The goals for this exercise were to refresh the antiquated design, focus on usability, create a new taxonomy with better connections that help the user achieve the primary goal of the site. The other important consideration was to improve and emphasize the brand mission through good design. I set a deadline to finish this exercise in 10–12 hours.

Current Design Critique

Universal Design Problems

Outdated design
UI is not intuitive
No thought process for testing, tweaking or adding features
Blue links everywhere > Nothing looks clickable
Trust and safety issues
New users couldn’t figure out what the site is for
No analytics or user data > Micro user study

Brand Considerations

Non-commercial environment
Keeping things simple, common-sense, down-to-earth, honest, very real.
Being a collection of communities
No ads, particularly no banner ads

Home Page

"Create a posting" language is unclear
My account won't differentiate between logged in
users and guests
Search bar location is hidden - no search button or icon
Menu items are too scattered and random
City name doesn't look clickable
Region/city abbreviations are confusing
Location sidebar is an inefficient use of space

Category Page

While the functionality is good, the dropdown breadcrumbs options are too broad
1 out of 10 listings has no image - "has image" button can be removed and uploading an image to your posting should be required
Posted today and sorting function are redundant
Bundle duplicates should be resolved by not allowing users to post the same ad within a time frame
"Include nearby areas" and "miles from zipcode" are redundant
"Language of posting" should be a universal setting
No subcategories - lack of taxonomies
Previous and Next is more useful be at the bottom - real estate can be used more efficiently

Item Detail Page

Up arrow is unclear - should be at least labeled or removed
Breadcrumbs are not consistent with other pages
CTA is in the wrong spot - would be more useful after reading the details
The option to open email clients can cause spam, might be better to reply on the same page
Map is very useful but taking almost 50% of the page width
Prohibited is confusing - should be "Report Abuse"
Email to friend should include more sharing options
Star and hide need to be better explained
Images count is not as important as the actual images - should me moved to the bottom or removed.
"Email to friend" should include more sharing options
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