Craigslist
Evaluating and Redesigning Craigslist's App
An evaluation of Craigslist's app using the 10 usability heuristics was made to determine the problem. This helped us redesign the create a listing flow while putting a human centred approach at the forefront.
Partner: Aaron Kwong
Duration: 3 weeks
Role: UX Designer
What is Craigslist?
Craigslist is one of the first online classifieds advertisement website that attracts many users. As one of the most popular classifieds listing page, it has expanded to many major cities all around the world. However, it was only recent when Craigslist released their mobile app onto the app store.
Craigslist's current design
The Problem
Craigslist’s version 1.0.0 app was released in January 2020 and has not been given an update since. As one of the leading classifieds listing page and everyone shifting to mobile devices, it was the right move for Craigslist to make the transition towards a more mobile friendly platform. But as big and popular Craigslist is, the ratings and reviews on their app says otherwise.
Project Constraints
Throughout the redesign of Craigslist’s app, we had to stay true to their design language. Some things that we couldn’t change: Colour palette and the font (Arial). In order to keep the company’s brand, we had to work around these constraints.
Identifying Usability Problems
As we evaluated the design with Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics, we found 7 violations out of 10 within our selected task flow. To determine the severity of the violation, we rated each on a scale of 0 - 4.
Reimagining Craigslist
After evaluating all the heuristics on listing an item, we came to an agreement that consistency is one of Craigslist’s biggest issues. Therefore, we focused our improvements on that. During the redesign, I added icons and illustrations to improve the visibility of system status and created a layout grid to stay consistent with the margins.
Redesign Demo
Curious as to how the redesign works? Check out the video below.
Reflecting on this Project
During this project, I was able to evaluate a well known company's app using the 10 usability heuristics by Jakob Nielsen. Throughout the evaluation process, I learned how important it is to assess an interface's usability and how they should be designed. I was able to pinpoint usability violations and rate them accordingly to better understand the severity of it. Doing so helped me find the trend within the app and tackle it first.
I am thankful that I was able to work on this project with my partner Aaron as we studied each usability heuristic and came up with design solutions for Craigslist’s app.
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