Craigslist : Website Redesigning
Website Redesign
Overview
Craigslist is one for the most popular classifieds ads website on the internet. Started as a simple email list back in 1995 and turned it onto a website in 1996. It receives over 360 million visitors every month. Yet it has poor website design.
Client
Craigslist
Role
UX/UI Designer
Timeline
Oct 2021-Nov 2021
(4 weeks)
Services Provided
As a UX/UI designer, I was given the job to do thorough research on the website and come up with a user-friendly design that matches with the client's needs and requirements. For that purpose I performed:
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Website Audit
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UX Research
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Guerilla Testing
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Information Structure
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Wireframes
Frustrations
While doing my UX research, I came across a large number of group who was either frustrated or confused related to the website's design . Many of them thought that the app was either under-developed while some said that it simply ignores the design to prevent more buffering time.
Problem Statement
After doing a UX-Audit, I discovered a number of gaps that required further study and work. I spent hours researching best practices, analyzing user interviews, and debating what kind of solutions would be most appropriate for this project.
Craigslist has a very cluttered design without any visual cues or sense of direction. The entire process of browsing as listings, form designs for ad postings and every other aspect needs to be improved.
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Cluttered Design
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No Visuals
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Small Font
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Not responsive
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Poor Readability
Solution
Craigslist will now have a responsive (desktop-mobile) adaptable website mock-up which will be the outcome of all user-testing and sorted out architecture for it. Design will be user-friendly with a better-search function, better previews, well-organized ad structure and more.
My main goal was to vision the future app by making user experience more pleasant & engaging, and create a visual interface that would be trustworthy.
Design Process
Craigslist is an American Classified advertisements website which has different advertisement sections for various purposes like jobs, housing, sale, items wanted, forums, etc. But since the official website lacks poor design, I started out by noting down some key points from my Guerilla testing. Then I researched and created a proper brief to move forward with the architecture of the website. Later, I created wireframes and mock-ups before doing the final testing.
Before jumping onto any design thinking, I decided to collect criticized feedback for the website which helped me with my further research. I looked various articles and job listings, on craigslist, and formulated a brief for it.
I noted down the vision, purpose, objectives, and target audience for the company. Along with that, I also looked up what its competitors are doing in the same industry.
Information Structure
First the project needed was the information structure map because the current website is all based on blue default links and does not tell user where exactly to look.
Since the architecture was laid out, it was time to walk the user on the website. To achieve it, I created an oath in which the user will navigate through the homepage, look up for the ad through different approaches, apply any required filters, browse through them, and then reply for it. This flow helped a lot to cover up all the possible breadcrumbs that were left during Information Structure and gave sense to the website.
User-Flow
Since the website itself is only constructed of blue links and plain heavy text, it needed in-depth architecture and organization. To do so, I wrote down every possible action that a user might do on any ad-listing website and then grouped and nested group all steps till I reached to the final navigation. This process involved all other page categories or sub-menus that the site might have.
Low-Fidelity
Wireframes
Wireframes
(Low-fidelity)
After setting up the infrastructure of the website, I shifted up to the low-fidelity wireframes. My main approach while setting up these wireframes was to keep the visuals as simple as possible because craigslist has one of the world's largest traffic. Having complicated structure would increase loading time, thus losing user's attention.
This resulted in the creation of four wireframes:
Landing Page
Home Page
Ad Listings Page
Ad Details Page
High-Fidelity
Wireframes
Wireframes
(High-fidelity)
Low-fidelity wireframes then turned into mock-ups where I took some high-resolution images, graphics, visuals, and more. Then I put them into a style guide and embedded them into the wireframes that I created in the previous stage which would convey the feeling of the website and highlight an individual approach once again.
Website now started looking more user-friendly and attractive where people could trust and apply for the ads posted up there.
Results
By the end of this project, I not only redesigned the website but also implemented my best practiсes to make the user experience more engaging, user-friendly and intuitive.
I believe that this project had provided me a great sense of how design is also important no matter what your task is or how trafficking the site is. First Impression is the most important goal that every interface should practice apart from the services. Redesigning this website and bringing it here to my portfolio have transformed my abilities to conduct UX audits for small to big companies and bring change to the most.