Village app: project summary
Village is a preloved children’s clothing marketplace where parents support parents. Rooted in the idea that “it takes a village to raise a child,” the app empowers users to build their own village – a network of like-minded parents, creating an engaged audience for faster sales and a more personal, relevant browsing experience. Inspired by the golden age of social media, Village puts control back in users’ hands, letting them shape their feeds through the people and brands they choose to follow.
The product
Parents find their listings get lost in existing overcrowded marketplace platforms, resulting in slow sales. And when shopping, they're forced to sift through irrelevant content that does not reflect their needs or style, making the experience tedious and time consuming.
The problem
Design a personalised experience that builds trust and relevance from the start. This project explores how to collect meaningful user data seamlessly through onboarding – enhancing rather than hindering the experience, and laying the groundwork for improved engagement and, ultimately, faster sales in a real-world setting.
The goal
Onboarding for personalisation: Capturing the right data to tailor feeds while keeping the flow simple, quick, and rewarding.
Explaining the concept: Framing the social element of “following” as personalisation - not friendship - to make it intuitive in a resale context.
Connecting parents: Matching compatible users with mutual interests.
Trust at a glance: Visually highlighting compatibility and credibility quickly through user profiles.
Key challenges
This was a solo project, created as part of the Google UX Design Professional Certificate (via Coursera). I managed the end-to-end design process and drew on my background in marketing and communications to approach the work with empathy – understanding audiences, crafting human-centred narratives and creating designs that build trust and connection.
My role
Project duration
February - September 2025, part time.
Led qualitative interviews and secondary research to uncover parent motivations and pain points.
Developed personas, journey maps, and storyboards to translate insights into design direction.
Explored multiple opportunity areas through ideation, then prioritised personalisation as the focus.
Designed wireframes and interactive prototypes in Figma, iterating through usability testing.
Optimised the UI with branding and visuals prioritising female audience.
My responsibilities
User Research: Summary
Qualitative interviews with parents in my network to uncover motivations and pain points.
Secondary research via Mumsnet, Tiktok, and news articles for broader context.
Approach
Kids clothes shopping and resale mostly seen as a ‘mum task’ - dads often deferred to their partners
Shared attitudes towards children’s clothes:
Relaxed about quality (kids are messy and grow fast).
Strong opinions on style - many parents disliked quotes, garish designs, and strongly gendered ‘boy’ clothes.
Had favourite, trusted brands in mind.
Motivations split by income:
Lower-income: necessity, exciting bargains, more engaged.
Higher income: decluttering, reducing waste, less engaged.
Platform of choice: Vinted, praised for easy listing but criticised for:
Poor search, filters and irrelevant content
Declining listing views and slow salesext.
Key findings
“I usually stick to unisex: just because he’s a boy doesn’t mean I want him in trucks and trains. Boys’ clothing can be so limited and not very cute at all. ”
Key pain points
1. Irrelevant content
Resale platforms rely on algorithm-driven feeds, which feel impersonal and irrelevant.
2. Slow sales
Parents feel their listings get lost in overcrowded marketplaces.
3. Time poor
Parents struggle to find the time for listing, packing, and posting items.
4. Excess clutter:
Kids outgrow clothes quickly, leaving heaps of barely worn items. Parents want items gone and would sell for less if it’s hassle-free.
Opportunities
1. Give users control: let them build a personalised feed via filters, preferences, and connections.
2. Connect users with like-minded parents to ensure listings reach an engaged audience.
3. Offer home collection: users can list items cheaply and have them picked up by local buyers, or collect items nearby, saving on postage fees.
Competitive audit
To understand the market landscape, I carried out a competitive audit of resale and circular economy apps. The aim was to identify where existing platforms fall short and uncover opportunities to create a more parent-focused, community-driven experience.
No community focus to connect like-minded users.
User profiles don’t summarise what sellers offer (age, style, brands).
Limited filtering options for browsing.
No mix of resale and giveaways.
No automation to simplify selling.
Gaps
Branding across competitors is similar (greens/blues tied to sustainability and finance), leaving space to differentiate with a warmer, more feminine identity.
