CASE STUDY / HANDSHAKE

why, not what

the problem

The events page of Handshake is where college students can find and discover events relevant to their job search and career—think resume workshops hosted by schools, and Ask-Me-Anythings with employers. Career fairs promoted on Handshake have a good track record, with good visibility and attendance. But all the other kinds of high-value events were lacking in both.

We set out to improve clickthrough rate and registration rate metrics, driving engagement and discoverability across the board. Several initiatives were scoped—including a big, beautiful redesign—but I saw a huge opportunity with event categories. The way we label and group events. I thought that by making event categories much clearer, distinct and intuitive, we could help students find more events, and more events they wanted to attend.

the logistics

  • team: content designer (me), product designer, product manager, ux research

  • timeline: 6 months

the spoilers

  • What started out as a simple renaming / UX writing task, turned out to be a complete restructuring of event architecture and how we think about them for all users of our 3-sided marketplace.

  • Once the new event discovery experience was released, students were 14.8% more likely to discover, register, and attend events.

 
 
 
 

CONTENT STRATEGY

 

purpose, not format

The product requirements of this project were straightforward. Based on previous research, we knew we wanted to group events into 2 primary categories, “Meet with employers” and “Career guidance” (exact naming TBD), then rename and condense the existing 23 event categories under the 2 primary categories. The product manager came to me already having done some work on this and proposed a much simpler list.

 
 
 
 

But something still felt off. What’s the difference between “Speakers & panels” and “Info session”? What is a “Group appointment”? How could users understand if they wanted to join an event based on HOW they were gathering (the format)? Wouldn’t it be clearer, set better expectations if event categories were aligned with WHY they were gathering (the purpose)?

I did an audit of some 300+ events published on Handshake, looking at their names to discern their purpose. I found a concerning amount of overlap—events roughly about the same thing were place in multiple categories. This meant that people creating events were also unclear how to categorize their content.

Based on event names, I started grouping similar events together to create fresh categories based on the WHY / purpose.

 
 
 
 

RESEARCH

students don’t categorize consistently

Testing proved to be tricky. Typically tree tests are used for things like IA and categorization, so with the help of my research partner, that’s where I started. TLDR is that I conducted 4 tests in total: 2 tree tests, then 1 card sort, then a final tree test. Why? The results continued to be inconclusive. Why? Because different students consistently categorized one event into multiple categories.

 
 
 
 

crucial insights from student testing

  • Yes, the idea of separating events into 2 primary categories—”Meet with employers” and “Career guidance”—resonates with students.

  • Students will always differ on the purpose of the event, based on what they think they’ll get out of it.

  • Despite inconsistent categorization, it was clear to us that students would never be forced to search for events the same way they were presented in tree tests and card sorts. Did it make sense to test this way at all? We weren’t sure anymore.

  • Nevertheless, my research partner, design manager and I agreed that the categorization I ended up with was much better than the current experience and we’d continue to learn and iterate once the new event experience was released.

then we had to test these categories with event creators

  • Overall, event categories tested well.

  • Current terminology is very student-specific. In order to ensure employers and schools are choosing the right categories, we might want to consider phrasing / terminology for event creators to clarify.

  • Based on this feedback, we decided to have different category names that made the most sense for that user in their respective products.

then we had to test categories with UK students and make category names shorter

  • Fast forward about 2 months, and we got feedback from our UK team that the event category “Guidance” wouldn’t work for their students because that word most commonly means counseling / therapy.

  • Fast forward another month, and we realized that with the completely redesigned event discovery experience, most multi-word category names I proposed were too long for the space allotted to them.

 
 
 
 

oh, and there was some parallel research to consider

At the time I conducted this testing, another UX researcher did research with employers to understand why they want to have events with students:

  • To hire students.

  • To increase brand awareness and begin the nurturing process.

In previous research with students, we understood the reasons why they attend events:

  • To understand day-to-day life at companies.

  • To stand out in, and better understand the application / interview process.

In synthesizing this research, we concluded there are mismatched expectations between the employers who host events, and the students that attend them.

 
 
 
 

so how do we mitigate inconsistent categorization and mismatched expectations between students and employers?

  • HMW accommodate multiple categories per event?

  • HMW help event creators assign categories to events more consistently, and in a way that aligns with student expectations?

  • HMW prevent mismatched expectations about the purpose of an event, between students and event creators? 

 
 
 
 

SOLUTIONS

start at the source

student recommendations

  • 2 primary categories: Career guidance, Meet with employers.

  • New category names (as tested).

  • Definitions: to clarify what we (Handshake) means by each category name, based on how students interpreted categories in testing.

employer and school recommendations

  • New categorization and category names (as tested).

  • Definitions: to help event creators categorize events consistently.

  • Add a 2nd category: event creators can assign and 2nd optional category to their event, to help more students find their events, even if those students have different expectations about what a category means.

 
 
 
 

RESULTS

a big win

event discovery metrics are up

Once the new event discovery experience was released, students were 14.8% more likely to discover, register, and attend events.

and the WHY not WHAT framework continues to be implemented across the marketplace

As I write this (February 2023), we’re currently revamping the employer-side experience to match the changes we made for students. This experience has a familiar taxonomical gap—everything is framed around HOW they’re meeting, not WHY. Starting with content strategy, I initiated a deeper look at the UX and by focusing on terminology, grouping, and hierarchy. We’re on track to drastically simplify this flow. It’ll be easier for employers to use, and more consistent with the student experience. A win for everyone.