Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

I’ve been in the online recruitment space for quite awhile. And I can probably count the number of job sites that really got my attention on looks alone with one hand. Otherwise, it’s all main navigation this and HTML that.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with keeping in line with what users expect. Usability tests galore teach us that messing with expectations too much is more of a deterrent to getting users to do what you want them to do than the other way around.

However, rules are meant to be broken, aren’t they? And with tens of thousands of job sites online, you gotta take differentiation wherever you can get it. That’s why it was so refreshing to come across Hire Your Friend:

Is this a recommendation of their service? No. Are they SEO friendly? Hell no! Will they rewrite the book on job board design? Doubtful.

And at this moment in time, who cares?

The lesson here is learning to cut through the clutter. The world is polluted with data. It’s information overload. You think you’re remarkable, but if you can’t get someone’s attention, it doesn’t really matter. Anything you can do to get noticed – just to get the chance at being considered remarkable – is sometimes enough.

Apple wasn’t the first company to come up with an MP3 player. But they were arguably the first to come up with something that resembled art instead of a piece of plastic with headphones. And they were certainly the first to put a strong enough brand behind a product that had historically been simply ‘good enough.’

You too should ask how design can impact your business. If we’re talking about a Web site, what would get you noticed in contrast to the competition? If you’re afraid to pimp your main site, maybe you go crazy with a separate online ad campaign. In the job site industry, where playing it safe is the rule, there’s plenty of opportunity to use design to cut through the noise and get noticed.

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