Parul Shrivastava UX Design Assignment

Craigslist
Recommendations To Improve
UX & Increase Market Share

1202
Design Craigslist-Mumbai is losing its market share to Facebook Marketplace, Letgo &
similar competitors. Provide with recommendations to help us stop losing
Challenge customers, and gain back our lost customers without compromising the
simplicity that we believe has made us successful.

What is Craigslist is a classified advertisement website that started with basic

newsletter service to communicate information about local events. Later it
Craigslist? evolved into a web platform to help users in buying and selling products &
services, search & post jobs, join discussion forums, and find/list housing.

Understanding current From what I observed, Craigslist has such a simple design that anyone within
any age group can use it without any assistance.
Design Its lean interface with least design elements make it quicker to load even at
places with low network.
Only text interface also makes it easier for blind people to access website using
voice service.
There are no distractions of ads or banners, it simply serves it purpose to
connect people who need each other’s services.
Understanding Core user base ranges from ages 20 to 50 years old, out of which the company
is loosing customers mainly between age group 20 to 30.
Target Users
These users are distributed evenly across the region but mainly belong to
metropolitan or tier 1 cities.

Approximately one-third of the users visit website via mobile phones.

What was my I began with exploring the website to understand how it works and tried to
understand how the users might feel while using this website.
Procedure? I focused on the experience of 3 tasks which were given to me:
1. The page of furniture listings.
2. An individual listing page.
3. Creating a new listing.

I further validated / challenged my assumptions by actually observing some of

the users using this website, performing same 3 tasks on their laptop or mobile
devices (whichever was feasible for user).

After making notes of insights from user testing, I did heuristic evaluation as
RESEARCH
well as evaluation on the basis of 7 UX factors (useful, usable, credible,
findable, desirable, accessible and valuable) of all the pages involved in these 3
tasks mentioned above.

To understand the interface, I did a visual evaluation as well as evaluated user

flow, hierarchy & information architecture.

After gaining all the insights, I aligned the pain points with Google’s HEART
metrics to identify which metric, each point is impacting badly?

At last to gain more insights on to why company is loosing its customers to their
competitors, I did a competitive analysis.

Now comes the Before Ideation, I build product roadmap:

What is already there? What’s needs to be improved immediately and what
Ideation aspects should we look into further for future.
I practically tried to remove all the pain points, majorly the usability issues, that I
observed, yet keeping the interface as simple as possible.

Craigslist has kept its design pretty much same over the years so, the regular
users already have a sense of familiarity & trust with the old design and I kept
this in mind that I don’t design something which is completely unfamiliar & new
to existing users because it may induce distrust or insecurity.
Homepage Evaluation

Critiques
User is able to see which location’s
listings he is seeing.
As per the current industry standards,
location change option is present near
the current location which is not the
case here. Most of the users took time
to identify the right panel having
different locations to switch.
Create a posting action is not
recognisable. Users really struggled to
find this action.
Though listing names are organised in
alphabetical order, it still is harder for
user to identify the desired category,
specially when user is in hurry or using
mobile devices.
Hover state is visible, but the system
does not project the click state, user
might not know if his click has been
registered by the system or not if the
network is slow to load next page
quickly.

“Search” does not prevent errors, if the There is no freedom or control

user typed wrong spelling, it shows a
red error mark but does not do anything
about it like may be auto-correct or give
suggestions.
In calendar, present date is not
highlighted clearly, neither the current
or next month names are shown.
This creates the cognitive load on
user’s mind as they have to recall which
month is it or the next one to search for
events.
Terms like “craigslist joe” & “system
status” are not easy to understand,
though it does not causes usability
issue within main tasks.
Website’s interface, is outdated & bland
for younger, tech savvy generation
users.
There is no filter or sorting option to
make the listing category selection
process easier & quicker
for user to search or select near
by or in-city locations.
No aesthetic appeal in page, Too
much information crammed with
one space. Categorisation and
card sorting needs to be
improved.
Small case is used everywhere,
even for names of places (nouns)
due to which everything seems to
be of same hierarchy making it
harder to scan the data and
slows the goal accomplishment.
The colour palette & contrast is
accessible as per WCAG AA &
AAA guidelines.
Furniture Listing Evaluation

Critiques
Page does not indicates total number of
products.
Though the breadcrumbs indicates the
current page name but a tittle would be
better to show current page.
There is no helper text or descriptive
placeholder text in “Make and Model”
input field so as to clarify what “Make” Cropped photo Unrealistic image
means here?
There is less flexibility in price filter as
user has to type the price range
instead of just selecting from some
preset ranges.
Product image size and quality differs, Flexibility to change location, listing
in some images, the product looks type & category directly from
cropped or unrealistic. breadcrumbs
No hierarchy maintained in product Only 3 locations are available in
cards. Prices are mentioned twice, change location breadcrumb
creating a doubt in user’s mind. The delete icon is for hiding and it is
Text cases are inconsistent, though it not clear what is the purpose of hiding?
does not largely impacts usability.
Individual Listing Evaluation

