Criteria

Criteria is a SaaS solution that provides pre-employment tests to organizations in order to make more effective hires.

OVERVIEW

Criteria is a leading provider of web-based pre-employment testing services. Their mission is to make high-quality pre-employment testing solutions accessible to companies of all sizes. Their testing system, HireSelect, is a SaaS (software as a service) solution that enables organizations to better manage their most important asset — their human capital — by providing state-of-the-art assessment tools to increase the effectiveness of the employee selection and retention process.

My role as graphic designer was to work with the marketing team to increase the number of free trial demos through digital and print ads.


ROLE & DURATION

Graphic Designer

Visual Design, Print Design


Aug 2017 - Jun 2019

Challenge

Since Criteria is a pre-employment service, our audience is targeted towards HR coordinators. Our job as a service is to make hiring easier for HR professionals. Studies have shown that traditional methods of hiring can be exhausting and waste a lot of time.

The challenge placed onto me was figuring a way to market Criteria’s services to HR professionals. In the branding, we wanted to make Criteria more approachable. We understood that trying out new software can be intimidating, and that HR professionals can see our software as being not user-friendly. Therefore, within our style guide, we looked into how we could make our brand more approachable. Originally with digital ads, we focused on using imagery with people in a corporate setting. We did this because we wanted to establish ourselves as a viable tool for bigger companies. We wanted to appeal to big corporate businesses. However, as we studied our market and realized that a bulk of the companies that used our services were small and medium sized companies, we decided to change out messaging and design to cater more to that audience.

criteria-img1 criteria-img2

Design Process

The first approach into entering the design process was to take a look at old and current design creatives. The marketing and design team came together and had meetings on building what our mission statement is. As a service, what were our company values and how were we releasing content that matched those values. After solidfying that at our current state, our core value was to be empathetic to users and gain their trust. We looked into how we could rebrand our content, so that it would tie in with the audience better. We started off with doing market research and going to HR conventions. We observed our competitors strengths and weaknesses, and used that knowledge to apply it to our design. Currently in the marketplace, most ads are still using stock photography of corporate working professionals. They use language around how to profit off your business by making better hires. So in order to differ ourselves from the marketplace, we starting using stock photos that had working professionals in semi-professional outfits. We wanted our ads to appeal more as a lifestyle. Our messaging around ads targeted struggles that HR professionals go through.

criteria-img3

Conclusion

With the rebanding of our brand to target a different audience, the marketing and design team were able to have a better idea of how to better update our content to serve our audience. It opened a new door of opportunities for us to come up with new campaigns. The rebranding has helped Crtieria evolve internally.


View Criteria’s Website