A Campus Marketplace

UniFlea: Peer-to-Peer marketplace for College Communities

ROLE

UI/UX Designer

Duration

December 2025

Problem

College life isn’t cheap, and with rising living and education costs, most of us are constantly trying to stretch our budgets. Meanwhile, our closets and dorms pile up with stuff we don’t use anymore—like that barely-touched textbook or those clothes that just don’t fit our style anymore. At the same time, someone else on campus might be searching for exactly those things but ends up buying new because there’s no easy way to connect. This cycle leads to wasted money, wasted resources, and missed opportunities to help each other out—all while we’re already juggling tight budgets and busy schedules.

"Defining the problem

How might we empower college students to effortlessly buy, sell, and trade items within their campus in a way that’s safe, affordable, and community-driven, while reducing waste and supporting student-led businesses?

How might we empower college students to effortlessly buy, sell, and trade items within their campus in a way that’s safe, affordable, and community-driven, while reducing waste and supporting student-led businesses?

How might we empower college students to effortlessly buy, sell, and trade items within their campus in a way that’s safe, affordable, and community-driven, while reducing waste and supporting student-led businesses?

AFFINITY MAP

Problems in brief

  • Affordability crunch for textbooks and dorm gear

  • Invisible inventory—no easy way to see what peers are selling

  • Trust issues—fear of scams without verification

  • Meet-up friction—chat scattered across apps and frequent no-shows

  • Clutter-waste—unused items crowd dorms and go to landfill”

Setting Goals

Setting Goals

Setting Goals

Uniflea solves this problem by creating a hyperlocal, student-focused marketplace that’s efficient, affordable, and sustainable.

Business Goal

Build a trusted, campus-first marketplace that fuels student engagement and champions sustainable commerce.

User Goal

Empower students to effortlessly buy, sell, and discover items within their own campus—saving money, time, and effort.

From concept to clicks

The journey of UniFlea began with primary research through targeted student surveys to uncover real campus resale habits and challenges. I followed this with competitor analysis to identify usability gaps, which informed the creation of user personas and empathy maps. Building on these insights, I designed clear user flows, task flows, and a thoughtful information architecture to ensure a seamless, need-based product experience tailored for college communities.

Key Findings from primary research (survey)

Students currently juggle between OLX, social media, and WhatsApp groups for thrift buying and selling. It’s a messy process—time-consuming, unorganized, and super inconvenient. Finding the right product or connecting with the right buyer often feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. The whole experience is just frustrating and scattered leading to wastage of items not required. Trading second-hand products is so hard where fresher’s can grab things for cheap and seniors can get rid of their stuff.

High- Fidelity wireframe

Edge cases

No-Show Buyers/Sellers

Problem: A buyer or seller agrees to meet but doesn’t show up.
Solution: Introduced “Commitment Badges”—users earn trust points for completed meet-ups. After two no-shows, the app flags the account and limits chat until they complete a cooldown “apology” flow.

Future Potential

Future Potential

Future Potential

Community Forums & Events

Expand beyond one-to-one sales into study-group swaps, skill-share sessions, and eco-drive meetups.

Analytics for Student Sellers

Dashboards showing listing views, engagement trends, and pricing suggestions to help them optimize sales.

Future Potential with Gamification

  • Introduce badges for top thrifters, eco-conscious buyers, or most popular creators.

  • Add level-ups for frequent users based on listing, buying, and community engagement.