List Management and Segments
Overview
In the world of email marketing and deliverability, relevance is everything. senders dont always need to send email to entire list, it helps to segment how recipients based on attributes of each contacts such as age, gender, location etc.
Role and Responsibilities: UX Designer, Independent Contributor, Consultin,g Discovery, Wireframes, Comp Analysis Strategy, Visual Design
Collaboration: Design Team of one, Development team of 5, Product owner, marketing, QA
Approach Agile, 2 Sprints and Bug fixes
Users: Business owners, marketers
Tools: Axure, Confluence, Adobe Photoshop, HTML/CSS/ Hotjar/Jira
“Who needs to segment their email list?”
Who I’m Designing For
Through collaboration with our Support and Sales teams, we identified key customer segments: Owners, Marketers, and IT personnel. While IT focuses on infrastructure and deliverability, Marketers and Owners are primarily interested in sending more targeted, curated content to their audiences to boost engagement and drive results.
“How can we make a segmented tool competititve”
Competitive Landscape
Segmentation is a well-established practice in the email marketing space. To understand how we could differentiate our approach, I conducted a competitive analysis of existing segmentation tools offered by leading platforms. This helped identify gaps, usability patterns, and opportunities to position our product more strategically in the market.
“Different ways to skin a contact.”
Concept Model: Breaking Down the Anatomy of an Email Recipient
To design effective segmentation tools, I first needed to understand what defines an email recipient within the system.
Required Fields
These are the essential data points needed to add a contact—such as email address, first name, or subscription status.Custom Fields
These allow for more granular personalization—like location, gender, preferences, or customer lifecycle stage.
By mapping out these core components, I created a foundation that supports dynamic segmentation based on meaningful criteria—making it easier for senders to target specific audiences with relevant content.
How does a contact (recipient) belong to a list
Concept Model:
Before diving into UI design, I first mapped out the abstract components of segmentation and how they interact. This was an exercise in both information architecture and systems thinking.
At its core, segmentation works by applying conditions to a broader list of recipients—filtering them based on attributes like location, engagement, or custom tags—to generate a refined, segmented list.
“Segmentation Steps”
Mapping Behaviors to Features: List Segmentation in Action
To define the minimum viable product, I mapped out the core user behaviors alongside the features that would support each step. This allowed me to align product decisions directly with real user needs.
high level steps:
Selecting a Contact List – the starting point for any segmentation task.
Adding Conditions – users define logic (e.g., "location = New York" or "last opened within 30 days") to filter recipients into a targeted segment.
By visualizing these behaviors (in blue) and their corresponding solutions (feature ideas, validations, UI components), I created a clear foundation for both MVP prioritization and cross-functional collaboration.
“Sequence of Segmenting”
User Flow: Creating a Segment from Start to Send
Designing the user flow helped me break down the phases of segmentation and design around the behaviors associated with each step. Each phase informed key UI decisions and interaction models.
1. Selecting a List
Users start by choosing a source list.
I introduced a default master list called “All Recipients”, which acts as the primary base for segmentation.
2. Creating Conditions
Users define rules based on both system fields (e.g., gender, name, date added) and custom attributes (e.g., birthday, age, occupation).
3. Previewing the Segment
Before committing to changes, users need to see who matches their criteria.
4. Saving & Using the Segment
Once satisfied, users can save the segment and later target it during email campaign creation.
Sketching the Segmentation Journey
I sketched out the likely flow they’d follow when creating a segment—from selecting a list, to defining conditions, to previewing the results.
This early visualization helped me anticipate decision points, edge cases, and interaction patterns, ensuring the experience felt intuitive and goal-oriented from the very first step.
Clearly convey how this list will be segmented
Prototype GIF
Adding Conditions: Designing for Clarity and Scanability
I designed a vertical condition strip that allows them to apply filters based on specific attributes.
Rather than a dense, horizontal layout of criteria, the vertical format enhances scanability—allowing each condition to read more like a natural sentence (e.g., “If Location equals New York”). This improves comprehension and reduces cognitive load, especially for non-technical users.
The design supports both system fields and custom fields, giving users the flexibility to segment based on the data most relevant to their goals.
Ellipses and Readability: Designing for Scannability and Editability
To ensure stacked conditions remained easy to scan, interpret, and edit, I designed the condition blocks to read like natural language statements—using spacing, ellipses, and visual hierarchy to guide the eye.
Giving users control and Flexibility
“This flexibility ensures the segmentation tool can meet the needs of both technical users and marketing teams looking to fine-tune their audience.”
Stacking Conditions: Enabling Precision and Control
To support more advanced segmentation, I introduced the ability to stack multiple conditions. This empowers users to define highly specific criteria—such as “Location is New York” and “Last Opened within 30 days.”
By allowing users to build condition groups using AND/OR logic, the interface supports both broad and narrow targeting strategies. This flexibility ensures the segmentation tool can meet the needs of both technical users and marketing teams looking to fine-tune their audience.
“One contact on multiple lists”
Prototype
Managing Recipients Across Multiple Lists
During segmentation, it’s common for a single recipient to belong to multiple lists—especially when lists are imported from different sources or campaigns.
To bring clarity to this overlap, I designed an editing modal that surfaces how many lists a recipient belongs to. This allows users to:
View list associations at a glance
Prevent duplicate sends
Understand where segments may intersect
By surfacing this metadata at the point of editing, users can make more informed decisions about inclusion or exclusion—without needing to dig into multiple list views.
Sort this out, by birthday, Occupation, last opened
Views & Headers: Navigating Custom Fields with Horizontal Scrolling
To help users better assess which attributes are available for segmentation, I introduced horizontal scrolling for the recipient table view. This allows users to easily explore custom field headers—such as birthday, occupation, or last opened—without overwhelming the layout.
By making these headers visible and accessible, users gain a clearer understanding of their data and can make more informed decisions when building conditions for a segment. This pattern balances data density with usability, especially in systems with a wide range of recipient attributes.
Prototype
Prototype
Removing vs. Deleting: Defining User Intent with Clarity
To prevent accidental data loss and reduce confusion, I established a clear distinction between removing and deleting a recipient:
Remove: Excludes the recipient from the current list or segment, but retains their contact data in the system. They remain accessible via the “All Recipients” view.
Delete: Permanently removes the recipient from the entire contact management system, including all lists and segments.
This distinction was surfaced clearly in the UI through confirmation modals and labels, helping users act with confidence and understand the consequences of each action. It also aligned with best practices in data governance and user control.
Prototype
Include or Exclude: Segment Logic at Send Time
The real power of segmentation is realized at the moment of sending. During campaign setup, users can choose to include or exclude specific segments based on content relevance.
Include: Target recipients who meet specific criteria (e.g., “Engaged Users,” “NYC Subscribers”).
Exclude: Omit groups for whom the content may not apply (e.g., “Unengaged,” “Non-Customers”).
This level of control ensures message relevance, improves deliverability, and helps maintain a strong sender reputation—by avoiding unnecessary or unwanted emails.
Conclusion: Designing for Flexibility—Dynamic vs. Static Lists
One of the more interesting challenges during this project was recognizing the need for two distinct types of segmented lists, each serving a different user need:
Dynamic Segments
These lists automatically update as new recipients are added to the system. If a new contact meets the defined criteria, they are instantly included—making this ideal for ongoing, rule-based targeting.Static Segments
These are snapshots in time. Once created, the list remains unchanged, regardless of future uploads or data changes. This approach is useful when marketers want to freeze a group for a specific campaign or compliance purpose.
Designing both types gave users the flexibility to choose between automation and control, depending on their goals and use cases.