Rethinking online classifieds
Challenging Craigslist through clarity
Klaza was an early-stage startup dedicated to serving classifieds shoppers and sellers by simply being nicer to use.
At the time, Craigslist was the go-to classifieds platform but its experience overloaded shoppers with information and often left them struggling to find what mattered.
Role
Product strategy
Product design
Front-end development
Team
1 Product Designer
2 Engineers
1 Research assistant
Craigslist as precedent
A proven but mentally demanding interface
Reducing noise while increasing flexibility
Presenting a lot of information and offering advanced features can be valuable but often at the cost of clarity. As a result, users must work harder to interpret results before they can act.
Klaza explores a different balance: keep information and tools fully accessible while reducing the need to process every detail at once.
Exploring possibilities
Early experiments focused on giving users quick controls to filter results and even hide specific points from listing cards
The right information in the right place
With generous clarity as the driving design principle, I reduced the amount of information users need to process at a glance without limiting access to the full dataset.
Supporting decision-making through clarity
Listing cards feature decision-relevant details by default. Additional customization is available through filters.
The listing modal
Data types are kept generalized but can be specified enough to support scanning and a deeper look
Key decisions
After leading the team through the discovery process, three strategies stood out:
Simplify listing cards
Listing details were reduced to the most decision-relevant information so users can compare results with less cognitive load.
Control through filtering
Users shape the search around what matters to them by setting the attributes displayed in each listing.
Adapt the interface to the context
Listing cards feature decision-relevant details by default. Additional customization is available through filters.
Outcome
Klaza did not reach launch. Development delays ultimately stalled the project before it could be completed.
However, the core interface concepts were developed and partially implemented. I built the front-end for the initial version and that work was used as the foundation for the production build.
The project clarified a central idea I’ve continued to apply: making complex systems easier to use is often less about adding features and more about reducing what users need to process at any given moment.
Rethinking online classifieds
Challenging Craigslist through clarity
Klaza was an early-stage startup dedicated to serving classifieds shoppers and sellers by simply being nicer to use.
At the time, Craigslist was the go-to classifieds platform but its experience overloaded shoppers with information and often left them struggling to find what mattered.
Role
Product strategy
Product design
Front-end development
Team
1 Product Designer
2 Engineers
1 Research assistant
Craigslist as precedent
A proven but mentally demanding interface
Reducing noise while increasing flexibility
Presenting a lot of information and offering advanced features can be valuable but often at the cost of clarity. As a result, users must work harder to interpret results before they can act.
Klaza explores a different balance: keep information and tools fully accessible while reducing the need to process every detail at once.
Exploring possibilities
Early experiments focused on quick controls to filter results and even hide details from listing cards
The right information in the right place
With generous clarity as the driving design principle, I reduced the amount of information users need to process at a glance without limiting access to the full dataset.
Supporting decision-making through clarity
Listing cards feature decision-relevant details by default. Additional customization is available through filters.
The listing modal
Data types are kept generalized but can be specified enough to support scanning and a deeper look
Key decisions
After leading the team through the discovery process, three strategies stood out:
Simplify listing cards
Listing details were reduced to the most decision-relevant information so users can compare results with less cognitive load.
Control through filtering
Users shape the search around what matters to them by setting the attributes displayed in each listing.
Adapt the interface to the context
Listing cards feature decision-relevant details by default. Additional customization is available through filters.
Outcome
Klaza did not reach launch. Development delays ultimately stalled the project before it could be completed.
However, the core interface concepts were developed and partially implemented. I built the front-end for the initial version and that work was used as the foundation for the production build.
The project clarified a central idea I’ve continued to apply: making complex systems easier to use is often less about adding features and more about reducing what users need to process at any given moment.
More work
Tesser
Lifted LED
Rethinking online classifieds
Challenging Craigslist through clarity
Klaza was an early-stage startup dedicated to serving classifieds shoppers and sellers by simply being nicer to use.
At the time, Craigslist was the go-to classifieds platform but its experience overloaded shoppers with information and often left them struggling to find what mattered.
Role
Product strategy
Product design
Front-end development
Team
1 Product Designer
2 Engineers
1 Research assistant
Craigslist as precedent
A proven but mentally demanding interface
Reducing noise while increasing flexibility
Presenting a lot of information and offering advanced features can be valuable but often at the cost of clarity. As a result, users must work harder to interpret results before they can act.
Klaza explores a different balance: keep information and tools fully accessible while reducing the need to process every detail at once.
Exploring possibilities
Early experiments focused on quick controls to filter results and even hide details from listing cards
The right information in the right place
With generous clarity as the driving design principle, I reduced the amount of information users need to process at a glance without limiting access to the full dataset.
Supporting decision-making through clarity
Listing cards feature decision-relevant details by default. Additional customization is available through filters.
The listing modal
Data types are kept generalized but can be specified enough to support scanning and a deeper look
Key decisions
After leading the team through the discovery process, three strategies stood out:
Simplify listing cards
Listing details were reduced to the most decision-relevant information so users can compare results with less cognitive load.
Control through filtering
Users shape the search around what matters to them by setting the attributes displayed in each listing.
Adapt the interface to the context
Listing cards feature decision-relevant details by default. Additional customization is available through filters.
Outcome
Klaza did not reach launch. Development delays ultimately stalled the project before it could be completed.
However, the core interface concepts were developed and partially implemented. I built the front-end for the initial version and that work was used as the foundation for the production build.
The project clarified a central idea I’ve continued to apply: making complex systems easier to use is often less about adding features and more about reducing what users need to process at any given moment.
Rethinking online classifieds
Challenging Craigslist through clarity
Klaza was an early-stage startup dedicated to serving classifieds shoppers and sellers by simply being nicer to use.
At the time, Craigslist was the go-to classifieds platform but its experience overloaded shoppers with information and often left them struggling to find what mattered.
Role
Product strategy
Product design
Front-end development
Team
1 Product Designer
2 Engineers
1 Research assistant
Craigslist as precedent
A proven but mentally demanding interface
Reducing noise while increasing flexibility
Presenting a lot of information and offering advanced features can be valuable but often at the cost of clarity. As a result, users must work harder to interpret results before they can act.
Klaza explores a different balance: keep information and tools fully accessible while reducing the need to process every detail at once.
Exploring possibilities
Early experiments focused on quick controls to filter results and even hide details from listing cards
The right information in the right place
With generous clarity as the driving design principle, I reduced the amount of information users need to process at a glance without limiting access to the full dataset.
Supporting decision-making through clarity
Listing cards feature decision-relevant details by default. Additional customization is available through filters.
The listing modal
Data types are kept generalized but can be specified enough to support scanning and a deeper look
Key decisions
After leading the team through the discovery process, three strategies stood out:
Simplify listing cards
Listing details were reduced to the most decision-relevant information so users can compare results with less cognitive load.
Control through filtering
Users shape the search around what matters to them by setting the attributes displayed in each listing.
Adapt the interface to the context
Each category surfaces the most relevant information such as a map-based view in Real Estate or a Material filter in product searches (when appropriate).
Outcome
Klaza did not reach launch. Development delays ultimately stalled the project before it could be completed.
However, the core interface concepts were developed and partially implemented. I built the front-end for the initial version and that work was used as the foundation for the production build.
The project clarified a central idea I’ve continued to apply: making complex systems easier to use is often less about adding features and more about reducing what users need to process at any given moment.