Since 1995, Craigslist has been pioneering the way people view classified advertisements online. Starting as a email distribution service, the company expanding their services through displaying different sections, offering jobs, housing, for sale items, items wanted, services, community events, gigs, resumes and discussion forums to people around the world. Although Craigslist has remained prominent in the online ad industry, their desktop user interface has remained a product of the past, lacking any real design overhaul in the last two decades. With new user trends and tech innovation on the rise, our goal is to redesign a smoother user flow which procides more user trust, while maintaining Craigslist's simple entity.

For our primary research, we have used three methods to gather information about the user: SurveyMonkey, Ethnographic Observations and In-Person Interviews. For example, users were asked how often they visit the website and what do they use the website for. From these methods, we found that people more frequently use Craigslist to search for home, apartments, and furniture (63.6%) and that people only sometimes visit the website throughout the last six months (49.1%). We also found that many people use Craigslist to only browse options, but very rarely turn browsing into buying (41.8%). This was due to user trust of the seller. From this finding, we wanted to focus our redesign on building that user trust.

• Craigslist will focus on streamlining product information through product templates to create cohesion from post to post. This will create an informational hierarchy so users can find the product information they need quickly and efficiently.

• Craigslist will establish a user profile system equipped with user ratings, reviews, buy-and-seller history, and a Craigslist user verification. This will establish user’s trust between buyers and sellers, and also Craigslist as a brand..

• Craigslist will implement a profile-to-profile messaging system that will allow the users to directly message one another without having to use their personal phone numbers or emails. This will standardize the types of messaging that the users will engage in.

• The Craigslist aesthetic which is currently simple and dated, shall be updated to a more modern, contemporary web layout, while maintaining its core functions.

• Craigslist will establish trust through the standardization of visual and graphic elements such as typefaces, icons and promotional materials.

• Craigslist will reduce the amount of visual noise through the clustering of information by using sub navigation bars, sliders and drop down menus.

• Find information about products I’m interested in quickly and easily.

• Be able to contact seller/buyer easily through messaging system. No weird email links. Less waiting time for response.

• Be able to verify if the user is legit through quick scan of profile, being able to view reviews, ratings, and verification logo.  

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This addition was a direct result from our usability testing. It wasn't in our original paper prototypes but it was one of the most requested features. After adding i in our second round of user testing it was highly utilized feature.

We created posting templates that would automatically set important product information to the forefront of each listing. This creates reliability and allows users to quickly scan postings while learning necessary information.

The addition of posting templates was a solution we found to help create cohesion between postings and adding user trust. This would also play into creating the preset hierarchy necessary to skim postings quickly. This also allows the user to save the postings as a draft to edit later.

We also created profiles that display user ratings and reviews that are based off of user interactions to further establish credibility and trust between users. We decided to show past listings, drafts and a list of favorites that users would be able to access quickly.

We got rid of the atrocious Craigslist special emails and replaced them with a user to user messaging interface. We also wanted to help users by supplying them with preset messages.

Throughout this whole process, we have found that people love the profile aspect of the redesign, and are willing to create profiles to streamline the way they interact and communicate with other users.

In-desktop messaging centralizes communication, which makes it easier for users to trust other users. As far as utilizing verification to provide trust, we have found that people don’t hate that option, however the user does need to be educated in detail about the purpose of verification and how it benefits them. Verification, in-general, might change Craigslist’s entity of simple browsing, casualness, and anonymity, so it is important to research more methodologies regarding verification. The option of skipping verification was important, because it gave users the control that users want and need. Hierarchy created within individual posts was overall helpful. This made it easier for highlighted information to be recognized by users, and the amount of time it took to learn about postings was decreased, making it faster as well.