Enhancing recruiter workflow efficiency

My role

Requisition module end-to-end through UX Research, UX/UI Design, Prototyping

Team

3 Product Designers, 6 Developers
(4 front-end, 2 back-end)

Timeline

August 2024 - February 2025 (6 months)

"I've been using this platform for 3 months, but I still don't know what that button does"

-- Adam, Recruiter @ mlee

CONTEXT

Usability challenges created friction in recruiters' daily workflows

Pulse is an All-in-one management platform to support healthcare recruiting agencies from sourcing candidates and filling positions to tracking post-commission. Despite its potential, the CRM platform's usability issues delay hiring processes and reduce its value as a recruitment tool. Key challenges included:

A cluttered, non-intuitive interface
Inefficient filter navigation
Complex tracking and management of requisition flow

Goal

The project focused on improving recruiters’ task efficiency and user experience by:

Redesigning the navigation to increase accuracy and scalability
Simplifying the requisition table to prioritize actionable insights and streamline workflows

01

Results

I conducted usability testing with 5 users. The test covered 3 tasks around managing the requisition:

Find your requisition that has the most recent updates
Source candidates
Move the candidate across stages to reflect the status changes

13%

increased overall recruiters satisfaction

28%

Faster task completion

02 APPROACHES

To deliver a better user experience, I framed the design flow around users from discovery to post-design iteration.

10 Contextual inquiries

competitor analysis

Internal design review

comparative testing with 15 users

03 DISCOVERY

Excessive task completion time caused by unclear visual elements and an unnecessarily complex workflow

The requisition page is the backbone of recruiters' daily workflows. It helps recruiters manage job postings, track progress, and prioritize tasks. However, the current page design creates user issues due to:

USER NEEDS

Recruiters prioritize tasks based on the likelihood of closing the deal, focusing on requisitions in later pipeline stages and closely monitoring application updates.

Recruiter

The first thing I check is if I have new applicants every day, and then I will start with the requisition that is "closer to money"

Once I update the requisition status, the table will reorder. So I emailed myself a hyperlink to keep on track of it."

Current requisition page

Across 10 sessions, no recruiter could correctly explain 2 of the 4 icons in the toolbar

Recruiters use this "User assigned" dropdown button to find their name and the requisitions they manage

Inefficient user flow
Currently, the page shows all company-wide requisitions. Recruiters are forced to search or filter to find the ones they oversee, which slows down their workflow
Cluttered UI
Recruiters have expressed frustration with system adoption due to the overwhelming and confusing visual elements.

04 Design Principles

To keep the cohesive product experience throughout the collaboration, I initiated the establishment of the design principles upfront.

Scalability

A universal design system and layout logic to adapt for future growth

Intuitiveness

Reduce learning time by following user patterns to drive adoption

Efficiency

Prioritize usability and data visibility to ensure an easy-to-use experience

05 UX Problem and Solutions

Noisy layout and the navigation that doesn't meet user needs

Following the user behavior and reading habits, I revamped the layout to make the data easier to scan.

UX problem 01: Inefficient Filter Panel

Horizontal navigation and confusing UI cause excessive scanning and filtering time

Left-to-right filter panel design slows down navigation time due to its conflicts with users' natural up-to-down reading patterns on web pages and mobile devices

Missing opportunity to provide faster access for user's tasks

Dropdown, filter, and cancel all-in-one button design confuses users

Validated solution

Restructured table with a side filter panel for easy access

Implement a tab function to streamline workflow

Before (2 steps)

Users must click 'User Assigned' and search for their names in the dropdown.

After (No action required)

Users can view the requisitions they manage upon landing on this page, while still maintaining access to all company-wide requisitions.

To ensure the filter layout accommodates various user groups’ needs while remaining intuitive and efficient, we conducted comparative usability testing with 15+ recruiters from different proficiency levels.

Option A

Some users prefer a horizontal panel as it matches their existing habits

Option B

72% of participants prefer the side panel because it provides clear input field and a narrow-focused area

Tradeoffs

In these design findings, the user data are not sufficient to support the needs of users from different roles. There are two types of recruiters that primarily serve either the healthcare organization or the job seeker. Testing focused only on the job seeker, so we don't have sufficient user data.

Further research and exploration will be needed to enhance the role-based experience.

UX problem 02: Complex Table Layout

Users struggle with irrelevant indicators and inefficient workflow

Despite displaying the pipeline stats, the requisition table fails to serve user needs in prioritizing tasks due to distracting designs.

Less critical columns occupy key attention areas, diverting focus from essential information

Distracting icons and a cluttered layout

Users cannot see recruitment progress until click to the pipeline

Solution

Simplify the UI to enhance access to key indicators

I streamlined the flow to track and manage requisitions by:

Decluttered the table by using a universally recognized "red dot" design to indicate new applicants
Added a Job ID field to minimize user reliance on external tools
Added a Progress field to simplify user flow in prioritizing requisitions

The Progress field displays applicants who have advanced to later stages in the pipeline:

Helping recruiters prioritize the next steps, such as screening and follow-up
Benefits the company by encouraging recruiters to push the candidate further toward placement

06 SHOWCASES

An enhanced navigation for a faster workflow

The redesign significantly improved recruiter workflows, making the CRM platform more intuitive and efficient. Here’s a look at the transformation:

Before

It took users 2 clicks to find out the requisition progress
Users keep track of requisitions by sending themselves a hyperlink

After

Visible applicant progress allows users to prioritize tasks with no further clicks
Users can identify a requisition through the job ID

What I learned

Being a founding designer in an early-stage startup meant navigating plenty of ambiguity—whether it was in stakeholder requirements or the metrics we were tracking. What I would do differently:

Expand User Testing to include different user persona
Every recruiter had their own unique habits and workflows, making it difficult to create a one-size-fits-all solution. To truly find the best outcome, it became clear that testing with a broader group of participants was necessary to ensure the design met a wider range of needs.

Leverage Success Metrics to advocate for users and ensure team alignment
For a productivity tool, establishing concrete success metrics from the start not only allows for a clearer measurement of the design’s impact but also indicates business success through efficiency improvements. Aligning these metrics early on can help the team prioritize features that directly contribute to these goals. This approach should be critical in getting stakeholder buy-in, as the metrics provided solid evidence to support user-centric decisions and highlighted the tangible business value of the improvements.

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