Project: Careerbuilder Homepage Redesign
Client: Careerbuilder
When: Q2 2015
Role: Information Architecture, Visual Design, Prototyping, Front End Development

A Deeper Dive

If you haven't had a chance check out the Careerbuilder redesign as this will be a deep dive specifically on the homepage.

Finding Existing Value

As shown in the Carerbuilder redesign project a gap analysis was done across all pages on the sites, including the homepage.

What was found was a lack of value in a lot of the information presented on the page, which muddled the page from allowing users to quickly and easily accomplish what they came for.

Example of Gap Analysis for Homepage

Iteration

In an attempt to focus on a few powerful paths to take users down I began to sketch out layouts and blocks of content that would focus on three main concepts.

  1.  Search first and foremost

  2.  Show users the value in using our site

  3.  Careerbuilder as a visual modern website


Experimenting with single page layouts, scroll patterns and account for SEO content with a variety of layouts.

The Test

Utilizing in person user testing I facilitated using a discussion guide collaboratively created by myself and our research team users took us through their job search as well as using a series of HTML prototypes I created we were able to discover some key points

  1.  Drag and Drop was loved and thought was unique for a  job board

  2.  Use of occupational imagery negatively impacted users if it didn't match

  3.  Users didn't explore down the page when a section took the full window

  4.  Success stories were seen as superfluous

  5.  Numerical insights were powerful (applications viewed & jobs posted today)

  6.  "Be Discovered" piqued interest, users didn't know one of our greatest features

What is this a dating site? I don’t need to know someone got a job using Carerbuilder, you’re a job board it’s what you do.
— "Liz", Testing Participant
That’s cool [drag & drop]. Do any other job sites do that? I think the only place I’ve seen that is dropbox.
— "Susie", Testing Participant
Apply Quickly, Gain Insights, Be Discovered...tell me what these mean. Don’t give me a paragraph, just like three words
— "Laura", Testing Participant

Additionally making use of Usertesting.com to expand the research to confirm our findings from in person testing in an unmoderated setting. 

UserTesting.com

UserTesting.com

Refinement

Taking our findings from testing I refined the flows and interactions of the prototypes. Allowing development to take over in order to release to a small percentage of users, gaining quantitative insights on how the design works.

Drag and Drop Flowchart

Drag and Drop Flowchart

Drag and Drop Animations and Interactions

Drag and Drop Animations and Interactions

Learning From Failures

The updated design was rolled out to a small percentage (1%) of users and our metrics were all at or above the expected levels.

However after rolling out to a larger percentage of users, our resume conversion rate started to drop.

 

Metric data showing the drop off in resume conversions after rolling out to a larger percentage of users

Metric data showing the drop off in resume conversions after rolling out to a larger percentage of users


Heatmaps even indicated that users were more likely to interact with the "Click to Browse" link opposed to drag and drop events fired seen in Google Analytics.

Users unanimously showed interest and interacted with drag and drop with ease during in person and unmoderated testing. Out in the wild though the interaction proved unsuccessful.

Heatmap showing users interaction with the Drag an Drop box

Heatmap showing users interaction with the Drag an Drop box


Pivoting on the idea we scaled back the process of the call to action for posting a resume.

Showing both the value of qualitative and quantitative testing being able to quickly learn and pivot from failures.

A simpler call to action for users to post a resume

A simpler call to action for users to post a resume

The Outcome

In the end we were able to not only recover the dropping conversion rate, but were able to improve resume conversions by 200%.

While other metrics such as registrations and applications were improved by 12%-25%, and bounce and exit rates decreased by 14%.