Client
Craigslist LTD
Role
Lead Product Designer (IC)
Direct Reports
1
Craigslist Redesign
No, this isn't a fake portfolio piece - I was actually contracted by Craigslist to create a total redesign for this site.
No, this isn't a fake portfolio piece - I was actually contracted by Craigslist to create a total redesign for this site.
▷ Overview
▷ Overview
If you go onto dribbble.com or google "Craigslist redesign" you'll see thousands of redesigns from various designers. I got to know the Craigslist team through my work with their charitable fund and we agreed to revamp the website. I was the sole product designer (and managed a brand designer), spearheading the entire redesign and working directly with senior staff (including the CEO) over two years. Until this point, not a single designer has worked with Craigslist, whose old school M.O. meant that they had only engineers who created the front end - which resulted in the feral, but charming quality that has existed for more than 25 years on the site.
If you go onto dribbble.com or google "Craigslist redesign" you'll see thousands of redesigns from various designers. I got to know the Craigslist team through my work with their charitable fund and we agreed to revamp the website. I was the sole product designer (and managed a brand designer), spearheading the entire redesign and working directly with senior staff (including the CEO) over two years. Until this point, not a single designer has worked with Craigslist, whose old school M.O. meant that they had only engineers who created the front end - which resulted in the feral, but charming quality that has existed for more than 25 years on the site.
▷ The Challenges
Where to begin? Craigslist is a site like no other. The design is immediately recogsisable. No fluff, no upselling, just to the point bare-bones styling. This gives it a strong brand identity, but it also means that it is not very attractive nor very easy to use. However, over 25+ years, millions of users have become accustomed to its quirks. This means any redesign has to address the implications of upsetting users who are accustomed to particular interactions. The redesign also needed to account for the 'feral' quality of the site - it has a charm that couldn't be lost in any redesign. The site also has hundreds of categories. While some sites only deal in real estate or household products, Craigslist deals with this all, plus much more.
How could I introduce modern UX standards to a massive, multi-category ecosystem without breaking the brutal simplicity that defines the Craigslist brand?
▷ The Challenges
Where to begin? Craigslist is a site like no other. The design is immediately recogsisable. No fluff, no upselling, just to the point bare-bones styling. This gives it a strong brand identity, but it also means that it is not very attractive nor very easy to use. However, over 25+ years, millions of users have become accustomed to its quirks. This means any redesign has to address the implications of upsetting users who are accustomed to particular interactions. The redesign also needed to account for the 'feral' quality of the site - it has a charm that couldn't be lost in any redesign. The site also has hundreds of categories. While some sites only deal in real estate or household products, Craigslist deals with this all, plus much more.
How could I introduce modern UX standards to a massive, multi-category ecosystem without breaking the brutal simplicity that defines the Craigslist brand?
▷ Kicking it Off
To kick of the project, I ran sessions with the team to define the core audiences we wanted to target, who we are not targeting (anti-persona) and our "Sacred Cows” (things we couldn't change). These "proto personas" were meant to be high level, to be validated through user testing. As well as the core product vision. Key metrics we identified were retention (D7, D30), CTR of categories, scroll depth and post creation. From here, I identified he key issues on the core pages through a UX heuristic review. We I led a workshop to prioritise areas to approach by ranking elements on a scale of relative reach / impact / complexity. For example, the homepage is the least connected to the rest of the site, and likely has the biggest immediate impact, so we started there.
▷ Kicking it Off
To kick of the project, I ran sessions with the team to define the core audiences we wanted to target, who we are not targeting (anti-persona) and our "Sacred Cows” (things we couldn't change). These "proto personas" were meant to be high level, to be validated through user testing. As well as the core product vision. Key metrics we identified were retention (D7, D30), CTR of categories, scroll depth and post creation. From here, I identified he key issues on the core pages through a UX heuristic review. We I led a workshop to prioritise areas to approach by ranking elements on a scale of relative reach / impact / complexity. For example, the homepage is the least connected to the rest of the site, and likely has the biggest immediate impact, so we started there.
▷ The process
We started by establishing a regular workshop cadence. Each week, we'd agree on an area for me to review, including key pain points. Each type of filtering, each category, each interaction needed to be carefully thought through on multiple screen sizes. I started with the priority areas, and those areas that had the biggest impact on the others (such as filtering and anything impacting the categories). Every couple of weeks, we spoke to users, showing them designs. As we moved forward, I created a backlog of Jobs-to-be-done which we helped to ensure we were covering all user needs. New JTBD also emerged, soliciting the need for new features, such as a WSYWIG post creation mechanism.
As I designed, I needed to balance the 'feral' aesthetic, as well as legacy user's muscle memory, with correcting usability issues and expanding the site's functions.
