Massive network, rich profiles
Overcrowded, poor matching, ghosting culture
Case study · AI hiring platform · UX/UI · College project
First Step
Designing where human insight meets machine imagination, from Mumbai.
Hiring that finally tells you where you stand.
An AI hiring platform for Indian startups and freshers: clear status for candidates, a calmer shortlist for recruiters, and a human in every final call.
All projects
- Role
- Solo UX/UI Designer · research to prototype
- Project
- College UX studio project · AI + HR tech
- Platforms
- Web app (HR + candidates) · mobile
- Tools
- Figma, Illustrator, Canva + AI tools
01 · Overview
Two people on one platform, both waiting.
A fresher sends fifty applications and hears nothing back. A founder opens five hundred resumes and finds ten worth reading. First Step puts both of them in one place and replaces the silence with status, feedback and fit.
What I designed
- AResearch: desk study, survey, interviews, personas
- BJourney maps, HMW, SCAMPER and MoSCoW
- CInformation architecture for three roles
- DBrand: logo, colour, type, ID cards
- EHR workspace, candidate app, Lumi AI assistant
- FClickable prototype in Figma
What it stands for
How I worked · double diamond
01 · Discover
Understand the mess
- 3 research papers
- Market data
- 8 competitors
- Survey · 21
- Interviews
02 · Define
Name the real problem
- 4 personas
- Empathy maps
- Affinity map
- Thematic analysis
- HMW
03 · Develop
Shape the answer
- SCAMPER
- MoSCoW
- Journey map
- IA
- Wireframes
04 · Deliver
Make it real
- Brand
- UI system
- Prototype
- Usability tests
- Iteration
02 · The problem
Hiring works like a black box.
Candidates0%
want feedback after a rejection, and almost never get it.
Candidates0%
sit through long delays with no update at all.
Recruiters0%
of 500+ applications per role are not relevant.
Founders0h
a day lost to hiring: 2 to 4 hours, away from the product.
For freshers
- Ghosting and no feedback loop
- Fake postings and “training fee” scams
- “Entry level”, but 2–3 years required
- Hidden salary, vague job roles
For recruiters & startups
- Volume overload, mostly irrelevant
- AI matching that shows “random profiles”
- Scheduling takes longer than interviews
- Culture fit is a guess
From my survey (21 responses) and interviews with freshers, HR and startup founders.
03 · Research
Five ways of listening.
03Research papers
Startup hiring, tech hiring, AI vs human screening.
08Platforms studied
LinkedIn, Naukri, Internshala, Greenhouse, Lever…
21Survey answers
14 questions on trust, delays and feedback.
04Interview groups
Freshers, HR, freelance interviewers, startups.
02Screen audits
Every step of applying on LinkedIn and Internshala.
Startup workforce in India
250K
590K
53%
41%
Workforce 20212025Fresher share 20242025
The startup workforce grew 136%, yet the share of fresher hires fell from 53% to 41%. More jobs, fewer first chances.
Where hiring happens today
Half the market sits on one network built for volume. Referrals give the best hires but reach the fewest people.
Competitive landscape
Naukri
Reach across India
Fake postings, spam, dated UX
Hirect
Startup focus, direct chat
Spam messages, weak matching
Internshala
Trusted by students
Entry level only, few tools for HR
The gapNobody owns feedback, transparency and bias reduction. That became First Step’s job.
From the papers
AI screens resumes about 70% faster, but rejects people with non-traditional backgrounds about 18% more often. The answer is not AI or humans: it is AI for the volume, people for the decision.
From the survey
The loudest wish was not a smarter search. It was “tell me what happened”: a status, a reason and one thing to improve.
04 · Users
The four people I designed for.
Raj Gupta
23 · Data analyst fresher · MumbaiWhy won’t anyone tell me why I was rejected?
- Wants
- Skill-based shortlisting, clear roles and pay
- Fights
- Vague JDs, the experience barrier, ghosting
Suva Sasmal
22 · Banking fresher · MumbaiIs this really a banking job, or insurance sales?
