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Ria Guha

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Stakeholder

Sustainibility Experts

Logistics

Commerce/Product Stakeholders

Key Objectives

Track carbon savings per transaction, encourage circular practices, provide data for ESG reportings

Optimize pickup/delivery routes for low emissions, ensure product traceability, integrate reverse logistics

Drive engagement, maximize retention, maintain trust (reviews, ratings), support multi-channel listings

Business Goals

Promote circular economy through measurable impact

Increase marketplace adoption and engagement

Build brand trust and transparency

Reduce operational and return costs

Aligned User Goals

Know environmental impact of buying/selling

Seamless listing, buying,selling and communication

Verify authenticity, quality, and logistics

Predict accurate product info, fair returns

My Role

  • Lead UX Designer

  • Strategy and Systems Thinker

  • Cross-functional Collaborator

Timeline

4 weeks

Team

  • Product Owner

  • UX Designer (myself)

  • Two Frontend Engineers

  • One Backend Engineer

  • Data Analyst

  • Sustainability Consultant (part-time)

  • Logistics experts

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Beyond Buy and Sell: A Systems Thinking Approach to Sustainable Secondhand MarketPlace

Overview

A real-world study focused on designing a Circular Economy Marketplace platform that enables seamless interaction between sellers, buyers, logistics providers, and sustainability stakeholders. This project aimed to reduce waste and promote reuse by creating a digital ecosystem that supports the buying and selling of secondhand goods with transparency and sustainability metrics.

Project KickOff and Problem Framing

Objective: Create an intuitive platform that encourages and facilitates the sale and purchase of secondhand goods while integrating systems to track environmental impact, streamline logistics, and encourage responsible consumption.

Approach:

  • Defined objectives with stakeholders across sustainability, logistics, and commerce.

  • Aligned business goals with user outcomes.

  • Conducted a stakeholder workshop to understand interdependencies between systems.

  • Used Miro & Figma for stakeholder maps, journey maps, and domain modeling
     

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High level System and Domain Modelling

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Research

Constraint: Authentic users were not accessible directly due to client-side limitations.

Secondary Research:

  • Analyzed reports from Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Circular Economy Lab.

  • Studied existing platforms like OLX, and Facebook Marketplace.

  • Synthesized behavior patterns and challenges from publicly available case studies and user testimonials.

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Insights:

  • Trust and quality assurance are major barriers for buyers.

  • Sellers need simple onboarding and visibility.

  • Environmental impact awareness influences buyer decisions but needs to be easily digestible.

  • Logistics and reverse logistics require coordination and transparency.

Further Systems Thinking in Action

EcoSystem Mapping

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Modular Design Approach

  • Separate Dashboards for each users.

  • Role-based flows.

  • Reusable components and services across interfaces.

Dashboard Concepts

  • Sellers: Sales, ratings, dispatch timeline.

  • Buyers: Orders, carbon savings, wishlist.

  • Logistics: Delivery queues, route optimization.

  • Admin: Platform usage, system health, sustainability KPIs.

Causal Loops to understand some of the key reinforcing and balancing components

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Concept Clusters/Ideation Themes

Trust and Transperancy

  • ​Verified Seller Program

  • Review credibility score

  • Video-based product inspection

Sustainability and Impact

  • CO₂ Saved Counter per Transaction

  • Eco Badge System

  • Community Impact Dashboard

Logistics & Ease

  • Reverse Logistics Tracker

  • Local Pick-Up Incentives

  • Package Consolidation Option

Incentives & Gamification

  • Circularity Score for users

  • Eco Challenges & Rewards

  • Leaderboards of "Top Eco Sellers/Buyers"

Tragedy in the system thinking approach

System thinking helped me visualize and understand various components,the dependability and how they are overlapping but I had to keep a complete awareness that I dont get stuck in the ideation loop forever.
Hence,at this stage I wanted to take my design thinking approach and proceed towards key user flows and wireframing.

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Next Steps......Wireframing

After freezing on the basic User Flows,I had to directly brainstorm the high fidelity wireframes.The tokens and basic style guide was discussed and finalized and as I started to put down the designs there were some changes in the style guide and I proposed 3 sets of designs.Below is the glimpse of the final design.

Glimpse of the final design

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What next?

The current prototype is currently under development as the founders are trying to buy in investors.They have presented the prototype in couple of conferences and has acquired initial funds and investors.Once the MVP is developed, it will be shipped for soft launch.

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