02
CMUsed
A campus-specific marketplace web app for CMU students to buy and sell items, enabling convenient and trusted transactions within the university community. As a product designer, I shaped the end-to-end user experience, from research and concept development to interface design and interaction flows.
Our research showed that the problem wasn’t simply a lack of resale options. Existing platforms didn’t account for the context of a campus exchange, where students often need to buy or sell quickly, coordinate locally, and feel confident about who they’re interacting with.
Looking across both buyer and seller behaviors helped us identify where their needs overlapped. While their motivations differed, trust, speed, and coordination consistently shaped both sides of the transaction. Synthesizing these patterns gave us a clearer basis for prioritizing the experience around shared needs rather than individual assumptions.
From there, we mapped the end-to-end task flow to understand where friction could occur beyond discovery. Following the journey from browsing and evaluating an item to contacting the seller and coordinating the exchange helped shape the information architecture and feature hierarchy of the final product.
Discovery Feed
We organized the information architecture around how students already think about secondhand shopping. Familiar categories, search, and recent listings reduce cognitive load while still supporting both goal-driven searching and more exploratory browsing.
Listing Details
The listing page brings together the information users need to evaluate both the product and the seller. Surfacing price, condition, seller activity, and communication in the same context reduces unnecessary navigation and supports more informed decision-making.
Onboarding
Trust emerged as more than a safety feature; it directly affected whether students felt comfortable continuing a transaction. Seller identity and activity therefore became part of the core experience rather than information hidden deeper in the interface.
Mapping the end-to-end task flow exposed friction that wasn’t obvious from looking at discovery alone. We considered the entire transaction, including evaluating an item, checking seller credibility, expressing interest, communicating, and eventually coordinating the handoff.
The type system balances expression with usability. Inter maintains legibility and hierarchy across information-dense marketplace screens, while Climate Crisis is reserved for moments of identity so personality never comes at the expense of comprehension.