Take Action: The Notification Center

Why rely solely on email as the main communication channel with users? Given the high engagement levels within the platform and the volume of potential notifications, we needed a more effective way to communicate with users—driving interaction and product adoption beyond traditional email campaigns.

Company

propiedades.com

Date

November 2023

Role

Lead Product Designer

Team

PMs, Dev

Platform

App, Web

Reflections

The Problem

Pcom had a low email open rate, yet this was the only channel used to share critical information, including:


  • Marketing campaigns

  • Listing updates

  • Promotional offers for publishing plans


To increase engagement and ensure users received relevant updates, we needed to build a real-time notification center integrated within the platform.

Architecture & Strategy

To define a scalable notification system, we conducted:


  • Benchmark analysis of direct and indirect competitors to extract best practices from both traditional and modern real estate platforms.

  • User data analysis to identify the most consumed information within Pcom, ensuring content prioritization was user-driven.

  • Card-sorting sessions with Mexican customers to determine optimal placement and structure for notifications, balancing familiarity with innovation.


These insights led to an architecture designed for long-term scalability, ensuring that notifications would enhance the user experience rather than overwhelm it.

Discovery & Framework

Improve user communication channels by leveraging the high interaction rates within the product itself. Instead of relying on external emails, we aimed to establish Pcom’s platform as the primary real-time notification hub.


We integrated ongoing user research on notification expectations within real estate products, allowing us to refine the communication strategy and ensure seamless implementation.

What to Communicate and How?

With notifications, the challenge isn’t just what to communicate, but how. We focused on the two core user segments:

  1. Property seekers – Timely alerts about listings, price changes, and saved searches.

  2. Property publishers – Updates on listing performance, buyer interest, and promotional opportunities.

Tailored User Experiences

Given Pcom’s high-traffic nature, implementation had to account for different user journeys:

  • Many recurring users don’t log in frequently, making data collection critical for retention strategies.

  • New features can serve as incentives for users to log in and unlock exclusive functionalities.

Building for Scalability

We approached the notification center as an MVP, ensuring early feedback collection and iterative improvements. By documenting decisions and tracking feature behavior, we laid the groundwork for future expansion.

Hyper-Personalization

Whether transactional or marketing-related, users needed full control over what notifications they received and through which channels. Personalization was at the core of our approach, allowing users to tailor their experience according to their preferences.

Key Deliverables

Onboarding for Seamless Adoption

Frequent changes to a platform can overwhelm users, so we designed an onboarding experience that introduced the notification center in a clear and engaging way. This ensured a smooth adoption curve and minimized user friction.

Standardization for Future Growth

The MVP launched with six notification types, covering key user needs:

  • New interested buyers

  • Expiring listings

  • Draft properties

  • Publishing incentives

  • New features

  • New messages

This standardized structure provided a foundation for expanding notifications over time.

User-Controlled Notification Center

With a single click, users could fully customize their notification preferences, ensuring a tailored experience that respected their needs and avoided unnecessary disruptions.

UI that Guides the Experience

We designed intuitive components that made consuming notifications effortless. Each notification type adhered to standardized UI patterns, ensuring clarity, usability, and a seamless user experience.

Results

30% improvement in the flow for incomplete property listings


$115,000 generated from premium plan purchases announced via notifications within the first two months

30% improvement in the flow for incomplete property listings


$115,000 generated from premium plan purchases announced via notifications within the first two months

sebastian-mg@hotmail.com I +1 (672) 922 4988

© 2025

sebastian-mg@hotmail.com

+1 (672) 922 4988

© 2025

sebastian-mg@hotmail.com I +1 (672) 922 4988

© 2025