dsmgdesign Oh, yes, of course the thumbs-down can be used for any reason—I was only observing, from that screen shot, what Upwork's UX is doing to a viewer: it's forcing your eye to see the photo first, ability to reject second.
If they were trying to make it more job-matching-oriented, which you would think would be their aim, the rate and the proposal-snippet would come before the thumbs, so your eye would at least pass over the meat of the matter before making a snap decision.
Snap decisions is what we all make! Busy world. Nothing wrong with that. But UX design can influence the inputs that go into our decisions, and that arrangement is pretty distressing.
