Ripple
Promoting student commerce
Buy, sell, build with Ripple
Context
December 2024, I joined the Ripple team as Founding Product Designer. I owned the design and research from idea to App Store launch to new features coming soon.
Preview
Meet the team
Overview
Ripple was born from a coffee chat with Parker, where we connected on our shared drive to make an impact at UW. I outlined my approach to UX design + research, offering to help with his business class project – not realizing this conversation would spark something much bigger. What began as a simple marketplace concept quickly evolved into a platform to empower student entrepreneurs across campus.
The problem we wanted to solve was hiding in plain sight each spring: perfectly good furniture abandoned on curbs as graduating seniors left campus. At UW, you'd see groups of friends carrying couches down the street to their new apartments while others left valuable items behind simply because they lacked easy ways to connect with potential buyers. Meanwhile, student side hustles – from tattoo artists to barbers – relied entirely on word-of-mouth marketing.
Working alongside Parker and Will (an engineer I knew from REV), I took on the challenge of designing a platform exclusively for UW students that would both facilitate secondhand sales and elevate student businesses. We moved quickly, building trust into every aspect of the experience – from verified student accounts to campus-based exchanges. What started as a casual offer to help has now grown into a thriving community marketplace that's changing how students buy, sell, and entrepreneurship on campus.
Problem
Every spring and fall, perfectly good furniture and electronics end up abandoned on curbs because students lack an easy way to sell them. Existing platforms weren't designed for campus life like Facebook Marketplace raised safety concerns about meeting strangers, often requiring travel across Seattle. Meanwhile, student entrepreneurs running side hustles like haircuts, tattoos, and tutoring relied entirely on word-of-mouth or chaotic Snapchat or Instagram chats to find customers.
Our surveys with 60+ students revealed a clear trust gap - students strongly preferred buying from and selling to verified peers, ideally within walking distance of campus. They wanted to know exactly who they were dealing with and where they'd meet. For student business owners, visibility was the key challenge, with 82% reporting they had no effective way to market their services specifically to fellow students.
The market needed a solution that addressed both immediate secondhand sales needs and the opportunity to foster student entrepreneurship - all built around trust, safety, and the unique rhythm of campus life.
Mobile App Design + Research
Mobile App Design + Research
How might we make it easier and safer for students to discover, connect with, and transact with one another on campus?
How might we make it easier and safer for students to discover, connect with, and transact with one another on campus?
Overview
REV Delivery started in Seattle in 2023 with a simple idea: bring snacks to college students, fast. Three UCSB grads were tired of late-night food runs, so they created a delivery service that promised snacks in just 10 minutes. They began as three drivers (on electric scooters) serving the University District and a basic menu of dorm room favorites.
When I joined as their first designer, REV was using a basic ordering system that was struggling to keep up as more students discovered the service. I worked closely with the founders and two developers to rebuild the ordering experience from the ground up. We focused on making it easy to browse, order, and track deliveries.
User Research + Design Goals
Utilizing our waitlist of 700+ students eager to try Ripple, we sent out surveys via email, asking simple questions like "What platforms or resources do you use to sell items like clothes, decor, and kitchenware?" and "What items are you looking to sell?"
After talking to over 50 students and surveying 60 more, patterns emerged. Most students were already buying and selling secondhand items, but they overwhelmingly preferred dealing with other verified students. The business owners among them had no dedicated place to promote their services to fellow students.
These conversations led us to four clear goals for Ripple:
Make sign-up fast but trustworthy - Use school emails to verify real students
Keep navigation simple - Make it easy to browse both products and student businesses
Show what matters - Personalize the feed based on campus location and interests
Keep communication safe - Let students message without sharing personal contact info
With these goals as our guide, I started sketching the app that would connect the UW community in an entirely new way. By focusing on these core principles, we created a foundation for a marketplace that addressed the specific needs of college students - a platform that understood their budget constraints, safety concerns, and the unique opportunities of campus life.
With these goals as our guide, I started sketching the app that would connect the UW community in an entirely new way. By focusing on these core principles, we created a foundation for a marketplace that addressed the specific needs of college students - a platform that understood their budget constraints, safety concerns, and the unique opportunities of campus life.
User Testing
For our first testing round, I recruited 30 students from our waitlist who represented diverse backgrounds, majors, and living situations (on/off campus). Using grayscale prototypes, I conducted one-on-one sessions where students attempted key tasks like finding a specific item, creating a listing, and messaging a seller.
These sessions revealed crucial insights: students expected to filter by distance from their dorm or apartment and they valued seeing when an item was listed to gauge freshness.
After each round of testing, I iterated quickly on the wireframes, addressing pain points and incorporating student feedback. The grayscale approach proved valuable—students focused on functionality rather than aesthetics, helping us nail the core experience before adding visual design elements.
By the end of these sessions, we had a solid blueprint for Ripple's infrastructure—one built entirely around how students actually shop, sell, and communicate on campus. Then we moved to high-fidelity designs, knowing our foundation was thoroughly user-tested.
User Testing
For our first testing round, I recruited 30 students from our waitlist who represented diverse backgrounds, majors, and living situations (on/off campus). Using grayscale prototypes, I conducted one-on-one sessions where students attempted key tasks like finding a specific item, creating a listing, and messaging a seller.
These sessions revealed crucial insights: students expected to filter by distance from their dorm or apartment and they valued seeing when an item was listed to gauge freshness.
After each round of testing, I iterated quickly on the wireframes, addressing pain points and incorporating student feedback. The grayscale approach proved valuable—students focused on functionality rather than aesthetics, helping us nail the core experience before adding visual design elements.
By the end of these sessions, we had a solid blueprint for Ripple's infrastructure—one built entirely around how students actually shop, sell, and communicate on campus. Then we moved to high-fidelity designs, knowing our foundation was thoroughly user-tested.
Onboarding
Home
Accolades + Next Steps
April - Launched on App Store, 300 active users, 20 transactions, DubHacks Pitch Competition
May - Dempsey Startup Competition
