As part of the main Develop Diverse product, our team developed a browser integration that could be used by Hiring Managers or Recruiters within the LinkedIn Recruiter platform. I supported the project by taking part in the entire design process, delivering the final high-fidelity prototype and testing ideas with users.
The extension mirrors the core functionality of the main app: scanning input text and highlighting biased phrases and words, suggesting non-discriminating alternatives, and providing details about the text's inclusivity level.
Users needed to perform extra steps to make their biased texts (job ads, messages, emails) more inclusive: copy the initial text from the original source, paste it into the web app's editor, scan for discriminating phrases, replace them with non-discriminating alternatives, then copy the optimized text back (e.g. to a careers page, document, or email). This process was time- and effort-consuming, with steps that could be redundant.
To make inclusive language ubiquitous, the solution needed to live not only in the main web app but wherever our users were writing and communicating. The higher-level idea was to create a seamless browser extension that would be easily accessible and support users with inclusive writing rapidly, avoiding unnecessary actions.
To understand practices in the existing market, I researched different browser extensions — both competitors and non-related products — focusing on those that scan text and offer alternatives or corrections. Grammarly stood out as one of the biggest writing-assistant solutions on the market and served as a good source of inspiration for interface and interaction design.
Milanote board — competitor analysis
Milanote board — Grammarly analysis
To understand user expectations and desires early on, some of our customers were asked to fill in a questionnaire.
After team meetings, we realized a generic browser extension functioning on all websites wasn't a good solution due to legal risk — it might not be secure when it comes to sensitive data like passwords, bank details or personal data.
We narrowed the scope to specific platforms Recruiters or Hiring Managers (our primary users) use daily. LinkedIn Recruiter was chosen as the first platform to develop the integration for, a decision informed by the survey results as well as technical limitations and feasibility discussed during scope meetings.
Due to an NDA I signed when working for the company, I'm not able to reveal all interface details, except those publicly available. Some elements below are replaced with lines or shapes.
Moderated usability testing was conducted with 5 people — 2 internal and 3 external. The external users were company clients who already used the main app and use LinkedIn Recruiter in their work.
The usability test results were summarized into key findings and conclusions. Most users preferred the minimal interface version for being clean and neat, yet still wanted to see certain useful information about their message. The final design became a hybrid of both minimal and extended versions — clean and uncluttered, while allowing users to reveal additional elements following the principles of Progressive Disclosure.
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch.
alise.loginova27@gmail.com