Artsy iOS
Design lead · Product Owner
In 2013 Artsy launched its first iOS app, but in the months following the launch, the app’s growth stalled and trailed the website for important business metrics including commercial transactions, user growth, retention and engagement. Through market analysis and user research, I developed a series of strategic positions Artsy could take in order to improve the performance of our app. Ultimately research and internal discussions with business leaders indicated that Artsy would be best suited if it focused on the commercial user, the active art collector. From there I set out to develop a roadmap that would lead us to turning the app into a tool collectors couldn’t live without. Below are a few key projects that lead to the successful transition of the app.
In 2013 Artsy launched its first iOS app, but in the months following the launch, the app’s growth stalled and trailed the website for important business metrics including commercial transactions, user growth, retention and engagement. Through market analysis and user research, I developed a series of strategic positions Artsy could take in order to improve the performance of our app. Ultimately research and internal discussions with business leaders indicated that Artsy would be best suited if it focused on the commercial user, the active art collector. From there I set out to develop a roadmap that would lead us to turning the app into a tool collectors couldn’t live without. Below are a few key projects that lead to the successful transition of the app.
Personalized Home
Personalization was the cornerstone of our strategy to focus on collectors. With a catalog of over 800,000 unique for sale works on Artsy, helping users find works they like on mobile proved difficult. The success of our New For You email lead us to developed the artist feed which gives collectors notice as soon as new work became available by their favorite artists. The For You section pulls from users’ interest graph, culminating in a series of recommended artists and works based on categories, galleries, and artists they follow. Auction showed users both ongoing sales and lots that are currently available by artists they follow to ensure they don’t miss the opportunity to bid before sales close.
Onboarding
Since the app had become focused on being a personal tool for collectors, we wanted to improve the rate at which users completed onboarding. Without more specific information about what collectors are looking for we wouldn’t be able to provide a relevant first time user experience.
Gallery<>Collector messaging
Prior to launching gallery and collector messaging, users who were interested in purchasing a work would send a message from the app and the rest of the conversation would be handled in email. In order to improve the overall engagement in conversations we opted to bring them in app, with the added feature of enabling collectors to pay for a work once a price had been agreed upon via payment request link.
Consignments
Artsy launched the consignments business in 2017, allowing collectors to submit pieces from their collection which would then be passed on to our gallery and auction partners. Leveraging the phone camera lowered the barrier for collectors.They could now easily snap a few shots and submit their work directly to our network of partners.
