CAREERS SITE REDESIGN

An end-to-end redesign of the Product and Engineering Careers site at Pax8.

The Design Story

My Role

Summer intern working within a design team and collaboratively with developers and stakeholders.

This project WAS A REDESIGN OF A PUBLIC FACING SITE WITHIN THE PAX8 PLATFORM, USING THE EXISTING MARKETING MATERIALS AND BRAND GUIDELINES.

For this project, I was given the opportunity to come up and present with style and design concepts, and was able to come up with iterative wireframes and prototypes, again being able to present my ideas each step of the way.

Timeline

Summer 2022 [June - August]

Tools

Figma, Adobe Illustrator

The Problem

How can we create a careers site to attract top talent to our product and engineering jobs?

The job search can be frustrating, confusing, and emotionally draining. We want to alleviate this process with a beautiful UI that attracts attention, and with content that gets prospective applicants excited to work with us. We want to make this process as fun as possible and highlight the culture that makes our company unique.

My primary goals were to:

The Solution

Simplified jobs page featuring user-friendly filters, and a clean tech-inspired aesthetic

  • filters allowing users to easily sort by location and role

  • roles sorted by category for a simpler user experience

  • toggle for remote jobs placing emphasis on the flexibility to work from home

Hero section emphasizing Pax8’s forward-thinking cloud technology and an immediate call to action

  • hero section video playability is toggle-able for accessibility

  • immediately visible call to action encouraging users to apply for open positions

  • simple navbar highlighting available jobs

Culture section highlighting Pax8’s family-like and personality forward culture

  • social media inspired imagery and layout allowing users to envision the tech-forward culture at Pax8

  • graphics inspired by Pax8’s existing branding and marketing materials

CONCEPT CREATION

Challenges

  1. Constraints with current company branding

  2. No existing developer to work with

  3. Integrating unique ideas with existing theme

  4. Attracting top talent

Target Users

Job seekers in the tech industry

  • at least a college education

  • some industry experience

Competitive Analysis

  • video in the hero section immediately grabs user’s attention

  • job search is easy and immediately available to users

  • clear search fields and CTAs

  • good information hierarchy considering the sheer amount of jobs posted on the site

  • unique and simple microinteractions make the user experience exciting

ROSES, BUDS, AND THORNS

By taking apart the existing site, we were able to identify what worked, and what didn’t.

ROSES AND BUDS

  • finding jobs on the existing site is relatively simple

  • some employee culture is shown on the site

  • tech radar and tools used could be useful for some professionals

THORNS

  • doesn’t clearly show what Pax8 does

  • no search feature available for jobs

  • feels overly corporate and uninspired

  • stock images used don’t convey anything to users

  • overall user experience doesn’t set this site apart from existing job portals

planning and ideation

Based on my concept and the user research, I created a sitemap, featuring a simple Landing Page with three sections: Jobs, Culture, and Hiring Process. I wanted a user to be able to get a good idea of what Pax8 is, and how we work, but I wanted to keep most of the content on subpages.

Using my sitemap, I created wireframes for the hero section and culture section of the site, wanting to highlight Pax8’s space theme and easy access to jobs.

Design Iterations

After getting feedback from team members on my wireframes, I began ideating with low-fidelity prototypes and varying style

Though my designs played on the space theme and were engaging, they weren’t viable options for this redesign. Time to problem solve!

Final Designs

Takeaways

Keep asking for feedback - Going over my designs with my team one-on-one and learning to explain my design decisions was the most helpful part of the entire process. It helped me realize what was absolutely necessary, and what I could get rid of.

Photos say more - When I presented my first designs, my team could almost immediately tell which photos were real and which were Stock. From this, I learned to be more intentional on my photo choice, and to think about the emotions I wanted to invoke.

Things can change overnight - After wireframing and starting my prototypes, I realized that my design at the time didn’t mesh at all with the Pax8 branding or theme. From there, I had to start over from scratch, which at the time was frustrating and frightening, but I learned how to quickly adapt and how to build from the bare bones and up.