Careers
Career Portal at Xerox.com
Two large groups of Xerox were merging, but since they both had differing employment information and job search queries there was a need to combine them.
Service
Content Analysis
Collaboration + Card Sorting
Information Design
Contribution
Wireframes
Mockups
At Xerox North America, there are a wide range of divisions. From product designs to document management. A large part of Marketing and product owners were there as well.
Mockups & Presentations
Challange
North America Xerox and ACS were merging, and though each company had its HR communication to job searchers, they now had to be combined into a single message in a single area.
We started with card sorting to organize content and checked with other key competitor job sites to gauge quality.
Solution
We started with an audit of both current sites. We extracted content items through an Open Card Sorting exercise with the team. After the topical groups were identified, we executed a Closed Card Sorting exercise to establish where each element went. Remove the duplicates, and you have a new content structure!
Wireframes
The Global Site followed a strict set of information presentation standards, and so a great deal of work involved working inside that restriction. It started with merely adding standard components and then fleshing them out.
One thing to mention is that colors often signified a source or behavior rather than what the final presentation.
Workflow
(Content Design)
So much of the challenge in this product was accurately attaining the content. Using robust mind-mapping software, we could audit and record the content of two very different career sites.
From microsites to knowledge portals, we organized everything down to the smallest topical concept.
Navigation & Wayfinding
The effort had two parts, the first was to arrive at an accurate narrative for how Xerox culture works. The next challenge was to provide industry specific information. Information that did not meld easily with genera culture, but had to have a logical place.
All Browses
All Devices
Predicted Monthly Traffic
500 Pages per Session
1 Mllion Job Searches
550k Unique Visits
Content Architecture
(Card Sorting Exercise)
The most powerful tool we had was conceptual. Once we could audit and capture the content from the site, we could organize by topic. First, it is seen now, but we could also reorganize the cards to see how they might appear on other sites.
The task was much easier with a Copywriter working on my team.
Methodology
Open Card Sorting
Closed Card Sorting
MindMapping
Rolling Up the Sleeves
Concerning data challenges, sometimes the only way to get a solution is to roll up the sleeves and dig into it. It was all about learning the content and becoming a subject matter expert. Enough at least to be able to iterate with actual experts. Looking closely at the content and understanding what the messages are.
It's not Magic
Use Research exercises aren't magical. They follow very logical rules that can be described and addressed at length. It can be heady, but intuitive.
End of the Day
What mattered at the end of the day was reaching a solution. It meant committing to a higher level of work ethic and quality of product. Knowing that the endgame was something that would be usable impacted every part of the design effort.
Domain Knowledge
Job Sites
Career Searching
Xerox Global Careers
ACM Global Careers
Design Tools
OmniGraffle
Freemind
Photoshop