Build networks around shared needs (children’s ages, clothing styles, favourite brands, location).
Parent-friendly categories (school essentials, hobbies, developmental stages).
Improve filtering and browsing.
Offer both free and paid listings.
Opportunities
User personas
Problem statements
User journey maps
Whilst many parents default to Vinted, the app itself is not parent-focused, which creates friction - gendered categories hide unisex items, there’s no schoolwear section, and bundles hard to filter.
Weak search & limited filters create frustration. Inability to ‘see less’ of items or filter out brands.
Selling can feel inconvenient for time-poor parents - managing listings, packing and posting.
Key findings
Selling convenience: ‘Set & sell’ features like auto-rejecting low offers and automated gradual price drops
Filtering & navigation: parent-centric categories
Personalisation: improve content relevancy for better browsing and faster sales
Trust & community: add purpose and reassurance
Local exchange: supporting in-person sharing within communities.
Opportunities
From insights to concept
From here, I centred the design on personalisation and trust & community. Earlier research revealed parents describing the strain of “not having a village” – lacking support systems and hand-me-downs. Combined with a competitor audit showing a gap for a more human, personalised approach, this inspired both the name Village and the idea of a parent-to-parent marketplace.
Sketches and ideation
An empathy exercise to step into Lexie’s perspective. I visualise her needs and emotions as she replaces her son’s outgrown polo shirts using the Village app.
‘Big picture’ storyboard
Quick sketches of Lexie’s interaction with the Village app, mapping her step-by-step journey. This helped identify usability challenges and ensure the onboarding flow felt clear and purposeful.
‘Close up’ storyboard
Paper wireframes
Wireframes
I focused on the onboarding journey as the key opportunity to collect data for personalisation. The aim was to design a quick, intuitive setup that felt seamless for parents, while gathering the information needed to tailor their experience from the very first use.
Lofi Prototype: Usability study
The first round of usability testing evaluated whether the onboarding flow felt intuitive and purposeful, or risked losing new users. I conducted a moderated usability study using a low-fidelity prototype, followed by a survey. Participants included two frequent-shopping mums (core audience), two occasional-shopping dads, and one tech-averse grandparent to test for simplicity and accessibility.
Affinity map
Key insights
1 . Location benefit was unclear
Some users were unsure why location was needed, but were keen to provide it once the purpose was clear.
2 . Profile set up depends on user mindset
Sellers and buyers approach setup differently. Profile completion felt premature for buyers. However location was relevant with context.
3 . Following other users felt premature
The act of ‘following’ felt like a social commitment/gesture. Without trust or context, the feature lacked perceived value.
Final onboarding step: Build your Village
This optional step reinforces Village’s community-driven mission by prompting users to follow like-minded parents. Profile photos, interest tags, and listing previews make it easy to gauge compatibility at a glance, keeping the experience quick and relevant. It also soft-launches the app’s social features – nudging users toward a more personalised, human marketplace.
Design changes
1 . Replaced profile setup with a location step that clearly communicates its value (surfacing local listings).
As a result of the above findings I made the following design changes:
2. Deferred ‘Build your Village’ - removed step from onboarding and introduced later in the journey.
3. Reframed ‘following’ as feed-building, not social. Replaced ‘Follow’ button on user profiles with a ‘+’ icon.
Information Architecture
Although my initial focus was onboarding, research insights led me to expand into Home and Search flows. As a result, this IA was created after the wireframes to capture the updated scope. The full app would also include Sell, Inbox, and Profile.
Design System
Every design decision was made with parents — especially mothers — in mind. Brand colours were chosen to feel warm and appealing to the core demographic, while remaining inclusive for male users, and functional shades guide interactions naturally. The result is a cohesive, human-centred experience that feels trustworthy and intuitive.
Mock ups & high fidelity prototype
Users create a username and confirm T&Cs and privacy policy. The “Sign Up” button only activates once boxes are ticked, and an error message guides users if they try to proceed early, keeping the flow smooth and compliant.
Sign up to Village
Welcome screen
Onboarding opens with brand messages showcasing Personalisation, Convenience, and Quality — core values derived from user research and personas.
