Overview
Company Background & The Challenge
GigWorx is an on-demand staffing company operating in Bozeman MT, Salt Lake City UT, and South Bend-Elkhart IN. Its current platform makes it difficult for administrators to efficiently find candidates with specialized skills, costing time and money. The redesign addresses this problem and introduces a new 'All Filters' button.
The Results (Pending)
The updated search and filter UI has not yet been released. This section will be updated once it goes live.
My Role And The Constraints
My Role: I was the only designer working on this project.
Constraints: I was unable to speak with or observe users directly to understand how they were using the existing search and filter functions on the 'Staff' screen. Additionally, I was limited to improving the search and filter UI only, and within the constraints of the company's existing design style guidelines.
The Users: GigWorx and Client Administrators
How Were Users Utilizing the Existing Search & Filtering UI To Find Candidates With Specific Skills?
Although I couldn't observe or speak with users directly, the product owner, who works closely with them, shared how they currently use the search and filter functions on the 'Staff' screen:
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Users typically filter by zip code first, then division, regardless of whether they're searching for candidates with specialized skills
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When searching for candidates with specific skills, users combine the zip code and division filters with the search bar, which filters by skills listed in candidate profiles
How Are Other Companies Helping Users Find People With Particular Skills Within Their Products?
To understand how comparable companies approach search and filter design for finding job candidates, I conducted a competitor analysis comparing GigWorx to Deel, Remote, and Employment Hero. While none of these competitors offer on-demand staffing, all three use search and filter functionality for candidate sourcing. Note that Employment Hero's candidate search was inaccessible without a product demo, so I analyzed their 'Jobs' screen search and filter UI as a proxy, assuming broad design consistency across their platform.
I also analyzed common search and filter UI design patterns of comparable products to GigWorx to figure out how I could improve the intuitiveness of GigWorx's search and filtering for users.
Key Takeaways From User Behavior Research And Competitor Analysis
The Existing Search And UI Filter On The 'Staff' Screen
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Above is how the existing search and filter UI on the 'Staff' screen looked like before I made changes to it. The original UI had four main issues: 'Export' didn't look like a button, the most-used filter ('Select Zip Code') was in the wrong position, there was no option to access additional filters, and no way to quickly remove or clear all filters.
Also, in the previous design, all filters were applied by default, but this likely wasn't obvious to users. A label like 'All Roles,' for example, reads as a default placeholder for a filter rather than an active filter selection.
Final Design: Reorganizing Filters, Adding an Export Button, and Showing Applied Filters
In the new design, the default 'Staff' screen now has filter placeholders that read 'Select' rather than 'All,' making it clear that no filters have been applied yet when a user first loads the screen.
Also, filters have been reordered from most to least used (right to left) and an 'Export' button is in its own container for clearer visual distinction.
Adding Filter Chips to Clearly Show Which Filters Have Been Applied
Unlike the previous design, applied filters are now clearly indicated with filter chips. This gives users more control as they can now remove filters individually or clear them all at once.
High-Fidelity Prototype
What Did I Learn From This Project?
The updated search and filter UI has not yet been released. This section will be updated once it goes live.