Job Search Focus Group UX: Part I

Job Search Focus Group (JSFG) has helped over 15,000 people find new career paths since 1992.  It relies largely on word of mouth and printed communications. In spring of 2017, the all-volunteer organization changed to a committee based organization. As part of the Marketing and Outreach committee, I worked on how to improve the JSFG experience. 

The Marketing and Outreach committee was eager to modernize JSFG. We unanimously agreed that JSFG web presence needed a major overhaul before we started reaching out to new members and employers.

While the committee had many ideas, we were limited to the opinions of dedicated members. We decided to reach out to those who had attended once or twice to learn more about what did and didn’t work about JSFG. I conducted the research, which included a short survey and one-on-one user interviews.

““When I first went to the JSFG website, I wasn’t sure if the organization was still active: even if it was, I wasn’t sure it was the right place for me.” ”
— User Interview
"The job postings are terrible, the emails we get them in are terrible, and none of them reflect the group."  - Committee Member
"Better targeting of email content/job opportunities. Sending the same message/job postings is mostly junk if sent to all JSFG members."  - Survey Response
“We get a million handouts, and if I lose one with the information I need, it’s gone. I wish they were posted online.” - User Interview
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Research Results

The survey did not yield enough results to be statistically viable, but it still provided some useful feedback.

  • Overall, people had positive impressions of JSFG, even if it wasn’t the right fit for them.
  • Many still thought of themselves as active members and planned to attend in the future.
  • Our goal to involve employers was overwhelmingly appealing to our participants.

 

JSFG: User Journey

JSFG: User Journey

Conclusions

Core strengths:
High caliber members and Monday meetings

Role of the website:
Supplement meetings
Invite new members and employer participation.

Proposal

  1. Align website content and feel with new brand direction

  2. Branch the user experience on the website according to new member, current members, and employees/volunteers

  3. Add FAQs and sign-up for new users to quell doubts and encourage commitment

  4. Make it simple for employers to contact the Outreach Committee, post jobs, and view member profiles
  5. Digitize information received in meetings into a resource library for easy access
  6. Move job postings online
  7. Create separate email list for graduates to retain contact

Sketching

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I still find paper is one the quickest ways to work out ideas. Here are some samples. 

Part II: Coming soon