Creating a Safe Space for Buying and Selling
Redesigning Facebook Marketplace to increase trust and efficiency
Role
Product Designer
Club
Product Space @UCSD
Team
1 Management Fellow
1 Marketing Fellow
1 Design Fellow
Timeline
Mar-May 2024
Skills
User Research
Usability Testing
Visual Design
Interaction Design
Tools
Figma
01
AN OVERVIEW
What is Facebook Marketplace?
Facebook Marketplace is an online space for people to buy, sell and discover items.
Their goal is to create a safe space for people to engage with their local community through buying and selling.
Image: Facebook Marketplace
But for a lot of buyers, they have trouble judging the trustworthiness of a seller, causing them to spend unnecessary time sifting through listings.
02
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
At First Glance: Discrepancies With the Interface
Did you know Facebook Marketplace as a Badge Feature? You may have not, because the feature is only found on seller pages that already have ratings. At first glance, you might not even know these features exist.
But are there more issues beyond what meets the eye?
03
ANALYZING COMPETITORS
Market Research
We first conducted market research to better understand Facebook Marketplace’s competitors. Facebook has the most users, yet has an unclear way of evaluating the trust and credibility of sellers compared to other platforms.
On top of a competitive analysis, we did a SWOT Analysis, identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that Facebook Marketplace poses.
04
COLLECTING DATA
User Research: What Do People Have to Say About Facebook Marketplace?
For this project, first collected 37 survey responses from the general UCSD student body to gauge their understanding of the platform as well as understand what they use the platform form.
The Data Said…
Noteworthy Quotes
After receiving survey responses, my team realized the information we got was not as insightful as we expected. So, we furthered our research by conducting 8 in person interviews to observe how people interact with the platform in real time.
7/8
Interviewees rated trustworthiness as something they highly value
8/8
Interviewees spent extra time examining seller profiles and quality of listings
05
THE ISSUES, SUMMARIZED
Pain Points
After concluding our market research, user research and additional research, we summarized our findings into 3 main issues:
1
Trustworthiness
users don’t have an objective way to evaluate a sellers trustworthiness
2
Questionable Sellers
users have to sift through questionable sellers, ads and scammers
3
Long Search Times
users take a long time sifting through and comparing listings
06
SOLUTION AND ITERATION
The Solution
After coming up with our 3 main issues, we brainstormed ways we could solve these problems.
1
Increase discoverability of the Badge System and develop a more consistent design across seller profiles
2
Improve upon the existing filtering system to allow users to filter based on seller reviews, ratings, and badges
3
Implement a comparison tool which allows users to compare two different listings side by side
Image: Facebook Marketplace
Let's start designing!
The Iteration Process
I started with some lo-fi wireframes, got some feedback, and repeated the process, then transitioned to hi-fi.
Image:Lo-fi Home Page
Image:Lo-fi Filter Feature
Image:Lo-fi Compare Feature
Some Changes!
Making badges visible upon landing on the home page
Sorting by ratings or badges to further discoverability and reduce questionable sellers
A compare function to decrease search time
Getting Feedback
Before moving onto our hi-fis, I ran our designs by our mentors Angie and Sarah. Here’s the feedback we received!
How will users know what these badges mean?
Image:Lo-fi Home Page
is the difference between 50 and 100 ratings necessary?
Image:Lo-fi Filter Feature
Display badges to enhance discoverability
Image:Lo-fi Compare Feature
06
THE FINAL PRODUCT!
A Safer Facebook Marketplace
And with that, here is our final design!
Badges/Ratings
Filtering System
Comparison Tool
A Live Demo
Badges/Ratings
Filter Feature
Comparison Tool
Giving Thanks!
I wanted to give a special thank you to my marketing and management fellows, Lucas and Rohan! We worked long and hard on this project and I seriously couldn’t have done it without them.
I also wanted to give a huge thank you to our mentors Angie and Sarah. They provided so much guidance throughout the way and our project wouldn’t be at the caliber it is without their input
And how could I forget the organization that provided me with so many opportunities, Product Space! I’m super grateful for everyone in this organization, and I’ve learned so much from these wonderful people.
Images: I <3 Product Space at UCSD