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Design Examples
Personalisation Examples: Real Product Recommendations
See how Petbarn, Balance, Monzo and others personalise flows, with examples covering search bars, loading states, referral offers and end of year reviews.
Real world examples:
Updated: 26/08/2026, view all 1,450 examples
Examples on Built for Mars include
Petbarn puts your pet's name in the search bar
Ahead's "learning from you" badge rewards answers
Monzo lets you pick your review's tone
After completing your pet's profile, Petbarn will personalise their search bar.
After a meditation, you may be asked a few questions. You then see an icon, teaching you that every time you see it, your experience is getting more personalised.
More context
This is fantastic because as you invest more time into the app, you feel like it's getting slightlymore personalised.
It might not be, but seeing that icon is a tiny reward, and helps motivate you to engage even more.
After answering questions, Ahead will literally show a notification that they're listening and learning from you. This reiterates how personalised the experience is.
More context
This is a textbook example of the Labour Illusion.
They're making it clear that every data point is included in the personalisation engine, encouraging you to answer more
The loading state for a meditation reminds you how personalised the experience is.
More context
The more you engage with the post-meditation questions, the more personalised it gets.
This helps people feel like the app is theirs, and you may start to see the Endowment Effect kicking in.
After collecting user preferences, Blinkist shows a loading screen indicating what’s happening behind the scenes.
More context
This gives the user a sense that there’s actual work being done to process the preferences that they just entered.
i.e., The Labour Illusion.
There are more than 1400 UX Bites like this
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There are more than 1400 UX Bites like this
See the benefits
There are more than 1400 UX Bites like this
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"An exceptional resource for learning how to build habit-forming products that people love."
"I’d never met anybody who looks at usability and UX the way I do until I met Peter. Only he’s smarter."
"The completest view of the psychological underpinnings of human behaviour that I’ve ever seen."
"What a nice idea! Christopher Alexander would be proud to see patterns collected like this."
FAQs
Why spell out what's happening on a personalisation loading screen?
Naming the work makes the result feel earned rather than generic. Balance loads a meditation with "Building meditation based on 2 other facts you've shared", and Blinkist ticks off a checklist while processing your preferences, i.e., the Labour Illusion.
How do you stop people abandoning personalisation questions halfway?
Each answer needs visible consequence. Ahead flashes "LEARNING FROM YOU..." after a question, and Balance shows an icon that teaches you the experience just got more personalised, so no data point feels wasted.
Does personalisation need to increase sales that day?
Not necessarily. Petbarn's "Find something nice for 🐶 Rover" search bar is unlikely to shift the basket size on that visit, but it builds a relationship that can raise long-term value from that customer.
What does giving people control over the personalisation add?
Choice makes the output feel owned, so people pay more attention to it. Monzo offers "Be nice" or "Be savage" for your end of year review, and HeyTea lets you draw a cup sticker or borrow a community design — both lean on the Endowment Effect.
Where else can personalisation appear outside onboarding?
Referral traffic is an obvious gap. Washington Post detects links opened from inside Reddit and tells Redditors they get seven free stories, which makes the referral stickier than a standard paywall.