The Personalisation step (“Curated by you — set your preferences and follow families like yours to build your perfect feed”) introduces the app’s purpose early and plants the seeds for a new behaviour that will be reinforced throughout the experience.
Set your preferences
Users select gender, sizes, and brands to personalise their feed. Including a unisex/neutral option addresses a common pain point identified in user research, while size and brand selections ensure recommendations are relevant. This early step introduces key behaviours, keeps interactions simple and scannable, and helps users feel the app is tailored to them from the start.
1 . Gender
2 . Age
3 . Brands
Final step: add location
Based on user feedback, completing a full profile during onboarding was too high-friction, so the lo-fi flow was adjusted to include only location as an optional step. Capturing location early allows the app to provide relevant, nearby items without creating barriers to entry. This balances personalisation and convenience, helping users see value immediately while keeping interactions simple, and demonstrates iteration informed by research.
Home
Testing showed that introducing ‘Build Your Village’ during onboarding asked too much of users too soon, before they’d built trust with the app. So instead, I moved it into the home experience, where it could be introduced more gently. The feature becomes a softer, less confrontational nudge — rather than a barrier at sign-up.
This decision expanded the scope beyond onboarding to include the home page and related tabs, giving ‘Build Your Village’ a natural place in discovery. Following families becomes a way to personalise the feed, letting parents focus on what inspires them or feels most relevant.
Your Village
After onboarding, users land on the Your Village section of the home page, designed to balance shopping with community. Your Village is split into two tabs:
Marketplace: personalised feed based on preferences and followed families. Returning users see a carousel of saved items as a gentle nudge toward purchase.
Activity: space for updates and interactions from families you follow, adding a human touch without cluttering the shopping feed.
A/B testing opportunity
To validate this approach, I’d A/B test with and without a ‘Build Your Village’ banner to see whether direct prompts or subtler nudges (like suggestions in Discover) drive engagement, balancing user trust with adoption.
Tool tip
First-time users see a dismissible banner introducing the Activity tab: ‘See what’s new from parents you follow.’
Build your Village
Originally part of onboarding, this screen now lives under Search (with tabs for Items and Members), making it a natural extension of discovery. The home page banner also links here. Here, parents see recommended families to follow based on their onboarding preferences. Unlike other resale apps, Village lets you filter and search for people as well as items. The aim is a better balance between algorithmic suggestions and content users have actively chosen — giving them more control and relevance in their feed.
Filters
Goal: Help parents discover and follow relevant families without overwhelming them
Insight: During usability testing, users said they were more likely to follow someone if they aligned in style or sold favourite brands.
Design decisions:
Expanded filters/tags beyond age and gender to include brands and style tags.
Users can pin up to five tags to highlight their profile; other tags appear in the About section. These tags also appear in their profile preview.
User Profiles
Profiles are designed for familiarity and ease: users can preview them before connecting, with swipable tabs separating the About section, reviews, and listings.
High-fidelity additions
To create a realistic high-fidelity prototype, I included the ‘Discover’ and ‘Saved’ tabs, even though they were outside the tested flow. These features helped represent the final product more accurately without distracting from research goals.
Discover
Carousels of recommended listings based on location, preferences and mutual interests. Without the personalised ‘Village’ feed, this would serve as the typical home screen experience.
Saved
A unique feature that supports both organisation and communication between parents. Research revealed that mothers often manage most of the purchasing, so the ability to create and share lists of saved items could help distribute this responsibility more evenly between parents.
Explore the full prototype below.
Accessibility Considerations
As a solo learner completing the Google UX Design course independently, I wasn’t equipped to implement or test accessibility features in depth. The course emphasised include design principles, but practical application - such as designing for screen readers or voice control - was outside the project’s scope.
I focused on creating a visually clear, mobile-friendly interface:
Readable typography and contrast: ensured text was legible across all screens, with a different typeface better suited for smaller listing previews.
Large tap targets and intuitive gestures to support mobile use
Clear hierarchy: consistent layouts and typography to make content scannable
Simple, inclusive language throughout, avoiding jargon.
Subtle animations: used purposefully to reduce distraction or motion sensitivity
Colour-blind-friendly palette: Distinguishable hues, reinforced with icons and labels.
