In user experience (UX) design, there’s a term called ‘mental model’. It’s an overarching term for any sort of concept, framework, or worldview that you carry around in your mind. It is habit forming and practically becomes instinctive.
After conducting numerous user interviews we concluded that we carry a rock solid mental model of how we search for a job online that’s very difficult to dislodge.
What we all do today:
We decide on some basic filter options – job title, location, distance, eyeball a long list of results, mentally discard the irrelevant and not interested ones and then bookmark what we may be interested in. And we set up a good number of job alert notifications based on different variants of our job search to cast a wide net.
Our current job search behaviours are driven by a big black hole of the Unknown, FOMO – fear of missing out, and how much do I have to compromise?
At inkscroll, we have a different mental model for job searching, aiming to change the conventional approach. However, our way was too much of a leap – it was disconnected from what people are used to today. As a result, we immediately lost users who visited our ‘Jobs for Me’ recommendations page as they defaulted to their usual habits.
We’ve now adapted. Our updated mental model now incorporates familiar features to ease the transition. You can now bookmark job opportunities with a star to mark your interest.
Early user testing feedback has been promising and we hope this makes the transition to our vision of tomorrow’s job search easier.
Over time we will build trust to help reduce FOMO and make the unknown more visible. We also plan to replace compromise with negotiation, empowering you in your job search.
In the meantime, enjoy bookmarking your job opportunities!
