Pass it Forward
UX Design • Interaction Design
UX Designer & Researcher
Tools
Role
Figma
Graduate Course
Duration
2 months
Interaction Design
Designing With Purpose: Safety, Fun, and Community
Pass It Forward (PIF) is a mobile app designed to strengthen local communities by making it easy for people to give, receive, and share freely. We’ve designed the experience to be both fun and safe, with a bright visual style and built-in features that promote trust during local meetups. By encouraging mindful giving and real-life interactions, the app helps turn neighborhoods into connected, generous communities.
As human waste reaches unprecedented levels, more people are looking for ways to live sustainably. While traditional buy-nothing groups promote a strong sense of community, they’re often cluttered, disorganized, and lack built-in safety features, making it difficult for users to give and receive items efficiently or with confidence.
Problem
Pass it Forward has the opportunity within the market to become one of the few applications that offer a structured, community-based experience. With enhance verification and safety measures, it can establish itself as the most trusted platform for local, sustainable giving.
Opportunity
It starts with a seamless account creation and identity verification process
I led the design of the account creation and identity verification process to ensure it was simple, transparent, and quick. Users start by finding their neighborhood to join a local community, then complete verification by uploading a selfie, confirming their identity, and verifying their address. This would ensure that users are connecting with genuine individuals for their meetups.
Find and request an item from your neighbor in minutes
Pass It Forward prides itself on being a structured, community-driven app that makes it easy for users to find and request items. With features like filtering, search, item inquiries, and streamlined requests, the experience is both intuitive and efficient.
Arrange a pickup time and location
Arranging a pickup is a seamless in-app experience that protects user’s privacy, with no need to share personal information. Just enter your available dates and times, and the system will handle the rest to coordinate a convenient meetup.
List an item
Users can easily create a post to list an item they'd like to give away, all without revealing any personal information, making sharing within the community quick and effortless.
Peruse the profile page
A user’s profile page will serve as the ultimate way to build trust between users. With features like user reviews and an award system, individuals can gain a sense of who they’re connecting with, fostering confidence and transparency.
Research
To find the best way to position Pass It Forward, we started by diving into user and competitive research. Along the way, we uncovered key opportunities that shaped and inspired the direction of our design decisions.
Competitive Analysis
Through our competitive research, we found many existing platforms were unstructured or transactional. We saw an opportunity to create something different: Pass It Forward, a structured community-based app focused on giving, where people share what they no longer need and find new homes for items, all without buying or selling. Our aim was to build a space rooted in trust and connection.
User Interviews
To dive deeper, we spoke with individuals who had experience giving away, buying, selling, and exchanging secondhand items. Through their stories, we learned what made these moments meaningful, where frustrations often surfaced, and how the overall experience could be improved. Their insights gave us a clearer view of what a more thoughtful and community-driven platform could look like. Some of our key learnings included…
✨ Safety and reliability are top priorities for individuals engaging in secondhand transactions
✨Users were concerned about scams and dishonest transactions
✨ Item quality heavily influences behavior. Users won’t pursue something unless they think it’s worth the effort.
Meet Taylor
To better understand our users, we created a detailed persona, Taylor, and mapped out her journey to visualize her experiences, pain points, and needs throughout the process of giving and receiving items.
Site Map
The information architecture solidified our initial feature ideas. Creating categories helped us visualize Pass It Forward’s key elements, which competitive analysis showed were essential for our target audience.
The First Iteration
Guided by our research, we began sketching the first version of Pass It Forward. I focused on designing the onboarding and verification flow, a crucial step that would set the tone for the entire app experience.
Iteration and Testing Timeline
Our design went through multiple rounds of refinement. First, through group critique sessions to help each member improve and align designs with each other. Second, we conducted usability testing to gain insights, thoughts, and feelings from potential real-life users.
User Testing
Overall, we conducted 3 rounds of usability testing with 20 participants in total. We focused on each essential part of PIF, including onboarding and verification, looking for an item, setting pickup details, creating a post, and exploring the profile page. We were especially interested in…
⭐️ User experience with the overall identity verification process
⭐️ Pain points and preferences when requesting, arranging pickup details, and posting an item
⭐️ How secure and safe users felt when sharing pickup details or browsing user profiles
Participant Quote: Verification Process
“I felt like if you uploaded your license you should be able to use that for step two of the verification steps instead of constantly having to upload all these documents”
Participant Quote: Profile Page
“I would feel safe, she has good reviews and good tags. She’s trustworthy”
Participant Quote: Verification Process
“What if you don't have a bill or lease yet like an Airbnb? But looking for a place? But can't prove it yet?”
Participant Quote: Verification Process
“I actually like that they do [the verification process] so that people aren't creepy on it.”
Participant Quote: Chatting/Pickup details
“The interface for selecting times might not be accessible for someone with less fine motor skills”
Key Testing Insights
The nuances of identity verification
→ Users generally felt identity verification would make the PIF environment more friendly and safe
→ The onboarding process takes time for users, so making it fast, straightforward, and transparent will help build trust and reduce frustration
The overall PIF experience
→ Providing proper feedback was essential in increasing user confidence when requesting an item
→ Fewer steps creates a better experience. Too many steps are taxing for users, so streamlining processes, especially for creating or setting pickup details, improves usability.
Post Test Redesigns
Here, I added a tool tip for users unsure about providing their age. This is a required step in PIF to ensure all users are 18 and older. This gave clarity and reassurance to the user.
Users previously found the address input too long, so I streamlined it to a search with an adjustable radius, making it more intuitive and familiar. I set a small 20-mile radius to encourage local community participation. We also updated the neighborhood information to ensure it was clear and accurately reflected real-world locations.
Testing revealed that some users were worried about address verification when they are college students or not financially responsible for their residence. I added an FAQ to answer questions, and help put them at ease.
This step focused on transparency and speed. Instead of requiring users to take new photos, we allowed uploads from the camera roll for easier completion. We refined the Step 3: Address Verification copy to clearly explain how to reuse a photo ID, and added a Privacy Policy indicator to reassure users their information was protected.
Initially, users received verification updates within 24 hours. To match user expectations for faster results, we integrated real-time processing, allowing most users to receive confirmation within a few minutes.
Key Takeaways
✨Great collaboration starts with healthy communication: it's the foundation of any strong, successful team dynamic.
✨Strong organization was essential, especially with overlapping features. That required us to stay aligned and make cohesive design decisions together.
✨User feedback revealed that what felt intuitive to us wasn’t always clear to others, highlighting the importance of designing with, not just for, our users.