Email Design

Situation

In 2020, Square faced a surge in phishing scams targeting its sellers, resulting in significant financial losses. Many sellers were unable to tell apart genuine Square emails from fraudulent ones, which shook their confidence and increased their vulnerability to scams.

“I don’t really click on the emails anymore, I just check my dashboard or wait for you guys to text me.” - one seller said.

Task

Our mission was twofold. On the business side, we needed to boost seller trust by making emails instantly recognizable as authentic Square communications, thereby reducing financial risk from phishing scams.

On the design side, we needed to create a scalable, modular way of designing new emails that ensured consistency, improved visual recognition, and streamlined updates across the organization.

Action

To gain buy-in for this new initiative, I conducted weekly workshops with stakeholders from each department alongside my design partner to understand their specific needs, while communicating our concerns and design goals.

By analyzing the full scope of existing emails across departments, we compiled a comprehensive list and identified inconsistencies. This foundation set the stage for creating a cohesive and modular email design system.

Design & Prototyping

Leveraging the Market design system, we created a set of email-specific components with consistent headers, bodies, and footers. The design system team had a very clear goal of repurposing as many components as we could.

My design partner and I designed a few early versions for different email types and iterated on the designs during weekly critiques to refine the visual and functional elements, while staying within the original design system.

Scaling for Consistency

To serve Square's large-scale organization, we distilled the vast array of email layouts we designed into modular components that could be repurposed across the organization. This mini design system allowed for flexibility while ensuring consistency and recognition across all emails.

Testing & Implementation

To gauge the impact of the redesign, I teamed up with a UX researcher to develop a research plan and conducted qualitative usability tests with sellers. We focused on key metrics—seller confidence, click-through rates, and a reduction in phishing incidents—to see if the new design truly resonated. These early insights set the stage for our next steps by confirming that our changes were moving in the right direction.

Next, we ran a large-scale A/B test to compare the redesigned emails with the existing versions. The results were promising, showing a noticeable increase in click-through rates and overall engagement. With this quantitative backing, our team decided to implement the designs using custom HTML through Contentful, ensuring a smooth integration that allowed the marketing team to quickly roll out the new design to a select group of sellers.

Before a full-scale launch, we kicked off an internal pilot to further validate our approach and iron out any kinks. We also developed thorough documentation and provided training to cross-functional teams, ensuring everyone could adopt and maintain the new design system seamlessly. This structured rollout helped us ensure that the new email system was not only effective but also scalable across all seller communications.

Result

Two months after launch, we re-interviewed our group of sellers and saw a significant improvement in seller confidence and email click-through rate. Our quantitative data told a similar story:

• Seller confidence soared: 82% of sellers could confidently identify legitimate Square emails, a 22% increase from earlier surveys.

• Phishing attempts decreased: Reports of phishing scams dropped by 12.5%, highlighting the impact of consistent design in reducing fraud.

• Stronger brand trust: Sellers expressed greater confidence in Square’s communications, reinforcing long-term customer relationships.

“I'm very pleased with some of the updates Square has been doing to keep our money safe” - on seller responded.

The project not only mitigated security risks but also strengthened Square’s brand identity, proving that thoughtful design can directly impact trust and user safety.