Shann
Xiangnuo Xia
Motion + Product DesignI like stories that are a little offbeat, but still hit home.
Prox
PRODUCT DESIGN INTERNSHIP · SUMMER 2026
Helping shoppers see and keep their grocery savings. An 8-week internship auditing a grocery price-comparison app, building its UI system, and designing new features.
Product Design Intern
Jun – Aug 2026 · 8 weeks
INTRO
Context
Prox is a grocery price-comparison app. Shoppers add items to a list, and Prox finds which nearby store — or combination of stores — gives them the cheapest cart.
Over eight weeks, I focused on one area of the app each week: auditing the live experience, redesigning key screens, defining a UI system, and designing new features for recipes and pantry tracking.
STARTING POINT
Auditing the live app
Before designing anything, I walked through every screen as a new user and as a guest, and documented 20+ usability and visual issues. They clustered into three themes that shaped the rest of the internship.
Unclear value
New users land on an empty grocery list, so it's hard to see what Prox does or why it's worth trying.
Inconsistent UI
Two logo versions, clashing category colors, and shadows facing different directions made the app feel unfinished.
Guest dead-ends
Guests saw onboarding on every login, and tapping Account sent them back to the welcome screen.
CASE STUDY 1
Rethinking the first experience
The audit showed that Prox's biggest problem wasn't missing features — it was that people couldn't see its value quickly. I started with the screens new users see first.
Making savings visible
The original Deals page showed $0.00 in savings above a long, dense product feed. The redesign leads with what shoppers care about: a summary card comparing their list against shopping at a single store.
Showing value before asking for an account
Guests used to hit dead-ends. The new guest flow introduces each feature in plain language, then lets people enter their weekly grocery spend to see what they could save — before any sign-up.
A clearer onboarding
Onboarding now explains Prox in three short screens — compare, deals, save. And only asks for notification permission once the user is inside the app and has context for why it's useful.
CASE STUDY 2
Designing new features
With the foundations in place, I designed features that give people more reasons to return: recipes tied to deals, a smarter cart, and pantry tracking.
From recipe to cheapest cart
Recipes are matched to this week's deals, so each one shows which ingredients are on sale and where they're cheapest. One tap adds every missing ingredient to the list.
A pantry that helps you buy less
Pantry tracking helps people avoid buying what they already have. Items are grouped by what's expiring soon, households can share one pantry, and quick add fills in details like category, expiry, and restock time automatically.
Fixing the small things that break trust
The audit also surfaced smaller issues that quietly erode trust. Feedback replies now match the rating, password changes require the current password, and product pages add price history and store comparison.
OTHER BITS
A shared UI system
Many audit issues traced back to the app having no documented system. I defined brand guidelines — logo usage, color, and type — and turned them into specs developers could build from.