Teacher Marketplace: Redesigning how teachers find jobs

We redesigned Elevate’s Teacher Marketplace, the core platform where teachers connect with schools. In 3 months, we transformed an overwhelming, table-based layout into a streamlined experience that made comparing opportunities easier and increased teacher confidence in applying.

Sole Product Designer

Jun - Sep 2024

Elevate teachers

Elevate partners with schools across the U.S. to provide certified teachers for live, remote instruction. Teachers can build their own schedules by applying to teach individual classes offered by different schools. Through the Teacher Marketplace, teachers can discover open classes, compare opportunities, and create their schedules.

problem

Teachers came to the Marketplace to build their schedules but ran into confusing navigation, hidden actions, and missing context. Our challenge: make it simple and intuitive for them to find and apply to the right classes.

My role

Sole designer (with 1 designer partner, 2 engineers, 1 PM). Led end-to-end redesign, from research and testing to design, iteration, and QA, while collaborating with engineers on feasibility

Research: establishing a shared understanding of needs & boundaries

I interviewed Elevate teachers to understand why the marketplace wasn't working.

🧭 Navigation overload: The old Marketplace displayed opportunities in a dense table format. Teachers had to scroll horizontally to see basic information, making it hard to scan or compare classes. Many described it as “like reading a spreadsheet,” which slowed them down and made browsing feel overwhelming.

🔎 Actions Out of Reach: The “Apply” button was placed on the far right side of the table. When teachers minimized their screen, something they often did to pull up their schedules side by side, the button disappeared entirely. Many couldn’t find it at all, leaving them unsure how to move forward and worried they had missed their chance to apply.

ℹ️ Information gaps: Although logistics like grade level or subject were essential, teachers wanted more. They cared about understanding a school’s culture and values so they could make informed choices. Without this context, many felt they were applying without the insight needed to know if a class was truly the right fit.

I also interviewed stakeholders to build a common understanding of business needs. To move beyond fragmented fixes, I used systems thinking to align priorities and lay the groundwork for a scalable Marketplace.

🏫 Promote grouped applications: Elevate wanted to shift teacher behavior from applying to single classes toward applying for grouped class sections. This change would improve consistency for schools, reduce administrative overhead, and give teachers more stability in their schedules.

📂 Space for more information: Stakeholders had long struggled to fit more information into the dense table format. With only so many columns available, important details were often cut off, and text frequently spilled over in ways that hurt readability. They needed a more scalable solution that would allow additional information to be displayed clearly without overwhelming teachers.

📱 Build a scalable system: Stakeholders knew mobile access was a critical need, teachers had been asking for it for a long time. Although we weren’t designing for mobile yet, we had to approach the Marketplace redesign with a mobile mindset. This ensured the new system could later translate seamlessly into a mobile experience. Click here to see that project!

Removing the critical barriers

Solution 1: Clear layout for easy comparison

Barrier: Teachers were overwhelmed by dense tables and wanted a way to see the most important details up front without losing access to the full picture.

Two column layout: I introduced a two column layout that balanced quick scanning with deeper exploration. The left-side cards surfaced the information teachers cared about most when deciding where to apply, subject, grade level, schedule, and pay. The right side displayed richer details like job descriptions, requirements, and school context. This way, teachers could first compare opportunities at a glance, then dive into the specifics once a role caught their eye.

Impact: In usability testing, 100% of teachers preferred this layout. Teachers compared opportunities 40% faster on average, and described the experience as much easier to navigate.

Solution 2: Richer school context

Barrier: For teachers, details like school culture and classroom makeup mattered just as much as grade and subject. Even while teaching remotely, they wanted to feel connected to their schools and understand the students they’d be responsible for.

Expanded School Profiles: I designed a detailed view that goes beyond logistics. School profiles included values, curriculum, classroom makeup, and photos of schools, giving teachers a fuller picture of the environment they’d be joining.

Impact: In usability testing, teachers reported feeling more confident in their applications. Several noted that the added cultural context and visuals were deciding factors in choosing one role over another.

Solution 3: Actions always in reach

Barrier: Teachers often struggled to find where or how to apply. The horizontal table pushed the action offscreen on smaller windows, hiding the primary action.

Vertical Scroll: I redesigned the Marketplace around a vertical scrolling format, removing the need for horizontal scrolling and making browsing easier across different window sizes. To keep the primary action always accessible, I added a sticky “Apply” button anchored at the top. This way, whether teachers resized their screens or scrolled down to read more details, the next step stayed in clear view.

Impact: Usability testing showed a 60% drop in task errors related to applying. As one teacher put it: “I like how Apply is always there. Sometimes I get lost in scrolling, but it helps me remember what I need to do next.”

Solution 4: Streamlined grouped applications

Barrier: Teachers often applied to single classes, which created scheduling challenges and extra administrative work for schools. While the option to apply to groups of classes already existed, it required teachers to toggle into a separate grouped view, a step that only 5% of users ever took.

Grouped Applications by Default: Stakeholders initially wanted to offer multiple views so teachers could choose between single or grouped applications. I advocated for reducing the number of views and making grouped applications the default. Too many options would not only overwhelm teachers but also increase engineering workload and complexity. By simplifying to a strong, default flow, we encouraged teachers to apply in groups from the start and gave schools more consistent coverage.

Impact: After the redesign, grouped applications increased from 5% of users to 28% within the first release. Teachers said applying this way saved them time and made the start of the year easier, since they only had to orient themselves to fewer schools.

Solution 5: Designing with a mobile mindset

Barrier: Even though mobile wasn’t in scope yet, stakeholders knew it was a critical need, and the old table format wouldn’t translate.

Future proof layouts: Although I was designing for desktop, I created card sizes and layouts that would adapt naturally to smaller screens. I also worked closely with engineering to ensure backend systems were built with responsive breakpoints, so the Marketplace redesign could scale smoothly to mobile when the time came.

Impact: When Elevate later built the dedicated mobile Marketplace, the transition required minimal rework. The mobile product shipped faster and with greater consistency because the groundwork had already been built into the desktop redesign. Click here to see that project!

The difference it made

38% increase of grouped applications

35% fewer misapplications

30% faster applications

Key learnings

More than the increase in metrics, what really mattered was building trust. By surfacing the right information, we gave teachers the clarity they needed to make decisions with confidence. Before the redesign, many Elevate teachers complained about discovering important details only after applying, which often forced them to completely change their schedules and scramble to find new classes that fit. Our goal at Elevate was to give teachers freedom and power over their work lives, and I saw how providing accurate, accessible information through a more usable platform directly built their confidence to take ownership of their schedules and design a work life that fit them.

Looking back, I would have loved to redesign the full application journey instead of focusing on just a snippet of it. Doing so would have allowed us to uncover and solve more systemic pain points across scheduling, not just within the Marketplace itself. I also saw opportunities to elevate the visual design further, but time constraints and a design system still in progress set natural limits. Within those boundaries, function had to come first but I still believe there’s value in giving teachers software that looks as professional as they are.