Critiques
Lack of insufficient information about
product is undermining the credibility
of website like in-stock status, material
or quality of product.
There is a lot of cognitive load on user’s
mind to understand the structure of
this page because the information is not
shown in an orderly manner.
There is no “Buy” or “Purchase” option
in this screen, which takes longer for
users to figure out how to proceed.
User is not able to easily see contact
details of the owner. There are
unnecessary additional steps involved User confuses previous / next The security check process is
(apart from security check) labels as a function to view really irritating and lengthy
previous or next photo of considering if user is reviewing
Mailing process is complicated. No
current product. & comparing prices of 2-3
option to chat with owner within
similar products & has to go
website.
The purpose of “print” option is through same security test
Does not indicates the distance of not clear. process for each product.
owner from user’s location or whether
they provide delivery or not.
Create A Post Evaluation

Critiques
Overall the process is unnecessary lengthy, having 7 steps which
otherwise can be confined in much less no. of steps.
Lack of Search option decreases efficiency.
Limit posting sentence is not comprehanding.
Does not informs user about how many steps are there to create a
post.
Does not informs user about which step they are at & how many
steps more will there be?
Step 1
Step 2- space utilisation is not optimum, utilisation of separate
screen just for one question is unnecessary.
In step 3 it is hard for user to identify from long list of categories
without any categorisation. (For sell, there are even more no. of
categories)
In step 4, validation given in colour form will not be visible to
people with colour disabilities.
Mandatory & non-mandatory fields are not specified.
Under contact info, “CL mail relay” is not self explanatory.
In step 6, “publish”, “edit post” &”edit images” options are
presented twice which creates confusion if both sets of buttons
are meant for different purpose or the same?
Last step ie., 7th step, asks user to signup which is annoying as it
was not innitially informed users won’t be able to create post
without signup or signin. Step 2

Step 6 Step 3

Step 5 Step 4
Google’s HEART Metrics

The current website lacks in product varieties, ease of use, discover important actions and
Happiness information which affects this sector of website.

Engagement
Due to majority of usability issues and lack of aesthetic elements, most users do not enjoy using
this website impacting the engagement sector badly.

Craigslist is really famous in USA (340 M visits per day), but in India Craigslist Mumbai shares only

Adoption 0.2 M visits. It lacks in marketing & awareness, so most people already don’t know much about it
and on the top of this, due to the outdated interface, most users are reluctant to use this platform.

From what I observed during user testing, most metropolitan citizens are working professionals

Retention and they are always in hurry, low on patience & want everything to be quick & easy but due to
needless multiple steps & lack in product variety, the website is unable to retain their customers.

Task success
Low discoverability of CTAs, incredibility due to incomplete depiction of product details and
dispensable steps in achieving main goals al leads to task failure or drop in between.
What Competitors Are Offering?
Facebook Marketplace
Pros
Can easily change location, auto detects
user’s location, shows search radius.
Huge variety, tagging system for easy
discoverability & In app chat feature.
No need for marketing as it is offered by
renowned social media platform.
Since FB users are already familiar with
interface, it’s easy to use.
OLX (Online Exchange)
Cons
Some prices seems unreliable like ₹1
or ₹0
Only fb users can access this
platform, you have to create an
account.
Does not give choice to users to add
their mobile numbers or additional
contact information.
Pros
Auto detects user’s location, shows
suggestions for popular locations, easy
to change location.
Shows seller’s location, making it easier
for users to reach at correct location.
More variety for buyers and less
pending listings for sellers.
User friendly interface, relevant
categories & easy to find products.
Cons
Legible products, security issues
specially regarding fake posts &
payment frauds.
Bad customer support, when a
posting is rejected no specific reason
is provided.
Inconsistency in charges for the
sellers.
What does the data analysis depict?

Comparative Analysis
Note: This data is for overall Craigslist (not just Mumbai) & has been extracted from Similarweb to be used just for research purpose.

Traffic
Bounce rate is quite high, which shows we
need to work on retaining more & more
users.

Traffic By Country
Indian market share is almost zero percent,
which is obvious considering only 1 out of 4
users (that I interviewed) had actually heard
about craigslist before.

Traffic Sources
Craigslist lies at the bottom in referral &
social medial sources which are some of the
most crucial factors for any product’s
popularity in today’s world.

Social Media Presence

Craigslist has very low social media impact
1.72% which is the main reason why people
do not know about it in India.
Defining The Problem

Product Roadmap
1995 2000s Now (what we have?) Next (what needs to be done immediately?) Future (what can be done in future?)

