About tilr

tilr automates the job seeking and recruitment process—using an algorithm, tilr matches job seekers to employment opportunities based on skills.
Note: tilr is only available in the USA.

Problem space

tilr was searching for a meaningful way to support job seekers as they look for new roles and research opportunities. Job seekers struggle to know how much their skills are worth, what they can do with them and where to focus their development.

Guiding Design Question

How might we provide meaningful insights to job seekers to help them understand their current skills, as well as career and development opportunities?

About the project

Timeline: 2 weeks
Role: Led product design activities including research, UX and UI design with support from my colleague Sara Farnell
Tools: Sketch, zeplin

Solution

Launch Pad provides tilr job seekers with a dashboard tailored to their skillset and qualifications, including salary data, related job titles and recommended development opportunities related to their skills. Additionally, job seekers can research specific skills and job titles to learn more.

Time

tilr was scheduled to be launched in 6 weeks. Tight timelines meant that Launch Pad had to be researched and designed in 2 weeks.

Style Guide & Components

The new feature had to use styles and components that were defined in the tilr style guide or the purchased kit by Devias.

Emsi Data

To support job matching, tilr licenses Emsi’s skills database and leadership wanted to leverage Emsi’s data to provide insights to job seekers.

Competitive research

I researched Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed, Zip Recruiter and others to understand what information is readily available and free to job seekers. Most focus on salary data, but do not provide skills or career opportunity insights.

survey Data

Due to tight timelines, I relied heavily on published surveys data to understand what job seekers value most: salary, location, development and career progression were cited as important considerations for job seekers.

data & insights

I reviewed Emsi’s data to determine what insights could be provided to job seekers, bearing in mind the insights gained during my research.

Skilled labourer

• May not have a resume

• More concerned with skill development, not theoretical knowledge development

• Seeking information regarding salary and related skills to enhance employability

Knowledge worker

• Comprehensive resume

• Seeking opportunities for development within current sphere of knowledge

• Seeking information regarding how they compare to peers

New graduate

• Basic resume, little experience

• More flexible and willing to try new things or move

• Interested to learn about a chosen field and related skills and qualifications

Career Changer

• Resume of transferable skills

• Does not necessarily have experience that is directly related to new career path

• Interested to learn about a chosen field and related skills and qualifications

Opportunities & Desired outcomes

As a result of using Launch Pad, job seekers will be able to:

• Discover job titles that match their skills

• Understand the monetary value of their skills and market demand

• Identify transferable skills, skill gaps and development opportunities

• Learn which companies and locations are hiring skills and job titles

• Research skills and job titles to determine options and fit

To support job seekers’ understanding of their skills and opportunities, as well as research of specific skills and job titles, 3 flows were determined within Launch Pad.

components

The design needed to stay true to existing tilr designs. To reduce time to development, ideally components would be reusable and/or pre-existing. As such, components from both the tilr app and Devias kit were used throughout.

accessibility

During design, I realised tilr green does not meet WCAG AA accessibility standards when paired with white. A darker shade was tried, but testers felt that the darker green was hard to distinguish from the tilr blue. tilr purple meets AA standards and users had no concerns.

dashboard

As the majority of dashboards are for desktop, it was difficult to find good examples of business dashboards to inform my mobile designs. I leveraged fitness and health apps for inspiration, components already existing in the tilr app and data visualisations from the Devias kit.

speed

Launch Pad is slow due to nested queries. To support users and decrease loading times:

• A loading screen was created to indicate that screens are loading and create delight

• The number of results was reduced

• Active tabs are loaded before hidden tabs

• Users’ returned data is saved for a week, unless inputs change, to speed loading

Refinement of insight calculations was necessary, as some of the returned data was not relevant to the user or search.

The “popularity” label for the recommended skills and qualifications confused users; they felt that only providing the lists of recommendations would suffice.

Users wanted more information at the state level and felt that jumping from an individual’s city to the national level was too big a jump. A tab for state information was added.

Post-launch: user feedback & surveys

During the design and development of Launch Pad, tilr was undergoing a product pivot. After launch of the product, additional feedback would be solicited from users regarding the updated app as a whole leveraging surveys and moderated usability testing.

• The realities of business and time constraints have huge impacts on the appetite and ability to conduct user interviews and testing. It is important to be strategic and resourceful to test and validate throughout the design process, however possible.

• It is extremely important to provide good and thoughtful documentation for developers, so that design decisions and rationale is clear, reducing friction throughout the development process.