Redesigning the Artsy alerts and activity ecosystem

The goal was to increase alert creation and enhance the activity page – a key commercial touchpoint where users monitor and manage their alerts.

Enhancing engagement through streamlined notifications and activity tracking

I led the redesign of Artsy’s Alerts and Activity system, improving user engagement and retention through smarter notifications and activity tracking. The result:

Alert creation grew 50-80% year-over-year, indicating a significant increase in users setting up alerts.
Alerts email conversion rates (CVR) to shoppable art increased from 42% to 80%, meaning the percentage of users who clicked through the alerts to purchase art nearly doubled.
Conversion rate (CVR) to CA (Commercial Actions) increased from 2.3% to 4.1%, meaning the percentage of users completing desired actions (like contacting galleries or purchasing) after receiving the alert also saw a notable improvement.

Getting to know the collectors

This project required focus on specific personas: art collectors who know what they want and have experience in the art-buying world. These are a small percentage of Artsy users but are the most lucrative. It was important to get a clear idea of how they used Artsy. Here we interviewed 12 ‘power users’ and synthesised the results.

A bit of context…

This video is long, but it’s the best way of showing how all the pieces tie together; from email and push, to creating and managing alerts. This video was taken directly from our company All Hands where I presented the vision for this piece of work.

Email designs

These were important as a re-engagement tool, allowing the user to see their latest alerts. The redesign saw CVR to shoppable art improve from 63% to 74%.

Desktop designs

Key takeaways

This project resulted in stronger user engagement, less notification fatigue, and more effective activity tracking. It reinforced the importance of personalised communication and clear user flows in driving long-term user retention.

Refined alert types to provide timely, relevant updates, increasing user interaction

Consolidated notifications into a more digestible and actionable format
Improved activity tracking so users could seamlessly follow and manage their art-related activities

Alerts creation grew 50-80% YoY

Alerts email: CVR to shoppable art up from 42% to 80%.
CVR to CA is up from 2.3% to 4.1%