Curtis Lazure | Design and Creative Lead + Senior UX Designer at Nexus Communications

  • The Ask
  • Using brand standards and best practices to create a more engaging, user friendly career site with a higher success rate of candidate conversion.
  • My Role
  • Designer, UX Designer, Account Lead
  • My Team
  • Project Manager, Graphic Designer, Account Manager, Strategist, Copywriter
  • My Tasks
  • Graphic Design, UX Design, Research, Testing
  • My Tools
  • Adobe Photoshop, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Iphone, Android​
  • My Timeline
  • 3 Months
  • The Deliverable
  • An updated, responsive career site design that will be assembled in Phenom

Learn
Learn potential candidate roadblocks and deficiencies within the usability of the site through research and stakeholder input

Re-Design
Create an more user friendly website with easy access to key information and launch points with new IA, Flow, visual design and content refresh

Enhance
Using the Spin Master brand, develope an enhanced version of the site with updated EVP, Tone of Voice and messaging

Stylize
Using wireframing and design software, create a Hi-Fi Prototype

Hand-off
Working with 3rd party development team to create a seamless asset hand-off

Project Overview

Rediscovering the kid in you.

One of the common themes from key stake holders was that they wanted the language and look and feel to match the energy and playfulness of the brand, and that of the experiences in enjoying Spin Master products.

The site needed to inform applicants of Spin Master’s employee value proposition, employee experience and allow for easy, direct job application.

The new site would be mobile responsive. My role was to research and provide information architecture recommendations, design wireframes, direct user flow by role type, reduce friction points for applicants, lead the visual design, and work with a 3rd party developer to test features and functionality.

2000+

2000+ employees across the globe

28

28 offices worldwide

$2B+

$2+ Billion dollars in annual revenue

Project Goals

How might we organize the site to attract and engage best in class talent in key markets across the globe and distinguish Spin Master as an employer of choice?

  • Showcase the Spin Master employer brand
  • Filter unsuitable candidates
  • Provide realistic job previews to set candidate expectations
  • Provide clear user flow to explore various roles
  • Reduce friction points to the ATS
  • Introduce expectations such as ‘The Interview Process’

Format
• Content Management System
• Mobile
• Accessible

Pages
6 deep scrolling pages

Development Time
<3 months

Understanding the visual design and user experience.

An audit of the existing site, coupled with a discovery session of CMS constraints helped to identify the following issues:

Outdated Design

The site uses muted colours not consistent with the brand as well as outdated imagery and non AODA compliance.

Inconsistent User Experience

There is a lack of consistency between column widths, banner treatments and text alignment from page to page.

Not Optimized for Mobile

The site relies on breakpoints and the design is not handled in an elegant way. The site is not optimized for mobile-first users.

Difficult to Find Role

Job and department jump points do not have enough prominence and the lack of a predictable layout makes the experience disjointed.

Hearing from Employees

Intake questionnaires helped in discovering the benefits/differentiators of working at Spin Master. Short questionnaires were circulated across departments gathering intake from multiple perspectives.

Questionnaire Example

Office Specific

  1. Provide 2-3 key descriptors about what it is like to work at Spin Master on a daily basis?
  2. What kind of person thrives in a Spin Master work environment?
  3. Provide 4-5 characteristics in terms of personality, energy, aspirations, etc.
  4. Provide 4-5 reasons why you think people choose to work at Spin Master? What do they like about it?

General

  1. The market is very competitive – what key differentiators set apart Spin Master from others both inside the office segment, and beyond?
  2. Tell me about the people culture in Spin Master offices as compared to your key competitors?
  3. What kinds of investments is Spin Master making in terms of people, process, technology, or otherwise?
  4. What are some of the biggest myths/misconceptions that should be dispelled regarding positions with respect to Spin Master?
  5. Please feel free to include any other information that is relevant and was not requested above.

Defining our Broad Scope Personas.

Todays workforce is comprised of Millennials, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and Traditionalists

Job Family
• Corporate and Management
• Operations
• Marketing

Motivation: Career Advancement, New Role, Full-time Employment
Behaviour: Exploratory
Needs: Wanting more information on Spin Master
Looking for: Why work there, Career paths, and what it takes to succeed

Job Family
• Engineering
• Inventor Relations
• Creative

Motivation: Role focused within their area of expertise, Full-time Employment
Behaviour: Quick to apply for a specific role
Needs: Knows the role they’re looking for, may seek transient role
Looking for: A quick and easy path to apply for a specific role

Hearing from the Employer

Intake questionnaires and interviews were conducted with key stakeholders on what they hoped the applicant experience would be, deficiencies with the current site and expectations to guide the redesign.

  1. Provide 2-3 key must haves for the relaunch that the current site isn’t delivering on.
  2. Describe any pain points that applicants may be experiencing when looking for employment at Spin Master using the career site.
  3. What features/styles work with the current site that you’d like to see migrated over?
  4. Please summarize what you feel isn’t working with the current site (look and feel, ease of navigation etc…)

Design

Our Guiding Principles

  • Minimize copy
  • Incorporate a mix of high impact mediums (visuals, video, podcast)
  • Adopt a user-centered design approach
  • Develop simplified journey maps
  • Integrate EVP messaging & creative
  • Explore best/next practices (chatbots, visual job descriptions, live
    hiring manager)
  • Rework Copy to better reflect Spin Master Tone of Voice while adhering to SEO best practices

Getting the Content Right

We continued this exploration through various iterations, numbering wireframes and page sections for easy reference and annotation, and to allow both our stakeholders, and copywriters, and developers to refer to specific sections by number.

Establishing the Styles

Rubiks and Open Sans was chosen to be highly accessible to site visitors and best align with the constraints of the CMS the site would be developed on.

The brand palette provided direction but would require some adjustment to meet AODA contrast compliance.

Photography that complimented the brand palette would be prioritized.

Iconography using a light outline format would be chosen to compliment the clean colourful look.

This fresh, bold and playful colour palette represents our forward thinking innovation, serious smarts and playful attitude.

Imagery and Character Assets 

Iconography

Iterating on the visual design.

Multiple designs were explored by our team and tested with the client.

Final Design

The updated version of the career site eliminated the use of people in it’s photography, opting instead to showcase various Spin Master characters in an office setting.

A much bolder use of colour was introduced to compliment the playfulness and energy depicted within the brand.

Smart, AODA compliant banners were created with a fresh, playful look complimenting the Spin Master Brand

Multiple, easy to find jump points were moved higher up in the page allowing applicants to find what they’re looking for much easier and faster

Roles that are typically higher in demand are showcased in a much more prominent way

Locations are much more front and center giving a clear and immediate picture of where Spin Master is situated globally

Rich, engaging media is used to tell stories from real employees giving the user a sense of trust and company credibility

Developer Hand-off

Our team prepared all the hand-off materials in accordance with the developers’ specs and answered any questions about the design or functionality of the website. In working in tandem with the development team we were able to meet client expectations within the CMS platform while trouble shooting and solutioning any problems that occurred.

Final Thoughts

All client requests were met and a more elegant, user friendly career site was delivered. The look and feel of the website is more in-tune with their brand both in terms of visual aesthetics and tone of voice. Functionality and usability has also been enhanced to create a much easier path for applicants to find what they’re looking for in terms of roles or departments. The site design is now streamlined and persona-driven, offering candidates the ability to see the Spin Master enterprise at-a-glance and easily apply to available roles across the globe. Candidates can explore departments and roles with additional detail, and the ability to apply is always present.

Connect with me at: curtis@clazure.ca
LinkedIn
705.207.0625