In redesigning the M&S careers website, I addressed three main pain points to enhance user experience and reflect M&S's commitment to diversity and inclusion:

Cluttered information architecture

I conducted a series of open card sorting activities, along with tree tests. This helped me to define role and department naming conventions, as well as user journeys.

Teams offering very different roles

M&S had always struggled to speak to the huge variety of potential applicants that view their site. There are six teams in total at M&S and roles vary from retail assistants to content marketers to recipe developers. To make sure each team felt represented I interviewed users from each of them and used affinity maps to create team-specific personas. I also designed a content matrix to structure and prioritise content relevant to each team. Sentiment analysis ensured the final copy resonated with users. High-fidelity designs showcased each department's personality through unique colours and tailored language, while maintaining M&S’s ‘digital green’.

Conveying M&S’ commitment to D&I

To ensure diversity and authenticity across the site, I recruited a diverse group of interview participants and tailored questions to their application experiences. This approach provided insights into their feelings about the process and how to effectively communicate M&S’s diversity efforts on the new website, building on my prior research. The language, tone, and evidence of ongoing commitment were key to conveying authenticity and engendering user trust.

The designs include:

• A prominent 'How we hire' section in job descriptions, along with a downloadable diversity report PDF.

• An I&D page in the primary navigation.

• Detailed information on Employee Resource Groups, I&D initiatives, partnerships, and employee benefits, featured on both the I&D page and in every job description.