Project Context
Problem
Marketers were experiencing higher bounce rates due to the presence of low-quality email addresses, which impacted the overall effectiveness of their ad campaigns.
Solution
Through user interviews and iterative design, we developed an Email Validation tool that evolved from basic yes/no validation to providing detailed insights about why emails fail validation, empowering marketers to improve their data collection processes.
Audience
Marketing professionals and campaign managers who rely on high-quality email data for customer acquisition and retention campaigns. Through our research, we identified that these users needed actionable insights, not just validation results.
Project Type
Full-time Professional Experience
Constraints
Limited developer resources required us to prioritize features strategically. Additionally, our product manager transitioned out of the role during the final quarter, requiring me to assume product ownership responsibilities alongside my design work.
Time Frame
5 months
My Role
User Experience Researcher
UX & User Interface Designer
Product Owner (final quarter)
Team
Interdisciplinary Versium team
Project Breakdown
01
Problem Context
Initial feedback suggested marketers needed basic email validation to reduce bounce rates, but user research revealed they actually needed to understand why emails were invalid to improve their data collection processes. Users wanted actionable insights, not just yes/no results, and manual validation was time-consuming and didn’t scale. This shifted our approach from simple validation to creating an educational tool that would improve overall data hygiene practices.
Figure 1: Versium REACH's email list validator tool filters uploaded marketing lists, removing invalid addresses while allowing clean, deliverable emails to pass through for campaign use.
02
Research Process
We collected feedback from internal teams (Customer Support, Product, and Sales) and conducted user interviews with marketers to understand pain points around email validation and data quality needs.
Synthesis
After building the high fidelity Figma Prototype with basic yes/no validation, user feedback revealed the need for more detailed insights. We iterated to include explanations of why emails failed validation, empowering users to improve their data collection processes.
Figure 2: Shows the the high fidelity Figma Prototype with basic yes/no validation. This was before receiving feedback on the interface to provide comprehensive insights explaining why specific emails are marked as invalid.
03
Design
The initial design provided straightforward yes/no email validation results.
Based on user feedback, I iterated to include detailed explanations for invalid emails, empowering users with actionable information to understand and fix validation failures. The enhanced interface featured visual breakdowns of validation results to make data quality insights more accessible.
Figure 3: Exploration of interactive sunburst charts designed to give users advanced visualization and enable deeper analysis of their email quality metrics.
04
Deliverable
The final product was an enhanced Email Validation tool integrated into Versium’s platform. It features a user-friendly interface for uploading and validating email lists, detailed validation feedback, and interactive donut chart visualizations using Plotly.
Additionally, the tool includes comprehensive reporting features that provide actionable insights and processes for improving email list hygiene, ensuring marketers have access to high-quality data for their ad campaigns. When our product manager transitioned out during the final quarter, I assumed product ownership to guide the tool through launch.
Outcome
The Email Validation tool successfully launched to all Versium Reach Subscribers.
This marks the fourth product I’ve helped design and launch at Versium, demonstrating our team’s ability to identify user needs and deliver solutions that address real pain points in email marketing workflows.
