Glassdoor job details page
Mixed-methods research on why job seekers struggle to trust and act on the job details page.
Context
As a course project with Glassdoor as our client, my team worked with Glassdoor's product designer and UX researcher to improve the job-seeking experience. We focused on the job details page: base pay, company overview, ratings, reviews, and benefits. Job descriptions are written by employers, so they were out of scope.
Who we studied
Two groups of job seekers use the page differently.
Approach
We layered methods so each one checked the others: expert reviews to map the page, interviews to find why, a survey to size it, and usability tests to see it happen.
Sizing the problem
A survey tested whether the pain points from interviews held across a broader audience. Passive users valued company culture ratings twice as much as active seekers.
Benchmarking
Competitors had already solved some of the trust problems we saw on Glassdoor.
Heuristic evaluation
Using Nielsen's 10 principles, we rated each issue by severity.
Synthesis
I affinity-mapped 200+ data points from interviews in Miro and distilled them into 9 insights under 3 themes.
What we found
The information job seekers wanted was on the page. They didn't trust it, couldn't find it, or had too much of it.
The number of pros and cons reviews were always the same. I won't believe in these sections.68% of surveyed users found salary sources unclear or misleading, and 52% questioned review credibility. Review counts and keywords repeated in ways users found suspicious.
I wish there could be a "view all" button within the reviews.Users rarely discovered clickable company logos. In usability tests, 3 of 5 participants couldn't find saved jobs, and 60% missed the Apply / Clear filter buttons below the fold.
If I hadn't used Glassdoor before, I'd have no idea who this person is.Star ratings appeared in up to 4 sections of one posting, with labels like "approve of CEO" lacking context.
Recommendations
We delivered a report with findings ranked by severity and a recommendation for each.
8,685 Ratings
8,685 employee ratings
Reflection
Every participant held a Master's or PhD, so we likely missed pain points for other job seekers. Glassdoor was also running A/B tests during our study, which made some observations inconsistent. Next time I would recruit older and non-tech job seekers, and partner with the team to measure task success after changes ship.