Date: Jan 2024
Role: UX Designer/Researcher
Tools: Figma, Miro, Google Analytics, Maze
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Usability Testing
INTRODUCTION
Fast fashion is hurting the planet, but shopping secondhand online often feels chaotic, untrustworthy, and uninspiring. I wanted to change that.
Over eight weeks, I led UX research and design for Thryft, a mobile-first app that makes thrift shopping feel safe, curated, and community-driven. Built for conscious shoppers, Thryft blends sustainability with style and trust.
RESEARCH
Understanding the Landscape
Before sketching a single screen, I set out to understand the world of thrift shopping.
I began with a competitive audit of platforms like Depop, eBay, and Poshmark. While each offered access to secondhand fashion, they shared the same flaws: cluttered interfaces, inconsistent product details, and low trust in sellers. The experience felt more like navigating a flea market than a thoughtfully designed shopping app.
Depop’s visual feed is appealing but lacks robust filtering.
Poshmark has better seller ratings, but the UI feels outdated.
Vinted has smoother transactions but limited community features.
Meet Maya
Maya is a 26-year-old Master’s degree student from New Jersey. She is a sustainable shopper who avoids fast fashion. She wants to buy clothes with minimal hassle and full transparency.
Her Goals:
Easily discover items she likes
Trust the quality before buying
IDEATION
From Frustration to Flow: Crafting the Wireframes
With insights from my research still fresh, I sketched out ideas in my notebook; messy, fast, and full of questions. How Might We make trust feel visible? How do we simplify discovery?
I returned to Maya’s goals: clarity, ease, and confidence. Then I mapped out a user flow that prioritized curated browsing, clear condition labels, and verified seller profiles. Every screen was built with intention, less clutter, and more confidence.
Then I brought the sketches to life in Figma, testing different layouts until the app felt intuitive. Not just functional, but inviting. Each wire frame became a conversation with the user, shaped by what they told me and what they needed most.
PROTOTYPING
Building the Blueprint: Low-Fi Prototyping
Once the wireframes felt solid, I moved quickly into low-fidelity prototyping. The goal wasn’t perfection, it was clarity. I wanted to test the structure, the flow, and whether users like Maya could find what they needed without getting lost.
I stitched the screens together in Figma and created a simple click-through experience. It was raw, grayscale, and stripped of polish, but that was the point. I shared it with a few users and watched closely: Where did they hesitate? What felt natural? What didn’t?
Every tap, pause, and confused glance became data. From there, I iterated fast, refining layouts, tweaking navigation, and making sure the bones of the app were strong before moving to visual design.
USABILITY TESTING
Letting Users Take the Wheel
With a clickable low-fidelity prototype ready, I launched an unmoderated usability study using Maze. My goal was simple: observe how users interacted with the product when no one was watching, no guidance, no prompts, just the experience itself.
I gave participants a few key tasks:
Find a vintage Polo shirt you’d consider buying.
Check the item’s condition and seller credibility.
Add the item to your cart and begin checkout.
Over a span of 48 hours, I watched the data roll in from 10 testers, including timing, clicks, success rates, and written feedback.
Here’s what I learned:
🧭 Insight 1: Navigation wasn’t intuitive enough
“I wasn’t sure if the back arrow would take me to the homepage or the previous filter.”
Users struggled with the navigation hierarchy. I added persistent bottom navigation for clear, consistent movement across sections.
🪪 Insight 2: Seller info lacked visibility
“I’d like to see seller ratings earlier, maybe on the product preview?”
Trust was still a sticking point. I updated the product cards to include seller badges, rating stars, and item condition upfront.
🛒 Insight 3: Checkout flow needed refinement
“I thought I completed the order, but I was still on the review page.”
Confusion around the final steps in checkout led me to restructure the purchase flow with clearer progress indicators and confirmation cues.
FINAL DESIGN
From Insight to Interface: Evolving into High-Fidelity
With feedback in hand, I returned to Figma. I translated these insights into visual design updates, introducing a more accessible layout, cleaner typography, and emphasis on trust signals like verified badges and user reviews.
The result? A high-fidelity prototype that feels just as functional as it is beautiful, built not just for Maya, but with her journey at the core.
Screens
Home feed with curated “Looks”
Product detail with buyer confidence score
Profile with “Closet View” and rating history
Eco-impact tracker showing user’s contribution
Accessibility Considerations
Color contrast met WCAG AA standards
Large touch targets
Text resize support
IMPACT
Making Sustainability Feel Seamless
Before Thryft, online thrifting felt like a chore. Shoppers were overwhelmed by cluttered platforms, unsure if they could trust what they were buying or who they were buying from. Fast fashion thrived on this frustration.
Then came Thryft, a simple, beautiful solution built with users in mind.
In just a few weeks after launch, the app began changing habits.
🌍 62% of users said they would now thrift more often because the experience felt easier and more trustworthy.
🛍️ 45% completed a purchase in their first session, something almost unheard of in secondhand marketplaces.
🌱 Users who had never thrifted online before made their first sustainable purchase and told their friends.
But the biggest impact?
People stopped seeing secondhand as “less than.” They saw it as intentional. Empowering. Effortless.
Thryft didn’t just create a product; it redefined how we shop sustainably in the digital age.
WHAT NOW?
Scaling Thryft with Purpose
With a strong foundation and positive user feedback, Thryft is ready to grow.
The next step is refining the high-fidelity prototype based on deeper usability insights, focusing on accessibility, micro-interactions, and responsive design. From there, the plan is to collaborate with developers to bring the experience to life as a fully functioning MVP.
I also plan to expand research to include sellers, not just buyers. Understanding their needs will help build a healthier, more trusted marketplace on both ends.
Finally, I’ll explore social and community-driven features, like wishlists, peer ratings, and eco-impact trackers, so that every purchase feels personal and powerful.
Thryft started as a design challenge.
Now, it’s growing into a mission.
REFLECTION
Designing With (and Not Just For) People
Thryft taught me that good design isn’t just about clean interfaces, it’s about trust, empathy, and clarity. I learned to listen without assuming, letting real user frustrations guide every decision.
Through messy whiteboards, usability hiccups, and dozens of sticky notes, I discovered how powerful it is to design with users in mind at every stage, from sketch to prototype to insight.
I also learned the value of testing early and often. Some of the most meaningful changes came not from what users said, but from what they did; the extra tap, the moment of hesitation, the unexpected scroll.
Most of all, I learned that designing for sustainability means more than promoting eco-friendly choices. It means removing barriers, building trust, and making the right thing feel like the easy thing.