Background

When the first freelancer's profile was created, the company only offered manual testing services. However, a lot has changed since then. The company expanded its offerings to include various specializations within the Freelance network, as well as testing services for clients. As a result, the existing profile became outdated for tasks beyond manual testing. Therefore, a redesign was necessary. Below, you can see what the original freelancer profile looked like:

Exploration

Problem statement

Suitable freelancers are hard to find because their profiles are missing data. There needs to be more than the showcased information for hiring Testers.

Hypothesis

If we provide relevant information in the profile, the Coordinator can assign the right Freelancers to the right Workspaces quicker and have better quality testing.

UX methods

Puzzle exercise. In this method, I combined card sorting and crazy eight technics. It will allow me to see what users need in terms of data plus user perception of the hierarchy of data information.

Goals

• Explore what data from the Freelancer profile users find relevant.
• Uncover data valuable for different specialisations.
• Discover in what form is convenient for the users to consume the information.

Sample

18 consumers of the Freelancer's profiles need to look for different testing roles to meet the client testing requirements.

App Used

Miro. Users puzzled together the profile based on the assigned specialisation.

Samples of what users have created during the study

Data collection and analysis

I collected all data points each participant used in their profile and grouped them by each profile type. It allowed me to conduct the cross-analysis to see the dependency and build the whole picture.

Expected essential data across all Tester's Profiles

• Name, Profile pic, Location and Time, BIO
• Devices, Languages, Pay rate
• Testing experience
• Availability
• Member since
• Certifications
• Review stars
• Feedback
• Send a Message (contact)
• Verification
• Badges
• Experience with years
• Share Profile
• Skills
• Statistics (earnings, jobs, hours )

Aggregated data for different specialisations

• Automation: Straitly focused on programming and tech skills.
• Usability: Emphasised the Feedback and rating given to the Tester earlier.
• Accessibility: Skills, Certifications and previous experience were brought upper.

Action user would love to take from the Profile

• Send a message to Freelancer (10/18)
• Share profile (8/18)

Data users would love to see:

• Member since (13/18)
• Feedback to the Freelancer and Stars Review (13 and 10 from 18 participants)
• Experience with the years (9/18)
• More than half participants used badges or their equivalents to highlight the Freelancers.
• Users preferred a more visual, detailed overview of availability and overall weekly availability.

Information architecture

By creating the data schema, it was possible to categorize the information and determine the number of data points that can potentially be shown per each group.

It is a helpful tool for identifying common and specific information that is unique to various specialized profiles.

Design proposal

From the research I have done, I identified design principles and assumptions.

Design principles

1. Focus. Section the information and show only relevant.
   I have observed how users have been looking for and choosing freelancers. They always know what specialisation, tools, and characteristics they need. ‍
2. Scalability. At that moment, the product offered two specialisations: Manual testers and Quality engineers. The design should consider scenarios if there are 3-4 or more specialisations.

Assumptions

• Devices and Availability. This data points that are crucial to the user. However, their specificity is such that the profile must meet 100% of the specified criteria. This data serves as "confirming" (of earlier defined filters) and not "exploring" behaviour. In this regard, I added them lower in the data architecture data and combined them into tabs.

• Specialised BIO. I have created individual BIOs for each specialisation to enhance the value of profile readers. It will ensure that freelancers provide more relevant content in their profiles.

Usability study

I paired with Jillian Heller to run a usability study.

Hypothesis: With this newly designed freelance tester profile, the users will have increased comprehension of the tester details, allow for information to be more quickly discovered, and build trust in the Tester's quality.

Method: Moderated design test +  Post-test surveys via google forms +  Card sort on trustworthiness discovery

Results: Sections with the biggest opportunities for improvement - Work Time Preferences + Payment Testing + Manual Performance Metrics

📊 Quick Insights

• 100% of users strongly agree that this new profile design is an improvement over the current profile
• Users were delighted to see payment testing information included in the prototype.
• Users want to visualize more information in the Work Time Preferences section. (ex: specific dates of the current week, away schedule was not easily discoverable (scrolling necessary), block out days the Tester is marked as "away", the colouring of the available/unavailable time slots each day/white space left ambiguity)
• The four most impactful profile elements that influence a tester's trustworthiness are:

1. Written Feedback (Included in the reviews section)
2. Hours (approved by/worked)
3. Verification (If the tester has been verified/documents)
4. Manual Performance Metrics (Issue acceptance, run attendance, etc.)

📘 Read full study report with design before and after

Design delivery

After revising the research findings I worked on design improvements. Final design prototype you can fnd bellow.