Handshake, the biggest early talent network
The Handshake job digest emails deliver curated listings to students, highlighting when employers welcome messaging or video chats. Yet because each job cell was fully clickable, status notes looked like separate links, confusing users and undermining the intended guidance.
The starting point
Originally, blue underlined job titles and equally bold blue messaging indicators vied for attention, creating a fractured visual hierarchy. Misaligned logos and multi-line notes compounded the clutter, making it hard to scan listings or understand which elements would open new pages.
Goals of the project
Our aim was to streamline the email layout so that students instantly recognize click targets, differentiate between status labels and actionable links, and quickly digest each listing’s key details without any element misleading them into thinking it led elsewhere.
My role and process
As a content design intern at Handshake, I took the lead on rewriting and restructuring the email copy while proposing targeted visual tweaks. After drafting revisions, I collaborated a staff content designer for feedback and iteration. Once the copy and mock-ups were refined, I presented them to an engineer who implemented an A/B test to validate the changes. My successful variants were then rolled out in the new job digest emails.
Following launch, job postings featured in the revamped job digest emails saw a 30% increase in traffic, demonstrating that clearer hierarchy and more intuitive copy significantly improved student engagement.