web class tweets

We’re off to the races with the social media portion of our web class. Woot! As per this chapter in our education, we were instructed to get ourselves a twitter account and follow each other, as well as some design tweeters, too. Anyhoo, if you want to follow me, classmates ( I will only tweet a/b web design related finds and facts) feel free twitter.com/webmisadventure

Just a quick aside, I have to admit that the idea of getting a twitter account gave me pause. Don’t get me wrong, I think social media is an awesome tool, but I personally did want to hear people talk about their cup of coffee and inane stuff like that. However, our class reminded me that it’s all about who you follow. Twitter can be a great tool to easy keep up with magazines, news, industries, and the like–who usually only tweet about current events or announcements (no random tweets about intimate details you don’t want to know or boring everyday nonsense!) So for this, I’m glad to give it another go. Also, if keep your account private and set your settings to have new followers request permission, you can weed out the crazies and mundane time-usurping dribble.

happy tweeting!

Mobile app cont…

So here are a few ideas for the Bonster mobile app. I think it combines the positive/useful elements from the apps I researched in my last post.

My first idea was to use the same format as Indeed’s app, allowing people to combine their search location and keyword for positions. Then I thought a little more and decided that it would be more versatile to use those lovely rolly bars/drop down menus to allow users to choose a combination of search options. I gave the use 4 different fields that could either all be filled out or only a couple. This would allow users to refine their searches  more or less depending on what they need. Each field would allow location, keyword, date posted, salary range, time constraints (full-time, part-time, contract, temp, intern, etc) & probably  a few more that i’m forgetting at the moment. So users would select the type of criteria and a blank field would open for them to specify. For example it the first type of search they want was keyword, location, & salary. The user would select each of those as the type of search and then fill in the specific information, ex. writer, wisconsin, 24k.

I tried to stick to a pretty tame/neutral color scheme. I wanted the information to be quick and easy to read. I’m not 100% sure about the logo at this point. In french people say “bon” all the time like we say “ok”– which would mean this logo is like Ok!ster… not sure what that means, but I’m ok with it.

mobile app research

This week we were given our final project. My group will re-design the Bonster (inspired by Monster) job search site. In particular, this week we are to design a mobile application to accompany our re-designed site. So, I did some research on existing mobile applications for job searches.

I looked at Job Search from Indeed.com, Jobcompass from jobcompass.net, and Job Search Engine from Linkup.com. The are fairly similar in function. All three have the ability to search by keyword and location, email a listing to someone, and apply.

Indeed’s app is very simple and quick.  It also saves your most recent searches, so if you tend to search for the same thing, you don’t have to recall or if you’re me if you found a job but you decided to come back later and can’t find it, you can use your last search. The interface is clean and simple, to the point.

This one, jobcompass, seems neat because you can save different destinations, for the job searcher that has multiple locations in which they would like to live and work. It even seems that you can choose a different county as well.

The interface is a little blah. There is not distinctive color or repeating design elements to differentiate it from all iphone screens.

Linkup’s job search has a little more flare. They have a prominent logo w/ a nice color palette. They include a concise first page w/ search options up front and still space effectively include a neat feature, a tip of the day to help job searchers.

Collectively, it seems like the most efficient apps for job searching give you the search option on the first page and ideally combine search options keyword and location. The other two key features are the ability to email a listing and apply directly from the app. Without being able to actually use this app, my only question (from a reasonable amount of experience job searching) is whether or not it is really possible to apply directly from the app. Often jobs require  an online application or the uploading of a resume, which could be tricky on device.  Applying quickly and easily would be ideal, but since the apps do not promise to allow you to apply, but rather to effectively search, these app’s still seem worthwhile.