Craigslist — UX Redesign Process (2024)

Craigslist is an existing application that allows users to advertise items, services, events, jobs, and more. Users can then use the app to make offers on these advertisem*nts. The design of craigslist is not the most appealing; the website is however entirely functional. I set out to redesign craigslist into a place for people to go and browse.

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One of the main pain points I noticed in craigslist was how unwelcoming the initial home page is. The way that the website is designed makes it difficult for a user to just go on craigslist to casually search around. The home page is made up mostly entirely of words; the user would have to make a decision on what to click before even seeing any products.

In comparing some of the applications that are similar to craigslist, I often found myself instantly scrolling through items even though I had no shopping intentions prior to visiting the site. Images were everywhere on these sites. The second the user clicks on the link to visit the website they are blasted with imagery that draws them into the page. This is not at all the case with craigslist.

Some of the improvements I came up with to improve the approachability of craigslist:

• Use a different main font and add an additional accent font to draw in user’s eye
• Completely change layout of the home page — more images and less words
• Make an obvious ‘Create a Posting’ button for users who visits craigslist to post an item
• Give the application a color scheme to create a feeling on the page that revisiting users will find familiar
• Utilize accent font to create a significant craigslist “logo” of some kind

I really wanted to prioritize imagery, and incorporate a large image on the home page. In addition to a large image I wanted to include a section that would easily draw the the user into a browsing activity. A section for popular items, and a section for popular categories. Even if the user initially visits craigslist for something specific, maybe when they come to the home page they see a popular category that they may not have thought would be something to search for on craigslist.

Utilizing the main categories from the craigslist website, I was able to create an initial structure for the main navigation. I wanted the browsing categories to be visible, but to also prioritize the location and ‘Create Posting’ button. I realized I needed fewer words and more icons. My original intent to make the ‘Create Posting’ button very obvious had gotten lost in the other navigation tools. I removed the unnecessary ‘Location’ label and created a profile icon that is recognizable. I slimmed down the warning bar and added a slight drop shadow. I eventually ended up swapping the colors around a bit; I liked the color placement but not the color palette. Instead of orange, I chose a deep teal color and replaced the tan with a cream. White is difficult to read on an orange background, and I found that the grey color I needed to utilize in other aspects was not jiving with the tan-orange-black scheme.

As for the search page, I knew I needed to add some filters and sorting for the user; these are features I always find extremely useful when online shopping. Craigslist does have a favorites button as well as a trash can button that allows the user to ‘hide’ the item. I initially began with three buttons for the user: a favorite button, a hide button, and a flag button. These are three actions I view as important for a website like craigslist. There can be content posted on craigslist that a user may not want to see, or may even feel the need to report. The favorites button is also extremely important for users to save items that they like and be able to go back to those items. In order to emphasize clarity I added labels to the hide and flag buttons, and moved the favorite button onto the image. I elevated the price in position as well as color in order to catch the user’s eye.

Once a user clicks on a product, the two major actions we expect them to do is to either save the product to their favorites or to make an offer on the product. I separated out the ‘Hide’ and ‘Flag’ buttons away from the ‘Favorite’ button since the action of favoriting an item is so different from flagging it or hiding it. Something else I added to the screen was a user path; this allows the user to view how they got to the page they’re on and gives them the ability to take a step back. In this case, the user could backtrack to all Antiques or all the way back to the Home Page where they were viewing items in Los Angeles.

In the Product description, I added a section where the major attributes of the item are highlighted. These are attributes that could be universal to all products of this type; all vehicles have a make and model number.

I also added in a ‘More Like This’ section for the user to be able to search further into a product they’re interested in.

Looking at the overall structure of the design, I really tried to prioritize images in order to bring in the user’s attention and make craigslist a fun place to browse items and offers. Craigslist does have a website that is entirely functional, but their website does not keep the user engaged and interested. I aimed to make the overall look of the website exciting and inviting. It took a lot of tweaking here and there to develop a design that would allow the product to remain as the focus while also prioritizing the appearance of the website.

I’m not sure if the design of craigslist will ever actually change. Maybe it will stay the way it is forever - always outdated and somewhat unappealing. It was really fun to take such a basic looking website and develop it into something so different and new. Who knows, maybe craigslist will suddenly change its ways and follow suit of pretty much every other e-commerce website with a complete design revamp.