▷ The process
We started by establishing a regular workshop cadence. Each week, we'd agree on an area for me to review, including key pain points. Each type of filtering, each category, each interaction needed to be carefully thought through on multiple screen sizes. I started with the priority areas, and those areas that had the biggest impact on the others (such as filtering and anything impacting the categories). Every couple of weeks, we spoke to users, showing them designs. As we moved forward, I created a backlog of Jobs-to-be-done which we helped to ensure we were covering all user needs. New JTBD also emerged, soliciting the need for new features, such as a WSYWIG post creation mechanism.
As I designed, I needed to balance the 'feral' aesthetic, as well as legacy user's muscle memory, with correcting usability issues and expanding the site's functions.
▷Preservation vs. Progress
The site is "immediately recognisable." Accordingly, I had to to identify which "quirks" were functional and which were actual blockers. On the homepage, I hypothesised that that information density, speed and plain fonts were core and couldn’t be lost. But could other things be changed like the category groupings, the search, or the "post" button? Could less useful information like the event calendar and ‘about’ links be removed? I tested rearranging the groupings. However, this lost some of the density of information. I also tried a more ‘modern’ look of the old site while emphasising core features like search and location, however, this didn't feel "Craigslist" enough, with enough brutalist quirk. Finally, I found a design that encompassed what we needed. It has the same ‘core’ page layout so it was immediately recognisable. Including system emojis felt personal and fun to the user and modernised the quirk. Iconic and useful features, like recent searches and missed connections were added as tabs so they could be easily findable. Other useful features could be dynamically incorporated into the page as it got larger. In this case, the option to create a search feed, and trending posts were added.
These elements were core JTBD that we found while speaking to users.
▷Preservation vs. Progress
The site is "immediately recognisable." Accordingly, I had to to identify which "quirks" were functional and which were actual blockers. On the homepage, I hypothesised that that information density, speed and plain fonts were core and couldn’t be lost. But could other things be changed like the category groupings, the search, or the "post" button? Could less useful information like the event calendar and ‘about’ links be removed? I tested rearranging the groupings. However, this lost some of the density of information. I also tried a more ‘modern’ look of the old site while emphasising core features like search and location, however, this didn't feel "Craigslist" enough, with enough brutalist quirk. Finally, I found a design that encompassed what we needed. It has the same ‘core’ page layout so it was immediately recognisable. Including system emojis felt personal and fun to the user and modernised the quirk. Iconic and useful features, like recent searches and missed connections were added as tabs so they could be easily findable. Other useful features could be dynamically incorporated into the page as it got larger. In this case, the option to create a search feed, and trending posts were added.
These elements were core JTBD that we found while speaking to users.
▷ Building a scalable system
Success required a scalable design system that allowed devs to change things without always asking me. Design systems are ‘never done’ but I worked with the devs to identify core states for each device. I also ensure reusability by designing with standard rules for spacing, alignment and shadows. To ensure the designs worked well on all devices, I used figma to determine when each design 'breaks' at different resolutions, and created a device formatting layout. I worked with the devs to create minimal, lightweight animations that could scale well across the site. The emphasis was on support that UX - they could never be superfluous.
▷ Building a scalable system
Success required a scalable design system that allowed devs to change things without always asking me. Design systems are ‘never done’ but I worked with the devs to identify core states for each device. I also ensure reusability by designing with standard rules for spacing, alignment and shadows. To ensure the designs worked well on all devices, I used figma to determine when each design 'breaks' at different resolutions, and created a device formatting layout. I worked with the devs to create minimal, lightweight animations that could scale well across the site. The emphasis was on support that UX - they could never be superfluous.
▷ The Solution
I worked directly with the CEO, Head of Engineering and Head of Ops to redesign every page on the site. Needless to say, this was a mammoth task. Success wasn't "making it look like Facebook Marketplace." At the outset, I worked to define, with the CEO, what success look like in terms of broad objectives: Retention: Existing power users can still complete their tasks without a learning curve. Discovery: New users can find and filter items faster than on the legacy site. These helped guide how far forward I could take the design, as exploring designs with both sets of users gave me direction of the scope, which varied from page to page.
Note that these are not the final designs due to confidentiality requirements. They are several iterations in, and are close to the final design.
▷ The Solution
I worked directly with the CEO, Head of Engineering and Head of Ops to redesign every page on the site. Needless to say, this was a mammoth task. Success wasn't "making it look like Facebook Marketplace." At the outset, I worked to define, with the CEO, what success look like in terms of broad objectives: Retention: Existing power users can still complete their tasks without a learning curve. Discovery: New users can find and filter items faster than on the legacy site. These helped guide how far forward I could take the design, as exploring designs with both sets of users gave me direction of the scope, which varied from page to page.
Note that these are not the final designs due to confidentiality requirements. They are several iterations in, and are close to the final design.
▷ The Outcome
The redesign is currently rolled out in Hawaii for beta users. The figures have been positive with net retention up and increased scroll depth and post creation. Below is some feedback from the new version from user testing sessions.
▷ The Outcome
The redesign is currently rolled out in Hawaii for beta users. The figures have been positive with net retention up and increased scroll depth and post creation. Below is some feedback from the new version from user testing sessions.