Usability Study (final round)
A final round of testing was conducted on the high fidelity prototype.
Goals
Assess onboarding journey: check if it felt quick, clear, and worthwhile, and uncover any remaining friction.
Evaluate the concept: gather general opinions and interest in the app.
Build your Village feature
Assess how discoverable and understandable the feature is
Explore whether profile content and tags provide enough context for deciding to follow someone
Understand whether the new network framing (language & concept of following as ‘building a feed’ rather than building a community) feels comfortable and valuable.
Methodology
A combination of remote and in-person moderated usability testing (via Google Meet), followed by a custom usability survey designed to gather qualitative insights and targeted feedback aligned with the research goals.
KPIs
A mix of quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate usability and user experience:
Time on task: How long users took to complete key onboarding steps.
Feature comprehension: Ability to understand and use core features, especially ‘Build Your Village’.
User perception & satisfaction: Insights from moderated sessions and custom survey responses on clarity, usefulness, and overall experience.
Key insights
Average onboarding time 59 seconds.
All participants completed tasks without support.
Overview
Some users missed the username field
Observation: 2 out of 5 participants didn’t spot the ‘Add username’ field at first, mistaking it for a heading rather than something they could edit. Both quickly figured it out on their own.
Insight: In trying to keep the screen clean and minimal, I made the field too subtle — it lost the visual cue that tells users it’s interactive.
Next Step: Adjust the visual hierarchy so the field looks clearly clickable — for example, adding a light outline, stronger contrast, or more spacing from the header.
Onboarding
Age brackets may be too broard
Observation: 1 participant hesitated on the “Age” screen when her child’s exact size (2–3) wasn’t listed. Although the text explained that multiple ages could be selected, she didn’t notice and filtered out the nearby options.
Insight: When people are looking for something specific, they tend to tune everything else out. It’s not necessarily a design flaw, but something worth keeping an eye on.
Next Step: Monitor this over time and, if needed, test a version with narrower age brackets to see whether users prefer precision or simplicity.
Homepage and first impressions
Layout and design felt intuitive
Observation: All participants (5/5) said the app layout was easy to navigate and visually appealing.
Insight: The homepage design successfully supports quick scanning and browsing, giving users confidence to explore without needing guidance.
Next Step: Maintain the existing layout and visual hierarchy as it effectively balances aesthetics with usability.
‘Build Your Village’ banner overlooked
Observation: 3/5 participants didn’t notice the banner.
Insight: The banner was intentionally designed to be subtle so as not to distract from browsing and shopping, but the balance was slightly off – its ad-like appearance reduced visibility and perceived value.
Next Step: Consider subtle design adjustments (e.g., bolder colour, larger copy) to make it feel integrated and valuable, without distracting from browsing.
Build your Village
Feature is clear and intuitive
Observation: All participants (5/5) understood the purpose of the Build Your Village banner and page. Following and unfollowing users was straightforward, and no one raised concerns about interacting with other parents.
Insight: The design communicates the feature clearly, and the interaction feels familiar and safe, supporting trust and relevance.
Next Step: Maintain the current interaction model, using the ‘add to feed’ icon rather than the former, more intimidating ‘follow’ label to keep it approachable.
Feed-building is for engaged users, not new users
Observation: No participants were eager to start building their village immediately; they wanted to explore listings first.
Insight: Feed-building is a useful feature once users are invested and familiar with the app. Early-stage users aren’t likely to engage deeply yet, but awareness of the feature helps signal Village’s differentiator and potential value.
Next Step: Keep feed-building visible as an optional prompt to communicate its value and differentiator, but introduce it later in the user lifecycle. Monitor engagement over time and test when and how users begin to invest in their feed to optimise timing and impact.
Filters and user profiles
Filters are clear and inclusive
Observation: All participants (5/5) found the filters thorough and easy to understand, and felt their style was represented.
Insight: Filters help users personalise their feed and give confidence that listings are relevant. While most users rely primarily on brand and size tags, style filters may still provide extra context, so their value should be monitored over time.
