On improving filtering and subscriptions
Over Christmas break in 2007, I spent a fair amount of time rethinking the design and presentation of Authentic Jobs. Several things needed improvement, most of which I’ll reserve for a later date to discuss.
Of prominence, and what I’ll discuss now, was the fact that the site had gone two years without any sort of searching and filtering capabilities, aside from filtering by job type (full-time, freelance) and category (design, development). It would rest another two years before search was finally added, present in the design you see now.
But merely adding a search box to the site wasn’t adequate in my mind. It, and the site, in general, needed to offer more. The idea of allowing users to save or export their settings seemed valuable, especially since the search feature would add another layering of filtering.
I fired up Photoshop, and the first iteration was drafted:
Notice many of the elements you see on the site today are present in this first design—search, new categories, and a “Save settings” feature. Originally the idea behind this feature was to cookie the settings within the user’s browser (which we do today automatically). Yet this idea eventually evolved into allowing users to subscribe to receive emails and to create custom RSS feeds based on their settings. And with the rise Twitter’s popularity during the time since the first iteration, adding the option to be notified of matching listings via Twitter direct message was a no-brainer.
What was difficult, however, was bringing all these elements together. Search, tabs for job type, checkboxes for categories, cookied settings, and a subscription feature—not to mention we’ve combined keyword searching and location filtering into a single search box using some special geosauce stuff that we may talk about later.
In the end, overhauling the design of the site seemed almost easier than combining the searching and filtering capabilities into an elegant, easy-to-use interface. The end result is what you see today, carefully refined over many hours by Myles Grant, Ben Bodien, Jon Linczak, and myself:
Overall, I’m very pleased with how things came together. However, you know as well as I that with user interfaces, success is never permanent. The interface must change and adapt as additional knowledge is gained about how users interact with it, as refinements in technology emerge and new services become more popular than others, and so forth. Consequently, I expect the Authentic Jobs interface to become much better than it is today, and I need your help to make that happen.
Here’s how you can help: Share honest, candid feedback about what’s working well and not working well with the searching, filtering, and subscribing features we’ve added to Authentic Jobs. We’ve got a number of enhancements we’re considering, and your feedback will help prioritize and augment the to-do list.
To help spawn some ideas, I’ll start with a few thoughts, some of which have come from the community:
- More relevant matches based on categories you’ve checked (ticked) or unchecked; see this discussion
- Better matching for jobs listed as freelance when they’re actually more like on-site contract work; see this discussion (including the replies)
- The addition some sort of account page on the site that allows you to manage your subscription(s); currently you can do this only through the method you’ve chosen
- Allowing for negation keywords in the search field, e.g. ‘-agency’ or ‘-”social media guru”‘. (We do allow for ‘or’ and ‘||’ already.)
- etc.
So, please speak up. I’m all ears.
(By the way, with all this talk about subscribing, I’d be remiss not to mention the No Retweet Necessary contest one last time. Still a few days and several prizes remaining.)
Blog Feed
Beth 2 December 2009
So far I am loving how easy to use the new site is. I know employers can now add if they offer relocation, but a lot of places still don’t disclose that initially. For me, to consider a job in another city, I’d *have* to know if relocation was an option. I don’t want to waste someone’s time without that information, so maybe if relocation definitely is not an option that could somehow display in the description as well?
Thanks!
Kirk 2 December 2009
I’d love a ‘filter by country/location’ option
Eric Martin 2 December 2009
I’d love to see a filter option added for telecommuting. On the job listing page, the company could choose “will consider” / “will not consider” or something similar, then an associated filter could be added to the search.
For me, it is something that is important to take into consideration.
The relocation option is a good idea too.
Lastly, what about salary range options? I know it is delicate, but it might be nice to filter on.
Keep up the great work!
Scott 2 December 2009
The “filter by location” option is really the #1 thing I’ve been missing.
Michael Dick 2 December 2009
My suggestion is from an interface perspective; I’ve created a screen just in case I confuse you :).
1) Loading the homepage for the first time has a slow lag before loading the entire ajax model…I would suggest adding a loading icon since the page says “Done” but is still waiting on the ajax.
2) IMO, the “You are Viewing” (highlighted in my screen) is redundant and takes up some nice real estate space…what do you think about getting rid of it?
http://m1k3.net/lab/screens/authjobs_my2cents.jpg
Overall, the new design is *amazing*! Great work and nicely executed!
Cameron Moll 2 December 2009
@ Beth: Good suggestion. Perhaps we need to consider switching to radio buttons for relocation (offered, not offered) rather than simply a checkbox for whether it’s offered.
@ Eric Martin: The telecommuting issue is one I’m currently working on. It’s bullet #2 in the list towards the end of my post. As for salary range, we haven’t considered that yet, but I’ll add it to the list for further thought.
@ Scott: Can you elaborate a little more? You can filter by location using the search field. For example, “california” will yield any listings with a location somewhere in California, even if “california” isn’t stated anywhere in the location, such as if the employer specifies only San Francisco. What specific suggestions do you have to help us offer better filtering by location?
@ Michael Dick: Wow, screens even! Thank you. I agree with the need for an Ajax loader. As for the “You are viewing” area, I agree that it’s redundant, but it was actually designed to be redundant. This is because we cookie your prefs, and if you come back a week or two later and don’t remember that you filtered the list, it’s easy to miss that. Getting rid of it, however, is not out of the question if we feel users will pick up on this well enough alone.
Jeremy Lindblom 2 December 2009
I really like the way it looks and feels. It runs really smoothly, which I think is one of the most important things about AJAX interfaces. I’ve only come to the site a few times, but the only thing I found that I was wanting was an easy way to filter by the time frame of the job (whether it was just a small gig or an on-going project).
Hates the fringe 2 December 2009
Maybe you can already do this, but if so it’s not readily apparent: I want to be able to see all jobs (and get a feed) except those in NY and CA.
Cameron Moll 3 December 2009
@ Hates the fringe: That would probably fall under the 4th bullet point in my post (negation search), e.g. ‘-ny’
Michael Dick 5 December 2009
@ Cameron: I see your point of view, but listen to my scenario:
All checkboxes are checked on a users first visit. If the user decides to uncheck a box then they’ve clearly made a visual cue in their head what the checkboxes represent. So now, these checkboxes have become visual cues AND a means to interact.
When a user revisits, they should be familiar enough with the interface to remember what the checkboxes represent.
It may defiantly need some user testing, but this is how I see a users mind working.
I hope I’ve helped…even just a LITTLE! :)
Bob 9 December 2009
I live the GUI and the ease of use.
To make it more usable for me, I’d love to see a search by zip code & radius (# of miles from a given zip/city, state).
My $0.02
Bob
Cameron Moll 9 December 2009
@ Michael Dick: Great, thanks. I see your point. Let me give that some thought.
Ian Tearle 10 December 2009
I all for an addition of location filtering, specifically country. Its frustrating to name a city, only to find a city in the states with the same name, when im looking for UK jobs.
Also perhaps a push for UK design agencies to get involved?
Cameron Moll 15 December 2009
A very valid concern, Ian. One we’re actually addressing around the first of next year.