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Monster search results page @ Anuranjan
Using our awesome clean infoarch, this is my design for my team. Not quite a monster anymore! 
Updated MONSTER infoarch
[Monster.com] User scenarios : Registration and Job search
So, I am having a headache.
This job site can really do that to you. Serious. It begins from the moment you log in. And if it wasn’t bad enough that people are tense about finding jobs that they have to go through all this. I will go through the two scenarios I checked out on the website- registration and searching for jobs.
Registering
You would think this would be slick but the college central job board is way better than this one! Let’s go through what happened with me- I chose the “build resume” option to start up the registration process. I fill up the basic info on first page and then click on ‘next’ and then…a advert which looked almost part of the registration process!! Then on next page there were some problems with the way they have their parameters set- eg. “Willing to travel”- choices: 25-100%! (What the %^&% does that mean- shouldn’t it just be yes or no?!?!?!) And then once you go to the next page, we see a whole page….of Advert! Again! So darn distracting! And then once we are done with the “Build resume” feature, you realize you still have a lot more to fill- especially for someone like me looking for jobs in Graphic Design. Oh and wait- that can happen only once you have gone through another full page advert!!!!!!
So I try to give my spinning head a rest and log out. I log back in again hoping it will get better. Guess what I am greeted with? A freaking Ad!!! And the whole Profile page is divided into so many sections and tabs that it gets so dizzy just trying to figure out where is what- the color palette surely does little to help. And the all important “Job Search” feature is a little low on the page- you have to actually scroll down for it! With so much text everywhere with almost 60-70% being links, it just is way too busy and the categorization definitely needs cleaning up.
Search
Then I start the search hoping to find some good jobs at least…the listings themselves have no consistency- some are in bold text, some are in plain text (and no, none of it is related to whether it is more important or not)- extremely disturbing. And the omnipresent ads make their way in between the listings for the jobs!!!!!! While we have to hunt for the “next” button to go to the next page of listings! With the searches sandwiched between the left nav-bar (with Refine/Review/Recent View etc tabs) and a humongous ad on the right for a car which one will never be able to afford if they have to go through such a crappy job site!
The cherry on the cake is that when you open some prospective employer’s posting, there is no consistency there though they try to bring in some! text, images, underlines etc are everywhere…and I guess employers get to design their own pages but come on!!! It looks like mash up between a 1990 web page design and the enthusiastic design of a myspace page of some teenager looking to make it big.
By the end of this ordeal, i feel dizzy and on the threshold of throwing up! So what needs to be done? Everything they did not do but should have- and carry aspirin next time I visit the site.
ps: my team members Ariel and Liam will be soon recovering from this too and will post their adventures on monster pretty soon- stay tuned!
Monster redesigned
Ariel, Liam and Me have decided on doing monster.com for the group redesign project mainly because it is not professional looking, boring and there is no hierarchy.
The options we had discussed varied from news sites, insurance, social networking, craigslist, biznik, expedia, shual.com etc
More details coming soon.
Bag It- the shopping widget is reborn
Here it is. Hopefully it is easy to understand what is happening as someone goes about searching for a black ducati monster dark 2002 model (most probably that someone will be me!). Shoot me questions and comments if it has left you still dazed!
…now, only if it was easier than spending more than 20 minutes just “inserting images into post”!
Oh, and you ask what is that list thing that you see on the hover? It is a shortcut to see all your searches- helpful especially if you go over 7 searches-which is the number of ‘quick display’ windows on the bag. Uh huh…here’s a brief description-
(NB: I have queued up another search with the beautiful Ducati- a high performance super laptop, the Alienware M15x-just for reference though!)
—edited—-
Now comes the part where one sees how the alerts work.
Lets begin with how the list would work to alert the user. This scenario is when the 7 icon shortcut-displays have been filled up and there are more searches queued up and when one of those searches not showing in the windows actually finds something- in this instance, the widget has found a pari of sidi gloves that I was looking for before finding anything else on the list:
Now, lets see when the widget actually found the first two searches on the main display- the ducati and the alienware laptop:
Now, after I have bought those two items (oh how i wish I had the money to do so!) and discarded them from the list using the “discard” button, the rest of the items in queue get pushed up and the icons move one up, left to right- something like this:
Bag It! Now!
Wading through comments and suggestions have come up with a nifty little widget- ofcourse some tweaks are needed but here is version 3:
Bag It- your simplified shopping experience
So here it is- a highly simplified version of my earlier convoluted Bag It widget.
Here is the easy to understand wireframe for my widget -bagit_wireframe
And here is the default state- the user hasnt touched it, so its basically a empty canvas right now- am not sure if I need to add anything to the face…
And here it is sitting pretty on my desktop -
Just to set the record straight, there are many shopping widgets but they are way too time consuming and site specific- none offers the versatility and ease I want to allow the user to have with this. That was my main problem and that is what this widget seeks to solve- for being at Parsons does not allow one to keep scrolling through pages of useless stuff for that one good deal!
Bag It- the widget
I have the wireframes as png for I realized that I designed the widget in original size and a pdf was making them look pixelated! Anyway, here they are:
And here is the widget’s default state- with indications of it functioning- green is for searches found and the darker orange indicates articles in queue:
Widgets- Bag It! The ultimate online shopping partner
My widget is something that came up through my personal frustration of shopping for things online. I call it “BAG IT” because it will help you bag the best deal of exactly what you want at exactly the price you want.
How does it work?
You have to choose certain parameters for the object you are searching (there will be a preloaded list of classifications and you can make more of yours) and even add more tags if you like. Then the widget will keep looking online in all qualified sites from ebay to craigslist to amazon and even sites you add to it. When it finds the perfect match (you will have the option to choose from 50% to 90% to 100% match) it will notify you.
Where can it be used?
On your desktop - linux, windows and macs. On your PDA and smartphones. And if you want to risk losing your cool find to others, on your website/blog.
Desktops:
PDAs & Smartphones:
Blogs/Websites:
How does it notify?
There will be color coding on the widget that can be customized. It can also notify you when you are not online by sending a message to your cellphone if you keep it turned on in your webpage when you have to switch your computer off.
There might be similar sounding widgets but I think if this gets made, this will be the most powerful shopping tool! Yeah!
Dragon Ben - The Finale
Here it is- I know you all have been waiting for it!
PS: I made some changes (only those I agreed with ofcourse) and posted the new images in the same post- like I redid the form, fixed some text issues but there are still 2 type languages which I will explain; Master Ha is on the pages due to popular demand; contact page has been finessed with smaller logo. Splash page still stays and that issue shall be addressed as well.
Thank you all for your suggestions- wouldn’t have been possible without your help to get here.
