- 94 survey responses
- 6 usability tests
- 30+ screens
- 4 weeks solo, end-to-end
- Role
- Solo — research, design, prototyping
- Methods
- Netnography, surveys, IDIs, usability testing, UX/UI design
From Facebook chaos to a working marketplace
A concept app for giving away and picking up unwanted things. Inspired by Polish Facebook swap groups like “Uwaga, śmieciarka jedzie!” (“Heads up, the garbage truck’s coming!”). From netnography through interviews and a survey to a testable prototype.
Listening in on Facebook groups
I started by observing real conversations in Facebook groups — how people described items, negotiated pickups, and talked about trust. Reading existing posts let me see what worked, what didn't, and why. That groundwork shaped the first research questions:
- Q01
What items do people give or take away?
- Q02
How is communication working between the giver and the recipient?
- Q03
How do users proceed with reserving or obtaining items?
- Q04
How do users feel about the various stages of the experience?
94 voices, in numbers
Having a set of research questions, I decided to conduct a quantitative study that would help me understand the characteristics of the target group. The study involved 94 people who belonged to the Facebook community group.
Meeting the users
In order to explore the thoughts, emotions, and motivations related to giving and receiving items within the "śmieciarka" community, I conducted a series of interviews with people who passed the screening questions.
I categorised the obtained data using empathy maps.
Three faces of the community
The obtained data allowed me to create hypothetical personas that became the foundation for further conceptual and design work.
The śmieciarka exchange experience
Personas along with their assigned needs, motivations, and emotions allowed me to simulate the experience of giving and receiving items.
Main product goals
On the basis of my observations, I defined the following key design goals:
-
Quick access to current listings
Easy decision about what’s right for me.
-
Reservation and pickup with no extra steps
No unnecessary confusion.
-
Safe, trustworthy exchange
For both the giver and the receiver.
What’s already out there
With clearly defined design goals, I could freely move on to creating solutions. Analysing the competition — both direct and indirect — helped me better understand the strengths and weaknesses of existing products.
How might we?
Rephrasing identified problems into simple questions starting with "How might we...?" allowed me to look at design challenges from a fresh, more creative perspective.
-
How might we remove the need for users to constantly follow the announcements?
Response- Notification system working on different levels inside and outside the system
-
How might we increase user engagement?
Response- A rank and reward system as the digital equivalent of actual pay
-
How might we make sure users can find what they need?
Response- Clear and intuitive information architecture
- Geolocation-based search for nearby items
-
How might we reduce the abandonment of reserved items?
Response- User profiles that can be evaluated in the context of exchange
-
How might we improve communication between giver and receiver?
Response- Easy to use text messaging system
Map of key processes
With defined design goals, assigned solutions, and previously developed artefacts, I designed the key processes the product would support. By mapping the main user paths, I captured the flow of giving and receiving items.
Bottle caps as currency
One of the solutions to increase engagement and satisfaction with the application was a reward system. For this purpose, I designed a mechanism for earning virtual bottle caps.
From sketches to screens
Access to user journey maps allowed me to move on to visualising specific functionalities at the level of individual screens.
Based on initial component sketches, I created more detailed wireframes, which then served as the basis for preparing a testable prototype.
Usability verification
After combining the produced screens into an interactive prototype, I was able to validate the proposed design solutions.
I recruited 6 people for moderated usability tests. After a short briefing, participants worked through tasks covering the usability of the app’s core flows.
- 01 / 05
Most of the survey participants had a problem finding the button to post an advertisement
- 02 / 05
Several people would like to be able to arrange a suitable pick-up date in advance
- 03 / 05
All the surveyed people said that the gamification system is understandable
- 04 / 05
A few people rightly pointed out that when considering a reservation, an additional decisive factor is the speed of its submission
- 05 / 05
Several people talked about the usefulness of the quick message filtering functionality
What we shipped
After many iterations and changes, I brought the product to its "final" version.
Looking back
What I Learned
Netnography turned out to be the most valuable step in the entire research process. Before I formulated a single research question, I spent several weeks observing "śmieciarka" communities on Facebook – this let me understand users' natural language, frustrations, and unwritten rules before I even began designing the survey and interview scripts. As a result, my research questions were sharper and conversations with participants got to the core faster.
It was also my first project done entirely solo. Without a partner to challenge my thinking, I had to be more deliberate about questioning my own assumptions – the personas and journey maps served not only as design artefacts but also as tools for testing whether my understanding of the problem was coherent.
What I Would Do Differently
I would run a second round of usability testing. I stopped at one iteration, which means I never verified whether the fixes I introduced actually solved the detected problems. Next time, that validation would be a fixed part of the process – one study reveals what doesn't work, but only a second one confirms the fixes landed.