Empowering recruiters and candidates through empathy-led research and intuitive design.

Project Overview: What is SHERDS?
SHERDS is a SaaS recruitment platform designed to help European companies hire more female tech talent and close the gender gap in IT hiring. Over a two-week sprint, our team of three UX/UI Designers collaborated with stakeholders to create a landing page and an MVP prototype focused on the recruiter’s workflow. While my primary focus was leading the UI Design, I worked across the entire design thinking process to ensure the visual solutions were fully grounded in user research.

Context: Market Research — Not Just Another Hiring Tool
While platforms like Xena or Tech Ladies are great for community and mentorship, they often sit outside a recruiter’s daily workflow. Job boards like LinkedIn are too broad and generic, and their focus is not specifically on closing the gender hiring gap. Based on our extensive competitor research, we identified a clear opportunity for a central, self-serve tool. SHERDS is the platform companies need to discover pre-qualified talent, manage their pipeline, and track diversity metrics in one place.

Designing for the User (Laura): Understanding Tech Recruiters
To build a tool that recruiters actually use, we had to understand how does a recruiters day to day in Europe looks like. We focused our solution on Laura, a senior recruiter who is passionate about diversity but held back by inefficient tools.

Although we decided to only focus on the recruiters perspective for this specific sprint, our research focused on the hiring experience as a whole. We interviewed 2 senior recruiters and two female candidates, additionally to surveys answered by HR professionals provided by our stake holder.

Our interviews revealed that recruiters are overwhelmed by volume; they don’t need more candidates, they need clarity to chose the right candidate faster and more efficiently. Consequently, the next two insights shaped the first iteration of our MVP Design.

1. Inefficiency in Screening: Recruiters found manual CV Screening slow and requested a “match percentage” feature to quickly see how well a candidate fits a job description.
2. Availability Issues: Recruiters often reach out to candidates only to find they are no longer on the market. Specially in the tech industry, candidates tend to find a job faster.

UX Decisions: Design as a Solution
We led a prioritization session to define our MVP. Using the MoSCOW Method, we filtered our research and interview insights to focus on what would most effectively solve the recruiter’s problems.

To reduce Laura’s cognitive load, we implemented:

• Percentage Matching: An automated score showing how well a candidate fits technical requirements.
• Live Availability Tags: A visual status to prevent unnecessary outreach.

• Visual Priority: On the dashboard, the “Post New Job” button highlighting the primary task.

Visual Design and Design System: Branding Decisions Grounded in Research
Our stakeholder provided us with a branding suggestion, but gave us the freedom to explore new ideas. Competitive research proved that bright color palettes were overused on similar platforms, leading to a lack of differentiation. Shifting to a calmer, cleaner blue and purple color scheme gave the brand the distinct voice it needed. With this vision in mind, we chose to:

• Keep purple as the primary color to reflect femininity and empowerment, (and continue with the prevalent color on our stake holder’s first branding suggestion).
• Introduce blues/navy to signal technology and modernity.
• Add warm accent tones to convey connection and energy.
• Use gradients sparingly to add dynamism without compromising the clean, corporate look.

By introducing deep navy tones and warm accents, we created a visual language that feels sophisticated and tech forward. This ensures that the platform is taken seriously by every stakeholder while still reflecting one of SHERDS’ core mission of female empowerment.

We paired this visual direction with a clean typography system (Inter) and built a set of components (cards, buttons, tags) that support complex data visualization without overwhelming users.

Outcomes and Steps: What am I bringing moving forward?
The depth behind this project came from our commitment to research and validation. We understood that the problem wasn’t simply about “hiring more women,” but about giving recruiters an efficient way to do so. We used design as a solution by testing iterations and identifying that recruiters need the right data at the right time.

My background in industrial design taught me that functional empathy means removing friction before the user even feels it. By introducing features like “Percentage Matching” and “Availability Indicators,” we reduced the recruiter’s cognitive load from the first contact to the candidates list, as well as reducing the stress of manually screening CV’s or the frustration of contacting a candidate that is no longer available for the job.

Another major milestone was modernizing the look of SHERDS brand. Moving away from mainstream industry colors created a distinct voice for the brand. The new look made the platform professional yet still felt welcoming to women in tech, all without leaving accessibility behind. Every UI decision, from the breadcrumb navigation in the Job Post Flow to the “Review and Confirm” screen, was taken to ensure the platform feels like a professional daily-use tool. I also ensured that every element (cards, tags, and text boxes) was consistent and scalable. By using Inter as the sole typeface and building a modular component library, I ensured the platform can grow while keeping the clean, uncluttered look we aimed to deliver.

What is next:

• Create the Talent Path: Interviewing and empathizing with the female tech talent to ensure they feel as supported by the interface as the recruiters hiring them.
• Expanding the Design System: Building out complex data visualization systems so users can easily identify the metrics relevant to them.
• Closing the gender gap?: (A girl can dream!)

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