Turning Recruitment Data Into a Low-Friction Hiring Experience

Overview

Acacy Recruitment Platform is a recruitment platform for field workforce roles such as PG, PB, sales staff, supermarket staff, warehouse staff, and other positions related to supply, retail, sales, and market activation.

The project was built in 2023 by a small team: one Business Analyst and one UX/UI Designer.

My role was UX/UI Designer. I worked with the BA on research, data entry definition, data filtering logic, MVP design, prototyping, and handoff using an Ant Design library.

I did not redesign the core HRM system behind the product. Acacy already had internal systems for collecting applications and managing recruitment operations.

My responsibility was to design the front-facing experience: turning fragmented recruitment data into a website/web app that was easy for candidates to use, clear for stakeholders to understand, and professional enough for enterprise pitching with brands such as Samsung, Unilever, and large retail chains.

Why This Project Needed to Exist

Before this project, candidates could discover jobs through many different channels: Facebook posts, Zalo, hotline, website forms, or direct messages.

Operationally, Acacy already had recruitment capability and a system for receiving applications. But the candidate-facing experience was still fragmented. Recruitment data had not yet been presented as a clear, attractive, and trustworthy product experience at the level of the brands Acacy wanted to serve.

The challenge was not simply to create another recruitment website.

The challenge was to create a recruitment experience that could serve three goals at the same time:

Acacy needed a product that was simple enough for everyday candidates, but professional enough to compete and pitch to large enterprise partners.

User Insight

The main users were PG, PB, sales staff, market activation staff, supermarket staff, and other low-barrier workforce candidates.

This was not a user group that wanted to go through a complex recruitment process like LinkedIn or office-worker hiring platforms.

They needed to know quickly:

• Where the job is

• How much it pays

• Whether it is shift-based or campaign-based

• Which brand is hiring

• How many positions are still available

• Whether applying is fast

• Where to check the application result

That meant the experience had to start from the two simplest inputs:

Location and phone number.

Location helps candidates see jobs near them.

The phone number becomes the main credential for login, application, and application status checking, instead of forcing users to remember an email or password.

Persona

Primary Persona — PG / PB Candidate

Secondary Persona — Recruiter / Operation Team

Business Persona — Brand / Client Stakeholder

The Real Problem

This was not a normal job board.

A normal job board only needs to post jobs and receive CVs.

Acacy needed a product that could do more:

• Help low-tech candidates find jobs quickly

• Turn job data into clear entry points

• Build trust with large enterprise brands

• Standardize how candidates apply and check applications

• Present nationwide recruitment capability visually

The biggest problem was not the lack of data.

The problem was that the data had not yet been turned into an experience strong enough for candidates to make decisions and for stakeholders to trust the system.

Core Idea

The core idea was:

Recruitment data should become a decision layer, not just a database.

Instead of only showing a list of jobs, the platform needed to help candidates make faster decisions based on the most important factors:

• Location

• Salary

• Job type

• Brand

• Store chain

• Available slots

• Application status

Every job card, filter, category, and search result had to answer one question:

Is this job suitable for me, and can I apply quickly?

Key UX Decisions

Information Architecture

I designed the content architecture around the main entry points candidates use when looking for work.

The same recruitment data was reorganized into multiple discovery paths to support different job-seeking behaviors.

What I Designed

The main screens and flows I designed included:

• Homepage

• Job listing

• Job detail

• Login / register

• OTP flow

• Application status

• Category menu

• Global search

• Filter by location, salary, and job type

• App-like mobile web experience

• Company / partner section

• Blog / hiring guide

• SEO keyword sections

• Footer structure

• Ant Design handoff library

The homepage was required to feel more “wow” and differentiated from competitors, because it did not only serve candidates. It also acted as a pitching surface for brands and stakeholders.

Data-Driven UX

Recruitment data was translated into UI patterns that were easier to scan and act on.

The main data fields included:

One important detail was that a single job could have multiple locations and multiple available slots. Because of that, the index page needed to expose enough metadata so users could understand whether a job still had a suitable location for them.

Candidate Flow

The main candidate flow was designed to be as simple as possible:

Select location
↓
Browse relevant jobs
↓
Open job detail
↓
Apply with phone number
↓
Verify with OTP
↓
Submit form
↓
Check application status

Select location
↓
Browse relevant jobs
↓
Open job detail
↓
Apply with phone number
↓
Verify with OTP
↓
Submit form
↓
Check application status

Select location
↓
Browse relevant jobs
↓
Open job detail
↓
Apply with phone number
↓
Verify with OTP
↓
Submit form
↓
Check application status

The goal was to let candidates move from job discovery to application without creating a complex account or uploading a CV at the beginning.

Pitching Layer

The product was not only a recruitment website.

It was also a sales asset for Acacy.

The website needed to communicate:

• High-volume recruitment capability

• Geographic coverage

• Brand credibility

• A professional system

• Fast candidate acquisition

• Standardized recruitment data

This is why the homepage was designed as a hybrid between a job discovery page and an enterprise pitch page.

On one side, candidates could find jobs and apply.

On the other side, large brands could see Acacy’s operational capability at a national scale.

Outcome

The project was launched and used in production.

Although many metrics could not be disclosed, the main value of the project was turning internal recruitment data into a product that could be used, presented, and trusted by stakeholders.

What I Learned

This project helped me better understand how to design for low-tech user groups.

Good UX for this group is not about adding more features.

It is about removing unnecessary steps.

A phone number can be a better identity layer than email.

Location can matter more than job title.

Salary can matter more than a long description.

And in a recruitment product, data is only valuable when it helps users make decisions faster.

The biggest lesson was:

Design is not only about displaying data.

Design is deciding which data matters, when it should appear, and how it helps users act faster.

For Acacy, I did not design an HRM system.

I designed an experience layer that made recruitment data easier to understand, easier to search, easier to apply to, and trustworthy enough for both candidates and enterprise clients.