Prototyping

We sketched low-fidelity wireframes by hand to quickly iterate on structure and layout. These helped us visualize how features like smart lists and benchmarking flows could interconnect across the platform.

After defining flows, we moved to digital wireframes and developed a design system from scratch using Preline (Tailwind CSS) as a base. Over 200 components were created and documented in our shared design library,something the platform had never had before.

We worked in close collaboration with both frontend and backend developers throughout the process, ensuring that all designs were technically feasible and that the necessary data was available to deliver trustworthy insights.

Usability Testing

As part of the redesign of TalentUp, a salary benchmarking platform for HR professionals, we conducted a series of remote usability tests to validate new functionalities and ensure the overall user experience was clear, intuitive, and aligned with users’ mental models.

We created two distinct user test flows to reflect different onboarding scenarios:

• Case 1: The user registers and their company is found in the database, so employee positions are automatically loaded.
• Case 2: The company is not found, and the user must manually add employees to start benchmarking.

We interviewed seven professionals across HR roles: Compensation & Benefits specialists from large teams, generalist HR/People Ops professionals from scaling startups, and external consultants managing multiple clients. Some had prior experience with TalentUp, while others were first-time users, giving us valuable contrast in expectations and comprehension.

Each session lasted 20–30 minutes and was conducted remotely. Users followed a task-based script covering key actions such as registering, adding employee positions, exploring insights, unlocking market benchmarks, and comparing internal data with market trends. All inputs were auto-generated to reduce cognitive friction and focus on usability.

Feedback and last changes

Our main objectives were to validate the logic of the new flows (especially the link between internal salary benchmarking and market data), observe potential friction points, and assess whether key concepts like credit usage, benchmarking access, and insight interpretation were clearly understood.

The interviews revealed key improvement areas: insight visualizations needed clearer structure, users wanted to adjust percentile comparisons by department, and some labels and copy were confusing. Based on these findings, we iterated on flow structure, rewrote key UI text, and made targeted design changes in Figma to ensure better alignment with user expectations.

The result was a refined and more user-centered prototype, improving clarity, trust, and efficiency in salary analysis for HR professionals.

Project Status

After completing the final design iterations based on user testing insights, we updated the necessary components in Figma and closed the design phase. The project has now entered the development stage. We are currently working closely with the engineering team through recurring meetings to review implementation progress, identify and resolve design inconsistencies, and continuously test key flows as they are developed. This collaborative phase ensures that the final product remains faithful to the design intent while being technically feasible and user-friendly.