Creating a real-time salary insights platform for modern HR teams
SERVICE TYPE
- Website design
Industry
- HR technology
My role
- Sole Product Designer
Timeline
- Dec’23 – present
About the project
Curioz is a data-driven platform that helps companies make fairer, smarter salary decisions by offering real-time compensation insights and benchmarking tools. Designed for modern HR teams, it allows users to analyze pay equity, compare roles, and understand the value of specific skills in today’s job market.
The initial UI design (colors, fonts, and basic kit) was created by another designer, but I quickly took over full responsibility for the project. Since then, I’ve been working closely with the founders to shape features, improve UX, and help build accessible, user-configurable charts that make complex salary data fast to explore and easy to understand.
The full case study is still in progress, feel free to reach out if you’re curioz about the design process!
Problem statement
The biggest design challenge was not just preparing the UX/UI for complex data visualizations across multiple chart types, but doing so for a broad and diverse audience – from recruiters and HR specialists to top-level managers. In order to make our data clear and easily understandable to everyone, we had to take several factors into account: available chart libraries, the latest accessibility standards, and, of course, real user input!
While analyzing competitors, our team noticed a recurring issue: many of their graphs are difficult to interpret and require additional explanation (tooltips, sidebars, or even external help docs). To avoid this and make better usability choices, I regularly run interviews with potential customers and iterate based on their feedback. There’s still a lot ahead of us, but we’re continuously improving the data representation.
Design process
Since I joined this startup at a very early stage, I had the opportunity to choose and follow the design approach I believed would work best. Based on my previous experience, Lean UX felt most aligned with the nature of the project – it allows us to quickly test assumptions, avoid spending time on unnecessary long documentation, and build a cross-functional environment.
Think
- initial personas (4);
- early assumptions;
- discovery survey at WaysConf (66 responses)
Make
- MVP scope definition;
- key user flows;
- microcopy and content writing
Check
- user interviews;
- moderated usability tests;
- UX adjustments based on the received feedback
Participation at the WaysConf Startup Zone
Salary, salary, salary. It’s the one topic that always sparks interest and discussion: employers offer it, employees negotiate it, and both sides want to feel it’s fair. Even though our MVP was aimed at a B2B model, we knew from the start both perspectives mattered. So, I decided to step out of the bubble and conduct real field research at WaysConf by applying to its Startup Valley.
Once Curioz was successfully selected, we headed to the conference and, together with the CEO, showcased an alpha version of the platform using mock data and sample charts to present the types of insights we plan to collect and provide. The concept received a lot of positive feedback – from its UI to the potential value for HR specialists, companies, and employees.
Video source: WaysConf 2024
Moreover, we turned our booth into a gamification point and invited attendees to complete a short survey in exchange for a sticker. The questionnaire was designed to validate our business idea and uncover people’s key motivations.
The survey results, along with conversations with visitors, confirmed many of our initial hypotheses and gave our team a clearer understanding of user expectations. Also, we learned which features users would need in the future.
A curated selection of web platforms and landing pages I’ve designed – some without comprehensive research, but still worth sharing!
