Handshake, the biggest early talent network
Handshake’s mobile app empowers students from all backgrounds to access meaningful career opportunities. As a content design intern, I transformed generic alerts into timely, user-focused messages that guide students through each step of their job search.
The starting point
When I began, Handshake’s push notifications all shared the same vague headline and lacked clear next steps. Users couldn’t distinguish one alert from another, so open rates remained disappointingly low and the messages felt more like noise than help.
Goals of the project
Our aim was to make every notification unmistakably useful and on-brand. We wanted to humanize the tone, clarify each notification’s purpose, and drive engagement by ensuring students understood exactly what action to take and why it mattered.
My role and process
I led the project end to end, reviewing user research, sketching copy directions, and collaborating closely with a staff content designer for peer feedback. I presented my work to a diverse group of stakeholders in a design critique that informed final revisions.
The new push notifications saw significant increases in click-through rates: nearly a 19.1 percent increase for career-fair reminders, a 13.9 percent increase for interview-prep prompts, and an 8.5 percent increase for event invites.