Improve the candidate selection experience-UIUX Improvement of Recruitment CX System
- design5386
- Jan 3
- 7 min read
HR Cloud Inc. operates a cloud-based applicant tracking system (ATS) called Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun, with the goal of realizing the “optimal matching between companies and job seekers.”
In 2024, the company celebrated its 10th anniversary. With over 1,000 companies using Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun, HR Cloud has been steadily improving what’s known as “Recruitment CX”—a company’s effort to offer value to candidates so that they feel applying was worthwhile.
However, Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun had faced some UI/UX challenges in the past. To tackle these, the company teamed up with HumAIn to work on improvements. We sat down with them to look back on that time and talk about the key points they were able to improve, as well as the skills and takeaways that continue to benefit them today.
Table of Contents
Customer Support Overwhelmed with Usage Inquiries—UI/UX Improvements Became an Urgent Need
No Skills or Track Record in UI/UX? A Proposal Plus “Something Extra” Helped Ease Internal Concerns
Gaining Design Know-How Through the Project
UI/UX Improvements Brought Positive Feedback from Clients—and Made Internal Proposals Easier to Approve
Customer Support Overwhelmed with Usage Inquiries—UI/UX Improvements Became an Urgent Need
Can you tell us more about your service and what makes it unique?
We developed an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) called Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun to help companies build a hiring process that attracts the right talent. While there are many ATS options on the market, what sets Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun apart is that it’s an ATS without a candidate portal (mypage).
Why did you decide to remove the candidate portal?
Sasa: We believed that the market needed a simple, easy-to-understand, and affordable solution. In fact, even something as small as logging into a candidate portal can become a dropout point in the application process. So we made the bold decision to eliminate it altogether.
Would removing the candidate portal mean fewer features compared to other ATSs?
Sasa: We haven’t removed any features that are truly necessary for job seekers. For instance, with a typical ATS, candidates often need to log in and click through a portal just to book an interview. With Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun, interview scheduling can be done via email or LINE instead. We’re continuously making improvements to reduce friction for candidates wherever possible.
That’s very reassuring to hear! And congratulations—HR Cloud is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year!
Sasa&Takahashi: Thank you so much!
I heard you joined HR Cloud three years ago, Sasa. Has the company atmosphere changed since then?
Sasa: It definitely has! Our team has grown significantly—about three times larger than before. Including our partner collaborators, we now have around 100 people, so it’s much livelier.
Let’s go back to when you reached out to us for UI/UX improvements. What kind of challenges were you facing at that time?
Sasa: We were fortunate that more and more companies were adopting Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun, but at the same time, the number of inquiries about how to use the system also increased. Our customer support team was overwhelmed and struggling to keep up. While the system’s functionality was solid, the design still had a long way to go in terms of usability.
We had always had a vague sense that UI/UX needed improvement, but seeing firsthand how heavily our support team was burdened with usage-related questions really brought the issue into focus. It became clear that reducing that workload was an urgent priority.
No Skills or Track Record in UI/UX? A Proposal Plus “Something Extra” Helped Ease Internal Concerns
At the time, we proposed a UI/UX improvement project, but from what we’ve heard, it didn’t move forward right away.
Sasa: The idea of requesting UI/UX improvements itself was a bit unclear at first, and I remember it being difficult to grasp how effective the improvements or reviews would be, just based on the explanation during our meetings.
To help your team better visualize the process, we added a preliminary system review to our proposal. How was that for you?
Sasa: It was very helpful to receive a detailed critique of our actual system screens, along with diagrams and text that clearly illustrated the current pain points. Thanks to that initial review, we could all agree internally that there were many areas of the UI/UX we could improve, and we wanted to entrust HumAIn with that task. That alignment within our team allowed us to kick off the project.
Growing Design Expertise Through the Project
What aspects of our UI/UX improvement process did you find the most beneficial?
Takahashi: The thoroughness of the UI/UX reviews was incredibly helpful. The reviews identified specific issues in detail, backed by clear, objective explanations, making it easy to take action based on them.
We had some vague feelings like, “This feels outdated,” or “It’s kind of hard to use,” but it was invaluable to have those intuitions verbalized and evaluated from an outside perspective.
