Architecting for Inclusive Hiring
I helped candidates with disabilities build meaningful professional connections by transforming a job platform with an accessible recruiter experience.
Key Activities
Activity A
Activity B
Activity C
Human Impact
Access
Connection
Duration
4 months
Role
Solo UX Designer
Challenge & Vision
InclusiVision was created to promote workplace inclusivity. Its platform required candidates with disabilities to leave the site to find job opportunities, which created a disruptive experience and prevented InclusiVision from fully empowering its community. This challenge was an opportunity to design a more inclusive, seamless experience that fostered genuine connections between candidates and employers.
Problem
The platform’s user flow was a source of frustration for job seekers with disabilities. While they could create an InclusiVision profile to showcase their skills and accommodations, they were forced to leave the site to search for job openings. This disjointed journey made it difficult to find opportunities that fit candidates’ unique needs and prevented InclusiVision from fulfilling its core mission of truly supporting its users.
Goal and Objectives
My goal was to empower candidates with disabilities by designing a new job posting feature that seamlessly integrated career opportunities, providing a streamlined and accessible way to connect with employers. To achieve this, I focused on three key objectives:
Reduce friction in the job-seeking journey
Enhance the user experience by promoting ease of use and digital accessibility
Position the platform as a one-stop-shop for inclusive employment
Role and Contributions
I led the project as the sole user experience (UX) and digital accessibility specialist, collaborating with two developers and a quality analyst (QA). This included conducting a competitive audit of similar platforms, creating user flows and wireframes to define the new journey, and designing high-fidelity mockups for both desktop and mobile. My contributions laid the foundational information architecture and interaction design to ensure a seamless and accessible experience for all InclusiVision users.
Discover
Understanding the Problem
My first task was a high-level competitive audit to understand how other platforms supported job seekers with disabilities. I also conducted an internal audit of the existing user flow to identify key pain points. By focusing on the full journey for candidates with disabilities, I was able to define the core problem: a lack of access to jobs and connections with employers. This foundational research laid the groundwork for an intuitive and inclusive solution.
Key Learnings
Job postings expand inclusive opportunities by allowing employers to reach wider audiences
Transparent pricing is attractive to people who use multiple competing platforms to accomplish their goals
Accessibility can be an impactful value proposition that stands out from industry expectations
Ideate
Building the Solution
After developing a clear understanding of the candidate journey, I created new user flows and wireframes that integrated a job-seeking feature directly into the platform. This new flow connects candidates with employers through job listings, removing a major friction point. I designed high-fidelity Figma mockups for desktop and mobile with intuitive designs, uncomplicated interactions, and clear organization that prioritized accessibility standards from the beginning.
Key Learnings
Intuitive user flows are critical to a seamless experience
Designing for accessibility from the ideation phase creates an inclusive final product
A human-first digital strategy is key to integrating new features into existing platforms
Validate
Refining the Experience
Due to time and resource constraints, I was unable to conduct formal user testing. Instead, I performed a rigorous heuristic evaluation to validate the designs against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This paved the way for a final product that met a high standard of accessibility and usability even without direct user feedback. This process proved that a strategic, data-informed approach can still deliver an intuitive and inclusive digital experience.
Key Learnings
Heuristic evaluations can validate experience decisions when user testing is not possible
WCAG standards are a critical tool for inclusive design
Commitment to quality can create more user-centered solution despite resource constraints
Deliver
Proving the Impact
The final deliverables were a set of high-fidelity mockups, interactive prototypes, and detailed functional specifications that were ready for development. I designed WWCAG-compliant features that help people with disabilities use the platform effectively, including efficient color contrast for colorblind users and intuitive ordering for users who navigate websites with a keyboard. The solution was to fulfill the business need of increasing user engagement and the human need of connecting job seekers with meaningful opportunities. The new feature provided a clear and accessible path for candidates to achieve their goals.
Key Learnings
Cohesive information architecture can streamline multi-step flows into single pages
Positioning key content at the top of pages can make a platform more inclusive and compatible with assistive technology
Clear visual cues and actionable system messages that decrease unintentional actions and increase trust in the platform
Measurable Outcomes
My inclusive design solutions were strategically crafted to empower candidates and foster genuine connections, and the following projected outcomes demonstrate how prioritizing access and connection can solve business needs.
10%
average month-over-month increase in job postings since launch, demonstrating a solution that provides exponential value over time
3x
higher annual traffic to profile pages, suggesting job postings create new visibility and opportunities for candidates with disabilities
50+
interactions with job postings, proving the designs are successful at fostering professional connections
Human Impact
While the numbers tell a powerful story, nothing captures the success of a project like a real person's experience.
Quote Statement
Quote Author
Quote Role
Personal Reflection
Empowering inclusive connections between recruiters and candidates sends a powerful message that professionals with disabilities are valued and seen, which resonated deeply with my belief in the impact accessibility has on people’s lives. This project reinforced my belief that inclusion is a pillar of successful design. I was able to create a solution that solved a business problem with a positive impact on a community.
Future Considerations
While the project was successfully delivered, the MVP release left out some recommended functionality. There are several areas for future improvement to enhance platform performance, usability, and impact:
Resolve any gaps in WCAG compliance to reinforce the platform's commitment to inclusivity
Implement job searching and filtering to keep the platform scalable as the number of job postings increases
Add direct in-site messaging between candidates and recruiters, further streamlining professional connections