- Wants
- Verified, scam-free listings with real salaries
- Fights
- Role mismatch, hidden pay, fee scams
Laxmi Roy
38 · Talent acquisition lead · PuneDrowning in resumes, but starving for talent.
- Wants
- Pre-screened candidates, quick feedback tools
- Fights
- Irrelevant volume, no time to reply
Jatin Sehrawat
32 · Startup consultant · GurgaonThe problem isn’t finding candidates. It’s finding the right match.
- Wants
- Accurate matching, culture-fit signals
- Fights
- Premium prices for irrelevant profiles
Empathy maps: what they say vs. what they feel.
Says
Thinks
Does
Feels
05 · Synthesis
Every note, six patterns.
I wrote every quote and number on its own note, then grouped them until the themes named themselves. A few from each group:
01Communication & transparency
- “Nobody tells me why I was rejected”
- Radio silence for weeks
02Time & efficiency drain
- Founders spend 2–4 h a day hiring
- Scheduling takes longer than interviewing
03AI & platform ineffectiveness
- “Random, unqualified profiles despite premium costs”
- 500+ applications, 90% irrelevant
04Culture fit & team
- Skilled hires who don’t fit the culture
- Hard to judge real skills from a resume
05Trust & verification
- Fake postings asking for training fees
- Fake resumes, misrepresented skills
06Bias & evaluation
- Non-traditional backgrounds filtered out
- Different standards per interviewer
The problem, redefined
Both sides lose time and trust because hiring is a black box. Candidates need status and a reason; recruiters need fewer, better matches they can act on fast.
How might we…
- track every application in real time, so no one feels ghosted?
- pre-screen so startups only see genuinely relevant people?
- make job posts match the real role and pay?
- end the back-and-forth of interview scheduling?
- turn a rejection into a next step for the candidate?
- verify both sides, so every profile and post is real?
06 · User journey
Where it hurts today, and how it should feel.
I mapped both journeys on existing platforms, step by step, then redesigned every stage. Tap a stage to see the pain, my answer, and the number it should move.
TodayWith First Step
Pain today
My answer
What it should move
Curves are illustrative, drawn from the feelings recorded in the journey maps (overwhelmed, sceptical, anxious, impatient).
07 · Ideation & priorities
Many ideas, then a hard no to most of them.
SCAMPER on today’s hiring
SSubstitute
Resume filters → AI skill checks
CCombine
Hiring + upskilling + feedback
AAdapt
E-commerce style verification
MModify
Interviews that ease anxiety
PPut to use
Data → career plans
EEliminate
Fake profiles and scam posts
RRearrange
Screen → fit → technical
MoSCoW · what makes the first version
Must MVP
- Real-time application tracker
- Verified profiles & companies
- AI matching engine
- Structured communication
- Transparent job listings
Should next
- AI interview scheduler
- Feedback after every round
- Anonymous first screen
- Hiring pipeline metrics
Could later
- Upskilling partners
- Team hiring workflows
- Diversity dashboard
- Onboarding suite
Won’t for now
- Full employee lifecycle
- Multi-language platform
- Salary benchmarking
08 · Information architecture
One door, three workspaces.
The landing page splits people in one click: hire talent or browse jobs. After that, each role only sees what it needs, and Lumi, the AI assistant, sits in the same corner everywhere.
First Step
Public siteEveryone
- Hero searchHire talent · Browse jobs
- Get hired · Hire talent
- Community · Mentorships
- Internship · Services
- Sign up · Log in
HR workspaceRecruiters & founders
- OnboardingPersonal → company → verify → preview
- DashboardApplied, invited, hired, today’s interviews
- Open hiringPost a job or internship, salary & perks
- Candidates · Interviews · Talent pool
- Messages · Reports & analytics
- Lumi AIJob analyzer, resume screener
Candidate appFreshers & students
- OnboardingCV → details → experience → skills
- DashboardApplied → screened → shortlisted → interviewed
- Open jobsJob detail, AI summary, apply
- My applications · Saved jobs
- Community · Practice
- Lumi AIJob match, interview prep, resume help
Team workspaceInterviewers & panel
- Employee log in
- DashboardReviews, interviews, calendar
- Request an interviewBy role, skill and seniority
- Add candidate
- Interview roomVideo + hiring-criteria rubric
- Scheduling · Reporting
User flows · merged into one
One entry, three journeys that meet.
