In the 2022/2023 academic year, while United States embraced over 1 million international students worldwide, the competitive job market and employer sponsorship are also pushing them away.
As a product designer at Haitouwang, I aim to boost business growth, improve user experience, and tailor the platform to help international students find their desired jobs in the US.
Haitouwang is a job searching and tracking platform that helps international job seekers find jobs suit their needs in the US. The platform includes tools and information that support users during their job-seeking process, especially focusing on sponsorship related information.
Product Design
UX Researcher
UX Testing
Product Manager
Product Designers (Me!)
Engineer Team
Figma
FigJam
2023
The platform was losing users
Over the past six months, despite sustained high demand for job-hunting information, the website's daily active users (DAU) have remained steady and have shown a slight decrease.
Our team also observed an increasing drop-off rate, as many users left the platform after accessing a job posting page.
increase in Daily Active Users
in the past 6 month
increase in Drop-Off Rate
in the past 6 month
Refine the platform's UI Language
The PM team's initial approach was to redesign and improve the platform's UI Language. Since our target users are younger generations, the team believed that a more exquisite and dashing interface could help increase user retention and attract new users.
How might we decrease drop-off rate and increase users retention
How might we increase daily active users (DAU)
Why left?
Before diving into the UI redesign, I recognized it was important to understand why users were leaving the platform. This led me to initiate primary user research, try to discover the underlying reasons to the increasing drop-off rate.
I recruited 25 participants who have used Haitouwang(HT) for job-hunting in the past. We would first went through a usability test on the existing website, and then interviewed the participants on their overall experiences with the website.
The goal was to understand how users interacted with the platform. What were their pain points and needs. And if they drop-off from the platform, what drove them away.
Who are the users?
Out of the 25 participants:
96% were international students
88% were recent graduate or about to graduate
Why do Users choose to use HT?
International students need immigration information (which Haitouwang provides) during job searching.
Other job hunting platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed are not design for such purpose.
Where do users drop?
Nearly 98% of users dropped off after the job post research and browsing experience.
Why do users drop?
1. Did not find enough immigration information on HT
2. Went apply for the job
3. Recorded their application progress
Where do users go after dropping?
92% went to USCIS & other immigration websites
100% went through external application portals
80% went to tracking applications (Excel, Google sheet, Notion) to record application progress
Why go to these platforms?
Went to immigration websites of visa and historical sponsorship information
HT did not have a direct application portal
HT’s job tracker was not very usable, need more comprehensive and customizable tools
Immigration Info Remains Our Top Priority
Users chose to use Haitouwang because we provide immigration information for international students. Help them narrow down job positions and save time.
Users need more Immigration info
Yet, users were not satisfied with the platform's existing sponsorship tags. They still need to go to other sites for more detailed sponsorship info and records.
No Direct Application Portals
Since HT did not have direct application portals, users have to use external platforms to apply. Therefore, most participants only use HT as a job research engine.
more Powerful trackers
After application, users tend to use external tools to organize and track their processes as these tools either has more function or more customizable.
Feature gaps and task interruptions drive users away from the platform
After user research and data analysis, I now had a better understanding of the users' pain points and needs. The primary reason that drove users away from Haitouwang is the lack of information and features. Therefore, instead of redesigning the UI, we should prioritize meeting international students' needs by providing missing information and features.
With these data and finds, I proposed to the PM teams that we should work on improving the platforms' user experience on immigration information finding and application progress tracking.
After a few meetings, the team approved my proposal and our new approach was to fill in the feature gap and deduct interruptions by providing the information and tools users need on the HT platform.
The existing platform only showed whether the company provide H1B or not. Yet, user interview revealed that users wish to learn more specified information for the company and position they are applying for.
In the new design, users can check a company's new and cont sponsorship number, approval and denial rate in the past years. They can also search for data based on the petitioners' job title and location.
The tracker was providing a limited scope of users' application process, missing crucial stages such as "applied," "interview date," "offer received," and "rejected." The UI and layout of the tracker make it hard to navigate and organize the applications.
In the new design, the tracker provides comprehensive status categories that covers the whole job application process. Each position snapshot will not only display the data of application, but also allow users to update the application's current status. To help users quickly identify each position, I added company logo images to the snapshot.
Through the progress stage filter, users can find and organize applications more efficiently.
