Craigslist Mobile Redesign

The existing Craigslist iOS application offers extensive marketplace functionality, but its dense presentation and navigation patterns create opportunities for improvement.

Developed in response to a product design challenge, the redesign explores how Craigslist can feel more approachable without abandoning the simplicity and familiarity that existing users recognize. Instead of introducing an entirely new marketplace experience, it focuses on improving existing interactions. The example category is Furniture, in the Minneapolis, Minnesota Craigslist area.

These are design objectives, not measured business outcomes.

Research preceded UX design: secondary research, competitive analysis and a heuristic UX audit.

Competitor apps were inspected through reference screenshots and their existing experiences. Patterns were evaluated against Craigslist’s context rather than copied.

Research sample

38

public-review records coded in the evidence log

Research sample

Research sample

24

Craigslist reviews analyzed separately within that log

Research sample

Audit finding

15

heuristic findings, 5 rated major

Audit finding

Counts describe the collected research sample only — they are not statistics representative of all Craigslist users. None of the 24 Craigslist reviews was exclusively buyer-authored, so some buyer-specific decisions are heuristic-led hypotheses rather than directly validated buyer needs.

Six problem areas framed the redesign — distinguished by the strength of evidence behind them.

• Category discoverability

  Heuristic-led opportunity

• Search-context clarity

  Heuristic-led opportunity

• Filter visibility

  Moderate-confidence evidence (E5)

• Listing-information hierarchy

  Heuristic-led opportunity

• Communication clarity

  Heuristic-led opportunity

• Privacy and safety cues

  Moderate-confidence evidence (E2, E3)

Preserve Craigslist’s authentic category structure rather than replacing it with a simplified, invented taxonomy.

Information architecture was completed before wireframing. The selected General Home — Option 0 — keeps Craigslist’s seven existing main categories and adds second-level category browsing. The original five-tab navigation remains, with the first tab opening the redesigned General Home. Navigation was deliberately not restructured beyond the assignment’s scope.

Pencil sketches → structured low-fidelity wireframes → high-fidelity black-and-white UX wireframes.

The working set includes approximately 22 core and supporting states — among them General Home, Furniture listings, active search, results, applied filters, listing details, photo gallery, location and filter sheets, sort menu, contact options, loading, connection error, no results, and the Gallery / Grid / Thumb / List viewing patterns.

Seven documented flows, centred on Home → Furniture → Results → Listing Details.

The flows cover category browsing, search, refinement, listing inspection, seller contact and supporting interactions, following established iOS navigation conventions. They define where a journey begins, what Cancel and Back do, whether filters and sort are retained, how search scope changes, how users return to previous positions, how contact methods vary by listing, and how error and empty states offer recovery.

View persistence, Save Search sign-in requirements and Show Map return behavior are documented assumptions, not verified existing app functionality.

Three visual directions explored — Option 01, Refined Classic, selected for Light and Dark.

The moodboards combined real marketplace photography, typography, color palettes, interface references, composition, hierarchy, component styling and Light/Dark appearance. Option 01 — Refined Classic follows the user’s iOS appearance setting. It is a separate decision from the General Home structure (Option 0); the alternate Option 02 was held back.

A scalable Figma system with foundations, components, states, variants and Light/Dark variables.

An image-rich native iOS concept that keeps Craigslist recognizable while clarifying hierarchy and navigation.

The strongest decisions were often about what not to change.

From research to a connected product experience.

This is a design case study, not a launched product — there are no measured post-launch results.

Design QA covered wireframe-to-UI consistency, preserved manual corrections, viewport widths, safe areas, navigation destinations, linked prototype frames, Light/Dark parity and component consistency. A production-level QA program or formal usability test has not been completed.

All design decisions and approved manual corrections belong to Julieta Kleven. AI tools supported analysis, organization, exploration and documentation; they did not validate the project.