Canvas Marketplace
Integrated student-centric marketplace for product exchange.
UX/UI Design
2023
The rising cost of living has been a significant concern for Australians. In response, the Canvas Student Marketplace has been designed to alleviate the financial pressures faced by university students in Sydney. This projects aims to help students save money by integrating a secondhand market feature into a unified and accessible platform used by all students to encourage and support better money management habits, reducing the burden of living expenses.
Project Overview
Role
User Research
Interviews
UI Design
Usability Testing
Process
Timeline: February 2023 - May 2023 (14 weeks)
Tools: Figma, Miro
Subject: University coursework (in a group of 3) for Design Thinking
Scope & Problem Space
How can we alleviate the cost of living pressures faced by university students?
University students often struggle with financial literacy due to unstable incomes and are prone to poor money management habits, such as frequently spending a large portion of their income on discretionary purchases. Designing a student marketplace can help reduce living expenses, enabling university students to better cope with the high cost of living and financial stress.
At-A-Glance
Competitive Landscape Analysis
We found that Carousell retains users in Southeast Asia with its simple interface and versatile categories despite listing saturation and high competition, making it hard for new listings to stand out. While Facebook groups and marketplace is popular for selling textbooks and tech products, it suffers from scams due to a lack of robust verification. It was interesting to note how Little Red Book thrives in community engagement, but is limited by language and accessibility barriers for international students. Consequently, Canvas Student Market can fill this gap by integrating a student-driven platform within a Learning Management System, reaching all students.
Platform designed to make item selling and exchange accommodating and accessible.
Solution - the outcome
Student Marketplace is an integrated feature within the current Canvas system, designed to connect university students and facilitate convenient, cost-saving transactions as a community. It aims to reduce their discretionary purchases to alleviate their cost of living pressures.
Create wishes to boost student engagement and find suitable items aligning with their wishlist.
1
Send and receive timely messages for interested items to exchange and purchase.
2
List items directly with detailed descriptions to find it a new home.
3
Retrospective Reflection.
01 I learned the importance of ideation through techniques like brainwriting, Crazy 8s, voting maps, and prioritization matrix, while considering feasibility, viability, and desirability in relation to university students' needs. Our rationale for designing a marketplace, rather than a money management service, was its accessibility for students, ease of integration into existing systems, and potential for community building.
02 Facing a time crunch to complete our deliverables and design the interactive prototype for usability testing, I learned the importance of effective time management to meet deadlines and gather user feedback without sacrificing the quality of the product.