Designing the Skill assessment platform at SimpleTest

At SimpleTest.co, I've been part of the team since the startup's inception. We are a small, remote startup of 4-5 people based in Singapore.

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Problem Statement:

Teachers and recruiters have busy schedules and face challenges in manually creating, organizing, and evaluating assessments, which limits their focus on their core responsibilities & results in time consumption.

Detailed breakdown of Pain Points:

1. Teachers and educators often find themselves overwhelmed, juggling the endless task of creating, conducting, and grading tests. Despite using tools like ChatGPT, what seems like a shortcut often doubles their work—copying, pasting, and formatting questions into exam portals

2. Tech recruiters often face these challenges:

Recruiters face the following challenges:

• Difficulty evaluating candidates' technical and soft skills beyond what's listed on resumes.

• Overwhelmed by managing a high volume of applications.

• Frustration with lengthy and inefficient recruitment processes.

Solution:

We are building a SaaS product that aims to simplify the process of Skill Assessment by providing personalized solutions for different use cases. So we have two kinds of users:

• Primary users: Who create the test

• Secondary users: Who appear the test

My Role, Team & Design Process:

As the UX designer, I handle the end-to-end design of our product. Our team has Developer, Product manager, Engineer, Marketing manager & myself. Its a fast-paced startup, I work closely with the recruitment departments to address immediate needs. This means the design process varies for different use cases.

• Typically, the process starts with user research, competitive analysis, and value proposition cards, incorporating insights from recruiters and HR professionals. This insightful data helps me in sketching low fidelity wireframe.
  

• The team then collaborates to brainstorm and refine these ideas, later I iterate based on feedback. Once the final visual design of the product is finalized, it is handed over to the developers. Further refinements continue as needed to address any small details.
  

• This ongoing cycle ensures our solutions are continually improved to best serve our users.

As per the specific requirements from various companies, I design tailored solutions for their unique use cases. Some of the crucial features I designed include:

1. AI Generated Questions(Most recent update)

Create content in seconds with AI—whether it's generating, optimising, or personalising posts, it saves time and boosts productivity. Powered by ChatGPT.

After launch, 50+ students across 3 colleges have used it. Our internal analytics show that teachers saved 65% of their time on test creation through automation.

2. Multiple Screening Tests:

Designed an intuitive feature that provides a flexibility to recruiters to create personalized screening tests for various roles, from engineering to marketing, assessing both technical and soft skills.

Design Insights and Feature Benefits:

• Tailored tests assess relevant skills for each role.

• Data-driven tests reduce bias and aid decision-making.

• Automated assessments save time and reduce manual effort.

• Ensures candidates fit both skills and company culture.

3. Skill assessment test:

We aim to offer a reliable and enjoyable talent assessment experience for the recruiters and candidates. I've designed tools to assist candidates during the test, including a Collapsed Questions Section that shows the total questions with indicators for answered and unanswered ones, and a Progress Indicator with a Timer to track test status and remaining time.

The Test Creator Dashboard was designed to streamline the organisation and management of 100+ tests. With a simplified UI, categorised test cards, and batch actions, the dashboard enhances clarity and flow. This improvement resulted in 40% fewer clicks and faster navigation during test creation and review.

The interface for the candidate: View from the candidate's side while appearing on the test.

The interface for the Company(Recruiter & HR): Main dashboard view of the company, where Recruiters & HR professionals can track all the skill assessment tests they have conducted.

We designed a dynamic insights module that provides 5 key analytics: time per question, total time, accuracy, suspicious activity, and candidate feedback. This helps improve the clarity of evaluations, making it easier to assess performance and identify trends.

Personalized solutions:

4. Global Timer: A flexible Global Timer system was introduced, offering both per-question and full-test timing options. It’s designed to work for both short (10–20 questions) and long-format (20–100+ questions) tests, providing greater control over timing.

5. Question sections:

We’ve introduced features like question categorisation, bulk editing, drag-and-drop arrangement, and custom mark assignment, cutting question management time by 40%.

Recruiters can now manage tests with a large number of questions more easily.

By categorizing questions into sections, it helps organise the test efficiently, reducing cognitive load for candidates and preventing them from feeling overwhelmed.

6. Test invites: This interface shows the status of the invitation & the recruiters can send personalised invites to teammates for specific access as per their role.

6. Conclusion:

While I've shared insights into the design of our current solutions, we are actively working on new features that will further enhance our skills assessment product. Due to company policy, I can't disclose specifics at this time, but I look forward to sharing more once these updates go live. Stay tuned for exciting developments!