What is Como Nuevo?
Como Nuevo is an innovative mobile application that redefines the buying and selling of second-hand children's clothing. This project focused on deep User Research to understand the ethical and ecological motivations of parents and grandparents. The key challenge was to design an intuitive and trustworthy interface based on Design for Values, which involved creating and integrating a complex "Ecological/Ethical Filter" to validate user principles, increasing trust and customer loyalty.
💡 The Challenge and Research: Designing for Values
The main challenge was to design a second-hand children's clothing platform with a strong ethical and ecological component. The goal was not just transaction, but to validate user values through the interface.
User Profile and Ethical Motivation
Our user research focused on identifying the key persona: a buyer/seller who prioritizes sustainability, slow fashion, and community support over low price. Research revealed that trust and the transparency of ecological values were the main friction points on existing platforms.
Interface Objective
The design had to be intuitive and demonstrate a clear visual hierarchy for smooth navigation, but above all, it had to integrate the ecological decision-making into the search flow, not as a secondary element.
User Archetypes
Maria, the Organized Mom (Efficient Seller/Buyer)
Maria is a busy mother always looking for ways to organize her home. With two young children, her closet is full of clothes that no longer fit them. She wishes she could sell these clothes quickly and easily to make space and earn a little extra money.
Maria, the Organized Mom
User Journey Map: Publishing Process
Empathy Map: Maria
Grandma Lola, the Traditional One
Juan, the Busy Father
User Journey Map: Purchasing Process
Empathy Map: Lola
User Journey Map: Publishing Process
Empathy Map: Juan
Lucia, the Eco-Conscious
Sofia, the Bargain Seeker
User Journey Map: User's Contact Process
Empathy Map: Lucia
User Journey Map: Search and Purchasing Process
Empathy Map: Sofia
🗺️ Flow Mapping and Strategy: The Ecological/Ethical Filter
The need to validate purchasing ethics became the central axis of the UX strategy, requiring the design of complex and specific interaction solutions.
The Strategy of the Ecological/Ethical Filter as a Decision Engine
We defined the strategy of the Ecological/Ethical Filter as a search and decision engine. This advanced filter goes beyond size and price, allowing users to filter by materials, environmental impact, and community proximity, demonstrating a design that supports the user's deep motivations.
Designing for Trust Flows
Through User Flow Mapping, we simplified the buying and selling processes. Complexity focused on ensuring that sustainability information would be presented transparently and at the right time, reducing anxiety and increasing trust in the platform.
Digital Wireframes
Digital Wireframes Devices Size Variations
Digital Wireframe Details
Digital Wireframes Devices
💻 Technical Feasibility and Hybrid Role
My experience as a Fullstack Developer was critical to ensuring that the filter design and the complexity of the ethical data were technically feasible and fast. Every design decision was made with a focus on performance optimization and interaction accessibility.
Technical Consideration (Backend) of Filters and Data
Value-based filters (material, origin) pose an implementation challenge on the backend. My knowledge of database modeling allowed me to design the product page architecture keeping in mind how complex search criteria would be queried efficiently. This approach guarantees that the UI/UX design is technically viable and optimized for database performance, which is vital for a smooth experience without sacrificing performance speed.
Frontend Specification and Components
On the frontend, I specified the design of the filters and product page using a system of reusable components (thinking of Angular/React) that could handle the large amount of data and sustainability tags agilely.
This design ensured that the interface design was intuitive, with a clear visual layout, a specific implementation for keyboard navigation and a correct hierarchy of HTML tags, while prioritizing loading speed, essential for a mobile application, and component reuse.
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🎨 Visual Design: Aesthetics of Trust and Sustainability
The visual design was created to reflect the brand's mission (ecology, trust) and support legibility.
Design System and Consistency
Leveraging my Graphic Design background, I defined a clean color palette (green/teal) that conveys trust and sustainability. A UI Kit was created to ensure visual coherence and simplify the hand-off of elements to development.
Typography and Visual Hierarchy
Special emphasis was placed on legibility and visual hierarchy to organize complex sustainability information. The typography was chosen to be clear, modern, and adequate contrast was used to ensure accessibility in the presentation of critical data.
Usability Is Not Optional
The target audience's age range implies an extreme technological disparity. Complex or multi-step interfaces are an insurmountable barrier for traditional users and an unacceptable waste of time for busy users.
Trust is built with Transparency and Locality
Distrust in product quality and transaction security is the main barrier to conversion. This distrust is drastically reduced by geographic proximity and visual clarity.
The Ecological/Ethical Filter is a Search and Decision Engine
There is a strong segment of users whose purchasing motivation is not only price, but also ethical alignment (sustainability, slow fashion, and community support). These users need tools that validate their values.
🧠 Conclusion, Impact, and Learning
Impact and Intuitive Design
The result is an application where the design is intuitive and demonstrates a clear visual hierarchy, allowing users to easily engage with the buying and selling functions. The focus on ethical filters is expected to generate greater customer loyalty and a high conversion rate among value-driven users.
Key Learning
The main lesson I take from this project is the importance of observing how users behave, not just what they say. This constant observation is fundamental to generating design ideas and solutions that truly improve the experience and fulfill the platform's business and ethical objectives.
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