improved visibility of job details
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More job details such as facility type and number of hours
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Easy to understand pay rate details including stipends
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A text field that internal teams can utilize to provide additional details about a position
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Clearly listed job requirements a candidate must meet to qualify for the role
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Displays similar roles a user might be interested in applying for as well
After:
Job details mobile view
Next Steps:
In addition to this redesigned UI, the next steps should address the original user feedback of major skepticism around the validity of the jobs and the functionality of the call to action.
To address the first user concern, the product manager on the project is working with the internal teams to clean up the job board by removing outdated posts, jobs no longer accepting applications, and adjusting how start dates are pulled onto the job cards so past dates will no longer show - a point of confusion many users had.
The second user concern around the functionality of the "I'm interested" button should also be a priority. In the current state, a user completes a short form and is shown a simple thank you message with no next steps leading users to wonder if their applications are being seen by recruiters or not.
Additionally, my heat map research indicated that an overwhelming majority of the time users only opened the job details page for the very first job listed on the job board. Often this job was no longer accepting applications and users would leave the site right after. This is a behavior that should be revisited post-launch to determine if the UI improvements and job board clean up project successfully changed this drop point.
Conclusion:
While I was able to address the highest level needs of this project, the filtering functionality was left untouched in the phase one development and several additional user states needed to be considered as well.
Unfortunately, I was part of a major workforce reduction at SnapNurse while working on this project so I will not see this work come to fruition. However, I am confident that the UX thinking I was able to apply to this UI project will make this first iteration a success. My hope is that the remaining team will be able to address some of the remaining user states, additional flows, and iterate the design for further improvement based on user feedback.