Cover: The purpose of The Career Code‘s cover is to entice the reader to want to learn more about how to have a successful career. The only image used on the cover is of a hand holding a business card, which has the authors’ names on it. This image works well because it not only cleverly communicates the authors’ names, but also establishes the type of book it is through an image that almost all people universally understand as a reference to the workplace. The title of the book is in a large font size that takes up most of the top half of the book cover, which very clearly and simply tells readers what the book is about. The only coverline apart from the subhead is “+27 Life Hacks Every Woman Should Master!” which are all represented as 27 tips in the back of the book. The hierarchy on the cover draws the reader to first look at the title, then the image with the authors’ names, then the subhead, and finally the coverline about life hacks and the text at the very top that says “From the Creators of WhoWhatWear.com.” This hierarchy works well because the title is most important, and the visual backs up the meaning of the title. The next important piece of information is the subhead, which further describes what the book is about, and the least relevant text is at the top and bottom in a smaller size. Overall, the tone is modern and meant to send a message that empowers women today to have great careers. The nail polish on the visual of the hand communicates femininity, and the bold red background communicates power. The tone in the text skews young (“life hacks,” “must-know rules”), as the book is aimed at women who are just beginning their professional careers.
TOC/sections: The table of contents section in this book only takes up two pages. The 168 pages of the book are divided into 17 chapters, with the “27 life hacks” as a “bonus” chapter at the end. The promos are written very simply in a small font, with no visuals on the table of contents pages. While I think the number of chapters is good to break down the material well, I don’t think the simplicity of these pages is compelling enough for people to read the chapter names. Because the chapter names are all pretty long, I think the reader would just skim over this information without really reading it. All of the sections in the book are individual chapters, so there aren’t overall sections that the chapters are sorted into. Each chapter is listed in the book as “Code #x”, on a standalone page that very clearly introduces the new code. These code numbers are shown throughout the book to tell the reader which chapter they’re in. However, the entire chapter/code name is not listed, only the number, so this would still be confusing to a reader who is in the middle of the chapter and wants to know the chapter name.