Next Step: Keep the current filters as-is, but observe usage to see whether style labels add meaningful benefit or if brand and size alone suffice.
Profiles provide enough information
Observation: All participants (5/5) felt profiles were clear and informative. Selling tags (brand and age) and the ‘recently sold’ section were highlighted as particularly useful.
Insight: Users have sufficient information from profiles to confidently decide whether to add someone to their feed, supporting trust and usability.
Next Step: Maintain the current profile design and continue emphasising key selling tags, making only minor tweaks if future feedback indicates gaps.
Overall sentiment
Brand and experience resonates with target audience
Observation: All participants said they would use the app in real life. Two highlighted the branding positively, and male participants did not find the branding off-putting.
Insight: The visual identity resonates with the target audience without alienating other demographics.
Next Step: Maintain the current branding, UI, and visual hierarchy — they effectively support usability and appeal to the core demographic.
Final Design Iterations
Based on insights from usability testing, I made targeted refinements to improve clarity, visibility, and perceived effort for new users. Two key updates focused on the username field and the Build Your Village banner:
1 . Username field refinement
Observation/Insight: Some users missed the original username field, which was originally designed as a faint line with hint text.
Design update: Changed it to a clickable rectangular field with a bold title: “Create username”.
This makes the field’s purpose immediately clear and ensures users notice it during onboarding.
2. Build Your Village banner
Visibility & context: Most users missed the banner. Since it’s not immediately relevant for new users, the goal was to make it noticeable without overstating importance, planting the seed for later exploration.
Colour: Introduced a softer shade of the CTA red (to stand out from the purple interface without looking like an error message) with a subtle gradient (#E25426 → #D14920).
Icon: Replaced the “network” icon with a magic wand, conveying personalisation and delight rather than effort.
Copy: Updated “Build your Village” → “Start your Village.” “Build” implies effort and a task, whereas “Start” feels lighter and exploratory, encouraging engagement without pressure.
Visual affordance: Slightly increased the banner’s corner radius to make it feel more clickable, helping users distinguish it from decorative elements or ads.
Key takeaways
1. Usability testing doesn’t just validate; it inspires.
This project reinforced how vital it is to test and challenge assumptions early. As someone who isn’t a parent, I soon realised how much I didn’t know — and how much richer the design became once real parents shared their perspectives. Some of the best ideas came from off-script moments, when users casually mentioned details that revealed big opportunities. Creating space for open conversation proved just as valuable as structured testing.
2. Balancing clarity with simplicity.
Minimalism can make an interface feel effortless, but I’m still learning where subtlety becomes too subtle. Watching users pause or miss key actions highlighted how to maintain a clean design without compromising clarity — reducing friction, not hiding functionality.
3. Designing with context in mind.
Understanding where users are in their journey is as important as knowing who they are. My USP resonated differently depending on whether users were new or returning; onboarding wasn’t the right place for it. This reinforced the importance of mapping design to user context, ensuring features meet needs at the right time.
4. Trusting the process builds confidence
Early in the project, I often second-guessed decisions. Moving through research, ideation, and testing showed me how each stage informs the next. By the end, I gained confidence not just in the design, but in the process itself — trusting that evidence and iteration lead to better outcomes than assumptions.
5. Adaptability is key
I initially envisioned Village as a community-focused app, but research showed most parents weren’t invested in this idea. Reframing it as “building your feed” – emphasising personal benefit rather than community – allowed me to retain the core concept while making it relevant and compelling to my target audience. I learned how critical it is to adapt both design and messaging based on real user needs.
Next steps
1 . Evaluate ‘Build your Village’ adoption:
Track whether users actively create their personalised feed or rely on the Discover page. Insights will guide future engagement strategies and feature development. This tests my core concept: does building a personalised feed actually drive engagement?
2. Explore accessibility improvements:
Test interactions with assistive technologies, including screen readers and voice-to-text for search and listing creation, to ensure the app works for all parents, even when multitasking.
3. Explore compatibility highlights
Investigate ways to make compatibility immediately apparent, helping users decide at a glance whether to add someone to their feed with minimal effort. Options could include a “mutual interests” section, varying-coloured tags, or automatically prioritising relevant tags.