Phia Alerts Center
Phia is a price-comparison tool that instantly surfaces better prices for fashion by comparing new and secondhand listings across thousands of sites. With 100K daily active users (DAU), 600K downloads, and having secured Series A funding by Q2 2025, Phia was scaling rapidly.
I joined as a product design intern, where my remit was to ideate features by analyzing metrics dashboards, conducting user interviews, and designing UX flows and UI screens.
During my internship, I led the design and launch of the Alert Center—a core component of Phia’s mobile app. After launch, the new alert experience drove a 20% increase in user conversion and a 10% lift in daily GMV.
The Problem
During user interviews, many users mentioned that they wanted to be notified when the products they saved reached their ideal price or came back in stock. They often described the frustration of missing deals or losing items because they “forgot to check back” or “didn’t know the price had changed.”
After analyzing usage data, I found that over 60% of saved products experienced a price change within a week, and 40% of saved products went back in stock after appearing unavailable. Yet, only a small fraction of those users returned to complete a purchase.
This gap between user intent and actionable information revealed a key opportunity: Phia needed a centralized, user-controlled Alert Center to help users track these changes, re-engage at the right time, and ultimately improve conversion.
Entry Point Exploration
Considering the importance of the Alert Center, I explored ways to make its entry point more prominent without cluttering the homepage. I tested several patterns—a universal notification icon, a fixed banner, and a floating alert card. However, the icon felt too subtle, the banner overcrowded the screen and was better suited for marketing campaigns, while the floating card lacked visibility when no notifications were active.
After that, I decided to explore the navigation bar as the main entry point. With the new liquid glass component, users were already accustomed to a more flexible nav bar layout. I designed a pattern where multiple product cards briefly pop up when new notifications arrive, then shrink into a simple red dot when inactive. This approach provided a consistent, fixed entry point that maintained high visibility without overcrowding the homepage.
View Alerts
While designing the Alert Center interface, I prioritized products as the main focus and moved away from the traditional notification-card layout. Since users primarily come to this section to see product updates, not to track when those updates occurred, I structured the interface around product cards rather than timestamps.
To enhance navigation, I also introduced filter options—such as Price Drops, Back in Stock, and All—so users can easily sort and find the alerts that matter most to them.
Manage Alerts
While viewing alerts, users also need to manage their existing alerts—whether to review, edit, or remove them. To support this behavior, I designed a Manage Alerts view with quick edit actions, allowing users to adjust thresholds or pause alerts directly without needing to click into the product's detailed page.
Impact
The feature was launched in September 2025. Within the first month, 40% of active mobile users visited the Alert Center to view or manage their alerts, and 20% of those users completed a purchase triggered by alert notifications.
💡 Design is not an emotional expression, but through rational deduction and categorization to present complex information and logic in a way that best fits the user's habits and can satisfy the user's needs.
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