When the prototype was ready, I conducted the first round of internal usability tests. Two groups of participants were given the original website and the redesigned prototype, both were asked to browse the platform and apply to desired job positions.
During the usability test, I observed an improvement in the overall drop-off rate and an increase in the average screen time.
They are not Coming back...
However, users are still not using the job tracker feature. Majority of users dropped off after the job application and did not come back to input their progress.
Reason 1: Users need to manually input the position or find the position on the platform again. Therefore, the flow is not efficient
Reason 2: Other platforms provide features and guidance that help them during the process. They need something more than just a note-taker.
How to create a more efficient and helpful after-application experience to Bring users back to the platform?
Improve Inefficient User Flow
Auto-save feature that will save the job post to the tracker when users click the apply button. This way, users will not need to initiatively input each application.
Remind Users To Record Their Progress
During the usability test, 20% users forgot to record their progress on any platform after they apply to a position.
More Support and Resources
The existed job tracker was a simple chart where users can input their progress in plain text. There was no features or tools to helps users during their application progress.
During the user testing, participants reported that the tracker feature was inefficient to use as they have to initiatively input each application to the tracker. My approach toward this problem was to create a more efficient user flow and let the platform do the repetitive manual work for users.
Before users left to apply externally, the platform would ask them to save the job post to the tracker. Users could also turn on the auto-saving options, which automatically saved the job to the tracker when they pressed the apply button. By doing so, users did not need to come back to the page to manually add each application and let the platform do the heavy lifting.
From a higher level, our goals is to re-engage users and form a new behaviour pattern that users will use our platform to record their application progress after applying to the position.
By forming this habit, we can drive higher retention rate and boost profit.
Nir Eyal's Hook Model describes how apps and platforms can become part of customers' unconscious behaviour. The model begins from requiring an external trigger to prompt product usage (ads, email, call to action buttons etc.). By building instantaneous link between an emotional itch and the scratch the service provides, the external triggers will transform to users' internal trigger, which are emotional associations in the user’s mind to prompt actions. A habit establishes when the internal trigger incorporates into a regular activity.
When it came to habit-forming, the little green owl was the ultimate master. Combined with various strategies, Duolingo uses reminder messages to grab users' attention and drive them back to the application.
After onboarding, users will begin to receive regular emails and notifications encouraging them to take lesson. Thus, these external reminders will trigger users' internal trigger — the desire to learn a new language.
More importantly, Duolingo's reminders were not repetitive "spammy" emails. Instead, the application notified users about their progress and goals, reinforcing that this is something users want and care about. Through these well-tailored messages, Duolingo helped users build long-term learning habits.
To form the habit, the first step was to prompt actions through external trigger.
Today, around 48% of Americans use emails and 28% use texts or messaging apps to reach out to a small business. According to Statista, the estimated number of email users will reach 4.73 billion by 2026.
Since Haitouwang is a web-based platform, I suggested leveraging email notifications to keep users in the loop. After clicked the apply button and went to external platforms, Haitouwang will send messages to users' email, reminding them to record their application process on the platform's application tracker.
We will use email notifications as part of a comprehensive lifecycle strategy where users receive targeted messages based on where they are in their customer journey. When users input important dates and statuses into the tracker (e.g., Follow-up date, Interview date, assessment date), the platform also sends reminders to users before the date comes.
The existed job tracker was a simple chart where users can input their progress in plain text. Users can only use it as a plain notebook and still need to go to other platforms for resources related to job application.
To help users organize their progress more efficiently and more importantly, reach their desired job. I decides to add a comprehensive timeline that covers the entire hiring process.
Allow users to track each application by stages and timeline. Provide guidances, insights, and resources for each application stage, support users to get their desired position.
Allow users to save and import job description, documents, and other info for each specific position. Provide tools and feature to help users to organize their application.
Performance in the incremental feature release:
Drop-off Rate
increase in User Retention Rate
increase in Dailiy Active Users
In this project, I applied Hooked Method to try to help form new behaviour habits. We need further monitor and development to insure the new features are effective and forest new habit in the long run.
It is crucial to run user testings to validate or adjust UX approach. The initial redesign on sponsorship information and tracker only solve part of users issue. Yet the bigger seasons that drove user away were the inefficient user flow and limited functioned tracker. We got to pivot our direction and rethink about our approach once the new problems were exposed by the usability test results.
