UX Case Study: Improving Users' need on the Hyred App

Sector

Service provider and employment

Challenge

Hyred faced challenges in ensuring equal visibility for all its users, particularly in a key section. This issue affected user engagement and platform satisfaction, prompting the need for a redesign to improve access and usability.

My Role

UI/UX Designer, Facilitator of usability testing and design workshops.

Duration

2 months from initial workshop to delivering the final design to developers (June - July 2022).

Kickoff and Strategy

In an initial strategy session, we explored core user experience challenges and identified key objectives for improving engagement and usability across various segments of the platform. The target audience, brand alignment, and content structure were key focuses.

What should the users do next on home screen?

We developed key questions such as:

"What services do you need?"
"What type of work are you looking for?"

Survey Insights

In a follow-up study using a user feedback form distributed across multiple channels, we gathered data to inform our design decisions. The responses highlighted critical issues such as user confusion with existing features and areas for improvement.

Persona Development

Based on survey data and user analytics, we created user personas that reflected the app's main user demographics. One of the primary personas focused on was a career-oriented user who values efficiency when searching for services online, chosen for their likelihood to share the app within their network.

Problem Statement

"Users were underutilizing a core feature due to issues in layout and functionality, leading to low engagement. "

Ideation and Design

We analyzed popular applications in the region to identify best practices. This informed our approach to enhancing the platform’s usability, ensuring a modern and user-centric design.

From this, we developed several "How Might We" (HMW) questions:

HMW increase visibility for services?
HMW improve the speed of service listing?
HMW clarify Hyred's dual function (jobs + services)?

We sketched multiple designs and selected the best solution was to categorize services by user need and arrange them prominently on the home screen.

Wireframes & High-Fidelity UI

Key principles for the redesign included making services more prominent on the home screen and arranging categories by user need, ensuring that relevant content was easy to find without cluttering the interface.

Usability Testing Process

I conducted both formal and informal usability testing with participants representing a range of target demographics. This mixed approach allowed us to gather valuable insights on the platform's usability.

Participant Selection

Participants were selected based on their demographics and usage patterns. I focused on users most likely to engage with the app’s core features, including both job seekers and service finders.

Tasks

Identifying elements on the home screen.
Adding tokens.
Navigating to the service listing.
Posting a skill or service.

Why did you select mostly women for the usability testing?

I selected female participants for usability testing based on the survey data, which indicated that women were more likely to engage with the app and provide detailed feedback. Male participants typically responded with, "everything is fine," reflecting their tendency to explore on their own, which limited actionable insights from their responses. This informed our decision to focus on female personas to drive more meaningful improvements.

Why focus on informal testing?

Time and resource limitations meant that informal testing was the most practical approach. Despite this, I followed structured tasks and gathered actionable feedback, which I combined with formal testing to ensure reliable insights.

How do you ensure that informal testing provides actionable insights?

Even in informal settings, I followed structured tasks and asked specific questions to guide the sessions. I recorded the sessions, took notes, and analyzed the results to spot patterns. This gave me enough data to make informed design decisions, backed by user feedback.

Key Findings

Post-redesign, users were able to complete key tasks more quickly, and engagement with the app's core features improved noticeably.

Post-Testing Feedback

After completing the tasks, users filled out a feedback survey. The survey revealed:

Users misunderstood the old service posting section, thinking it was an advertisement (e.g., Google Ads).
The new button for service listing was clear and well-received.
Users preferred the new, more visible service categories.

Improvements Implemented

Service icons were changed with images to make it more prominent on the home screen.
The service listing button was redesigned to look less like an advertisement and more like a functional app feature.
Loading times for the service section were optimized to improve user experience.
Clearer branding was used in the app to distinguish job-seeking functions from service-selling functions.

The illustrations were changed from icon to photos due to users not understanding the icons.

Misunderstood service posting banner was changed into a simple button.

Results

Although I didn’t have direct business metrics at the time, qualitative feedback and testing indicated significant improvements in user satisfaction and platform usability.

Next Steps

I plan to continue monitoring user engagement post-launch and conduct further iterations to refine the user experience based on real-world data.

Lessons Learned

This project reinforced the importance of user-centric design in creating impactful products. By closely analyzing user feedback and continuously iterating on designs, I was able to create a solution that not only addressed user pain points but also positioned the platform for potential growth.

Published on 20th October 2024

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