In Figma these were separate diagrams. Here they are one flow: everyone enters through the same door, and the three journeys hand work to each other where the dotted lines cross.
Platform entryWho are you?
EnterpriseFirst Step hires for you
- Client signs up
- Requirement analysis meeting
- Define role & culture fit
- First Step handles everything
- AI sourcing & screening500+ applications→ sources candidates
- Technical assessmentsskills verified
- First Step interviewsculture assessed
- 3–5 pre-vetted candidates
- Client interviews finalists
- Hire best fit
- 90-day guarantee
CandidateFreshers & students
- Sign up
- Profile completionCV import, AI summary
- Skill verification
- Browse jobs
- Apply in one click→ reaches the company
- Track application
- Application status
- Under reviewStatus: under reviewShortlistedStatus: shortlisted
- Interview scheduled
- Interview completed
- Offer decision
- OfferAccept / declineRejectedFeedback provided
- Skill-gap analysis
- Learning recommendations
- Career growth
Company / HRStartups hiring themselves
- Company registration
- Verification
- Profile setup
- Create job postAI description helper
- Salary shown up front
- Publish job
- Receive quality applications
- AI pre-screening
- Shortlist & bulk updates
- Schedule & conduct interviews
- Structured evaluation
- Decision
- RejectAuto-feedback→ back to the candidateHireSend offer → onboarding
- Talent pool for later
- Data-driven hiring
AI stepGood outcomeHand-off between journeys
Progressive onboarding
Sign-up asks for three things. Company details and verification come step by step, with a progress line on top.
Status before search
A candidate’s home opens on where each application stands, not on more jobs to apply to.
AI in one place
Lumi lives in the sidebar: same entry point, same tone, whether you hire or apply.
09 · Mood board & inspiration
Calm like a bank, warm like a mentor.
The mood board started with people, not interfaces: the rejection letter with no reason, the fresher lost between job posts, the recruiter buried in tabs. First Step had to feel like the opposite of these moments.
From this… to this
IgnoredConfusedOverwhelmedPressured
ClearTrustworthyOptimisticHumanFair
How users feel today
UI inspiration · what I took from each
10 · Wireframes
Grey boxes first, colour last.
I wireframed the landing page, the HR workspace, the candidate flow and the collaboration screens in low fidelity, tested the flow, then moved to visuals only once the structure held.
11 · Branding
An F made of two steps.
The name is a promise to freshers: your first step into work. I explored a person inside a search pin and a focus ring, then kept the simplest idea: two rounded bars that read as an F and as stairs, with a small person at the bottom, about to climb.
Why blue and violet: blue is the colour people already trust with money and careers; a warm violet keeps it from feeling like a bank. Tall, condensed headlines give the product a confident voice in very little space.
Explore 1 · Pin
Finding the right person
Clear, but it looked like every job portal.
Explore 2 · Ring
Focus on people
Friendly, but no story of growth.
Final · Steps
An F that climbs
Reads as a letter, as stairs and as progress bars.
Lockup
Mark + person + name
The full lockup for splash screens and posters.
Colour
Step Violet#5F5AFE · headlines, actions
Trust Blue#1F5BFF · the mark
Night#0D1A4A · Lumi, depth
Mist#E9EDFF · panels
Paper#FFFFFF
Typography
HeadlinesAaAnton
Start Building Your Future
Tall and condensed: big words in little spaceInterface textAaCondensed sans
Labels, forms and dashboards stay light and narrow, so dense screens still breathe.
Light for reading · Medium for labels
12 · Final UI
Three flows, one clickable prototype.
Every screen below is from the Figma prototype you can open at the end of this page.
