As a team of three designers, we worked for Freelancermap, a platform designed to make connections between freelancers and recruiters easier. We were asked to work on the English version of the platform.
Our goal was to focus on the recruiter side, by redesigning the homepage, the dashboard, and a specific feature of the website: the watchlist.
What is the Watchlist?
This was the first question we tackled and got feedback on, while conducting qualitative interviews with recruiters.
Due to a misinterpretation of the German word "Merkliste" we learned that “watchlist” appear to be the wrong word, “shortlist” been the proper one: a tool for recruiter to select and save their best candidates for a job.
We also learned that recruiters need a useful and detailed search feature; knowing freelancer’s availability is crucial and location by country make more sense to know the time zone.
Interactions with the website
Parallel to those interviews, we also conducted usability tests to observe how user interact with the platform and whether they understand the purpose and naming of each feature. Those tests brought clear pain points such as a lack of clarity in the structure of the website and the actual vocabulary used to name specific feature is confusing.
How might we improve Freelancermap?
Looking at the website's current layout, we identified a few issues with the information architecture. The purpose of the three main sections (freelancers, projects, and companies) was unclear, and the Watchlist that’s supposedly located in the Dashboard isn’t accessible from this page. Also, the Projects section isn’t prominent and hard to notice within the Dashboard.
To improve the experience for recruiters, we knew we needed to make some structural changes. Our first decision was to divide the website into two main parts: one for freelancers and one for recruiters, so all audiences can feel that they get the focus they deserve.