Sasa:Honestly, our product was in a state where it only had room for improvement—there wasn’t really anything that didn’t need work. So even the smallest suggestions were appreciated.
The skills we gained through the UI/UX improvement process now form the foundation of the current version of “Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanri-kun.”
At the time, we didn’t have a dedicated designer, and Takahashi was still an intern directly under the engineering team. As a company, we were interested in UI/UX, but we had no real skills or knowledge in that area.
Looking back, I’d say the guidance we received from HumAIn and our ability to apply those insights in practice was a huge step forward for us.
During your internship, did you learn anything particularly valuable from the UI/UX improvement work with us?
Takahashi: I was able to pick up the basics of Figma, and that knowledge still helps me in my career today.
Back then, I was familiar with Adobe tools but had zero experience with Figma, so it was incredibly valuable to gain those foundational UI/UX skills through the project.
That kind of unexpected benefit from working on UI/UX improvements really makes us happy to hear!
Takahashi: For example, the templates we received from HumAIn during the UI/UX improvement project are still being used in the same way today.
We’re constantly running UI/UX improvement projects, and we’re actively applying those templates each time.
More recently, as the backend systems have grown more complex, we’ve been focusing on small adjustments and updates to ensure the interface remains intuitive.
We’re always aiming to improve usability—making the system clear and accessible not just for new users, but also ensuring that existing users feel supported. We’re fully committed to a UI/UX that’s truly easy for anyone to use, without compromise.
UI/UX Improvements Earn Praise from Customers — and Make Internal Proposals Easier to Get Approved
Have there been any other new initiatives recently?
Takahashi: Until recently, we actually hadn’t published a dedicated service page or landing page for “Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun.” Of course, it’s not that we had zero presence—we’d show the UI during meetings or sales discussions. But we didn’t position the service’s UI as one of our selling points as a company.
Now, though, since we’ve built a company-wide cycle of constant UI/UX improvement and placed a strong focus on it, we’ve started actively promoting our service page.
How has the customer feedback been?
Takahashi: Through our customer support and sales teams, we’ve definitely noticed an increase in positive feedback. We believe this is the result of our continuous UI/UX improvement efforts and our commitment to listening to customer voices.
Just recently, a client told us, “The new UI/UX for the 2025 graduate hiring version of Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun is a huge improvement—it’s so much easier to use now!” That kind of feedback has also made it much easier to propose new design initiatives internally.
Was there anything particularly challenging about the UI/UX improvement process?
Takahashi: Once we received the review and had all the improvement points laid out, the real challenge was actually executing the improvements.
I’ll never forget the sheer scale of it—around 270 pages in total.
But that experience has contributed a lot to my current career, so while it was tough, it also became a valuable success story that I’m proud of.
If you were to go through another UI/UX improvement process now, is there any additional support—beyond the review itself—that you would find helpful?
Takahashi: Back then, I was still an intern, so I didn’t get to communicate directly with the HumAIn team.
If we were to work together again now, I think it would be really meaningful to have direct meetings during the review phase—so we could hold deeper discussions and dive into the improvements together.
What kind of feedback have you been getting on the current UI/UX of “Saiyo Ikkatsu Kanrikun”?
Takahashi: Overall, the response has been very positive!
We’ve been hearing a lot of feedback specifically about how much easier and more intuitive the system feels now.
That said, we know UI/UX improvement is a continuous process, and we’re committed to consistently enhancing usability.
Every month, we work on multiple improvement actions, involving various teams across the company.
Finally, What Are Your Future Plans for the Service?
Sasa: We believe that the hiring process can be divided into four key stages: application, hiring management, job offer/onboarding, and retention & performance.
Looking ahead, we want to leverage the data we've accumulated from supporting hiring management to analyze and visualize the characteristics of the candidates that each company tends to offer jobs to.
As a next step, we also hope to identify and visualize the traits of people who are more likely to stay and thrive after joining the company.Using various types of data, we aim to provide insights—within the hiring management system itself—into what kind of talent a company should be looking to hire, and help form connections with those candidates.
Ultimately, we’re aiming to build a service that can support the entire journey, from application all the way through to long-term success within the organization.