The landing page
Pick a side in one click.
Keep scrolling: the page runs inside the frame. Real faces first, then the vision, Lumi, why First Step, and the way in for both sides.
Flow 01 · HR workspace
From sign-up to a live job in seven screens.
Sign-up asks for three fields. The company comes next, then verification (website, LinkedIn page or documents), so fake employers never reach a fresher.
The dashboard answers the recruiter’s first questions at a glance: how many applied, who is invited, who got hired, and which interviews are today.
Scroll · the HR flow
01 / 07
Flow 02 · Candidate app
A profile that builds itself, a status you can always see.
Upload a CV and the profile fills in; Lumi drafts the summary. The dashboard is a pipeline, so a fresher always knows if they were screened, shortlisted or interviewed.
Lumi · the AI assistant
One assistant, two jobs.
For recruiters Lumi analyses job descriptions, screens resumes and turns interviews into notes. For candidates it finds matching jobs, coaches interviews and improves the resume. Same orb, same place, same calm voice.
Job match finderInterview prepResume optimizerSmart resume screener
Flow 03 · Team workspace
Hiring is a team sport.
Interviewers log in with an employee ID. They request interviews by role and seniority, add candidates, and run the interview with the hiring criteria beside the video, so every panel judges against the same rubric.
Mobile
The same calm, in your pocket.
13 · Usability testing
Tested with both sides, then simplified.
Candidates were asked to
- 01Apply to a job from scratch
- 02Find where an application stands
- 03Read and act on feedback
- 04Decide if a company is genuine
Recruiters were asked to
- 01Post a job and screen the shortlist
- 02Send status updates in bulk
- 03Book an interview for a panel
- 04Read the hiring dashboard
What changed after testing
Plainer status words
“Screened”, “Shortlisted”, “Interviewed”: no HR jargon on the candidate side.
Feedback that feels personal
Skill gaps and one next step, not a generic rejection.
Faster bulk actions for HR
Fewer clicks to update many candidates at once.
How success is measured
4h→1hRecruiter hiring time a day · target
0Applications left without a status · goal
1Shared rubric for every interview panel
14 · Toolkit
The tools behind each step.
Figma
UI + prototypeWhy: one file for wireframes, components and the clickable prototype, so testers could tap through real flows.
Here: 3 flows, 27 prototype screens, the research boards and the journey maps.
Adobe Illustrator
Brand craftWhy: a logo has to hold from a favicon to a poster, so I drew every option as vectors.
Here: the three logo directions, the final F mark and its lockup, icons.
Canva
Research & storyWhy: fast, clean layouts for the parts people read rather than tap.
Here: survey charts, persona sheets and the presentation of the research.
ChatGPT
Mockups & draftsWhy: to see the brand in the real world before it exists, quickly.
Here: the desk scene, the phone-in-hand shots, the logo on glass and the ID cards.
DeepSeek
Flow diagramsWhy: turning a written flow into a diagram in seconds, so I could check it before drawing it properly.
Here: first drafts of the user flows behind the information architecture.
15 · Outcome & impact
Less guessing, on both sides.
0Connected flows
0+Prototype screens
0Personas
0Survey responses
Transparency end to end
Every application has a visible status and a timeline.
Lighter recruiter workload
AI pre-screening and ranking, with a human making the call.
Feedback, not silence
Structured feedback after rejections, with a next step.
Confidence for freshers
Real-time updates and interview practice with Lumi.
Trust by default
Verified companies and clear pay before anyone applies.
One ecosystem
Students, colleges, mentors and companies on one platform.
16 · Reflection
What this project taught me.
The real problem was silence
I expected “better search”. Research said “tell me what happened”.
AI for volume, people for decisions
Trust grows when the AI explains itself and a human signs off.
Design for two users at once
Every candidate feature needed a recruiter action behind it.
See the full project
Open in Figma
Try the prototypeClick through the HR, candidate and team flows yourself.
View on Behance
The full research deckEvery survey chart, interview and journey map, on Behance.
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