Education Technology
HIPOND is a lifestyle platform designed for international students living in the U.S., offering secondhand trading, household shopping, and social features. As the user base grew, we identified a critical friction point: the secondhand transaction flow was underperforming in both retention and conversion.
As the product designer on this project, I worked closely with product manager, two fellow designers, and the engineering team to lead a redesign of the entire secondhand trading experience. Our goal was simple but essential: make selling easier, and make buying feel safer.
While the feature set seemed straightforward, user behavior revealed a deeper systemic issue: users didn’t know how to sell, and didn’t trust enough to buy.
After analyzing backend data, reviewing feedback, and conducting usability tests, two recurring pain points emerged:
Sellers struggled to post listings due to unclear steps, excessive form fields, and a lack of feedback throughout the process.
These issues might appear operational at first glance, but I realized they actually reflected a lack of guidance and trust mechanisms in the product’s design. That’s what led me to structure my approach around lowering the entry barrier for sellers and introducing visual and behavioral trust cues for buyers.
This part of the flow needed more than simplification—it needed momentum and clarity. The issue wasn’t just that there were too many fields; it was that users didn’t know where they were in the process or what was truly required. To address this, I made the following changes:
Reduced the form to three core fields: title, price, and photo
Implemented auto-suggestions and category detection based on the uploaded photo
Structured the form into linear, step-by-step actions rather than one long list
Added real-time feedback like upload confirmation and field completion indicators
I made these decisions based on early usability tests where users would stall or abandon the form halfway through. They weren’t confused by the UI—they just didn’t feel confident that they were doing things right. My goal was to turn an overwhelming task into a guided, goal-oriented flow.
Rather than trying to say everything at once, the new homepage made a clear promise, showed who it was for, and helped people get started—without needing to explore or guess.
Trust can’t be demanded—it must be designed. From user interviews, I learned that buyers were willing to trade in person, but only if they had a reason to believe the seller was legitimate. So I introduced subtle, actionable trust signals that wouldn’t overwhelm the interface:
A verified campus email badge to confirm student identity
These trust indicators were not meant to guarantee safety, but rather to help users make informed judgments. By showing a combination of personal credibility and behavioral history, the platform could better support buyers in making decisions confidently.
To bring these ideas to life quickly and effectively, I worked closely with the product manager to define a clear MVP strategy, prioritizing only the features that would meaningfully improve the two key user paths.
On the seller side, we released the simplified listing flow and image-based category suggestions. On the buyer side, we focused on implementing campus verification and transaction history display first. I collaborated with engineers to define reusable UI components, provided interaction documentation with detailed states and logic, and aligned closely with frontend constraints to ensure everything we designed could be built and shipped efficiently.
Every post-release iteration was measured against clear KPIs: listing completion rate, transaction rate, and user satisfaction. This enabled us to make targeted improvements while keeping development lean.
The redesigned secondhand transaction flow had a clear impact on user behavior and sentiment:
Listing success rate increased by 62%
Average listing time dropped from 4.7 minutes to just 1.2 minutes
Transaction completion rate improved by 45%
User satisfaction rose from 3/10 to 8/10
Qualitative feedback from follow-up interviews reinforced the numbers:
“It only took me a few clicks to post—so much better.”
“I trust this now because I know the seller’s a student.”
“Feels more official and less sketchy.”
The combination of simplified flows and visible trust cues made users feel in control—and more importantly, feel safe.
Rather than trying to say everything at once, the new homepage made a clear promise, showed who it was for, and helped people get started—without needing to explore or guess.
This project reminded me that the biggest barrier to action is not complexity, but uncertainty. Even the best-designed UI won’t matter if users hesitate to act. By focusing on reducing friction for sellers and enabling better judgment for buyers, we didn’t just improve usability—we rebuilt a foundation of confidence and credibility.
Key takeaways from this experience:
Design isn’t just about streamlining tasks—it’s about reducing anxiety
Trust is an interface problem, and can be solved through system-level design
Collaborating early with engineering and product ensures design decisions scale and ship
Average listing time dropped from 4.7 minutes to just 1.2 minutes
Transaction completion rate improved by 45%
User satisfaction rose from 3/10 to 8/10
Qualitative feedback from follow-up interviews reinforced the numbers:
“It only took me a few clicks to post—so much better.”
“I trust this now because I know the seller’s a student.”
“Feels more official and less sketchy.”
The combination of simplified flows and visible trust cues made users feel in control—and more importantly, feel safe.
Rather than trying to say everything at once, the new homepage made a clear promise, showed who it was for, and helped people get started—without needing to explore or guess.