Product Launched Market Boom Product Exists Discoverable Competitive

Craigslist is well established in other countries
but as for India, it is not popular at all.
The website is unable to attract new customers
& retain current ones because of lack in variety
and non-user friendly experience and interface.
Better alternatives are already present, like
Facebook marketplace, OLX, Amazon etc.
At priority, we need to make Craigslist more
discoverable, popular and increase awareness
in market so more & more users join the
platform.
Simultaneously, we need to improve the UX ,
interface & reduce usability issues as much as
possible.
Once the product is well known in the market,
has low or no usability issues and more users
start using the product, we can add interesting
features to retain & attract new customers like:
1. Cashback & Referral offers to increase
conversion rate & popularity.
2. Wallet feature & multiple payment options.
3. Allow other platform to show products & link
which in will turn redirect user to craigslist.

User’s Personas

POV (Point Of View)

Point of view for persona 1
Aryan, an adult IT professional (27 years), living in Mumbai is working from his
home and needs a good conditioned 2nd hand computer table because working
on system for long hours without any proper gear has lead him to neck pain
problems and as per him purchasing a brand new table just for temporary
purpose is not economically effective.
Point of view for persona 2
Somya, a working professional (28 years) is settling down in another city, shifting
from Mumbai and needs to sell her mid-sized refrigerator from her current
apartment as the place she’s settling already has a better fridge, so, there will be
no use of it and neither does she wants to waste the money by leaving it at
current place.
Wireframes Event Calendar

Recommendations Create New Post

Easy to discover button.
Standard calendar can be
show with current, previous &
next month indication.
Homepage
Search & Location
User can select category
directly from here then
or enter keyword and
change location (by
default but detected
location) to search for
products & services

Main Categories
Easy to identify Listing & View More
categories which on Listing can be shown
clicking can show sub on the basis of
categories with option to popularity, recent and
go back & search within view more link can
sub categories. help user to quickly
access them.

Footer
Quick links like faqs,
privacy policy, legal etc
can be placed here as
they are less priority
links

Furniture Listing

Search & Save Search

Sub Categories
Once a category is
selected, it will show Location radius
subcategories with easy But location detection
access to go back to can be really useful
main categories or feature, it can show
search (top right corner products from a
of this bar) within list of particular distance radius
sub categories.

Product Cards
Pagination
A total number of listing
can be shown to keep It is more logical to have
user aware & informed. pagination at bottom as
user travel from top to
User friendly cards bottom of the page and
highlighting the price, does not need to scroll
product name & location back up to see next
(with distance) can be page.
shown.

Individual Listing

An organised layout can

help in decreasing the
cognitive load on user’s
mind.
Highlighting the
important informations
like, name, price, “Buy
now” for fixed price
products and “Chat with
owner” & “show mobile
number” option for
variable price products

Tags
Share product by copying
Tags can help in
link or directly share on
increasing discoverability
various social media
and popularity.
platforms. This can
increase discoverability
of the product as well as
website.

Create post steps can be Create Post - Step 1

combined to make the
process short, quick &
easy. Before this screen, Stepper
user should be asked to We can encourage &
sign up or sign in reassure users by
showing number of
steps, so they will have
Create Post an idea that it is a short
User can select basic process.
service (hire or offer),
category, subscategory,
tittle & location (again Preview
location search option,
User can see preview
auto detection o&
simultaneously and
popular cities.
understand how can they
make their posts more
informative & useful.
Publish button at bottom
Save Draft & Next can be enabled once
Since post can be user fills mandatory
created after login, it will details (*) to which will
be efficient if user can avoid errors.
save incomplete posts as
drafts so they do not
have to rework.

Create Post - Step 2

Price
User can add price and
we can provide a
checkbox to give
flexibility to user in case
their price is not fixed &
is negotiable.

Tags
Description
Condition

Create Post - Step 3

Mobile number
User can add mobile
number (incase the user
is not frequent web user.

Can choose to hide

number, in which case
user will be asked for “Nit
a robot” security check

Email ID (optional)
User can add
additional
information like
materials quality,
size (in case of
wearables)
Checkbox for any T&C

Final

Conclusions
As mentioned above in Product Roadmap, I believe Craigslist could really be benefitted from social media marketing and other marketing techniques.
Only when the people will hear about Craigslist, they will visit it.
Along with this another most important thing to do will be improving the user experience and making the interface more user friendly, desirable
with least usability issues ( best to have no usability issues at least for main tasks)
India is a country where word moves faster than light, the more people visit the website, post listing, use it effortlessly & enjoy it, the more people
are going to utilise the service.

Thank you :)