MOBILE APP · PRODUCT DESIGN
BARTERO
REIMAGINING HOW WE TRADE
BarterO reimagines how neighbors share value without relying on money. Designed by a team of Dartmouth seniors, the app brings goods, skills, and services into a community exchange rooted in trust and mutual support.
PRODUCT DESIGN · FRONTEND DEVELOPMENT · TOOLS
Figma, JavaScript
Overview
I worked as Product Designer and Frontend Developer on a deployed prototype for exchanging goods, skills, and services. The project connects community trust and guided matching with a playful mobile experience.
ROLE
Product Designer / Frontend Developer
TIMELINE
20 weeks
DELIVERABLE
Deployed prototype
METRICS TO ADD · PLACEHOLDERS
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RESEARCH REACH
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DESIGN ITERATIONS
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PROJECT IMPACT
The Problem
Rising living costs and a desire for meaningful connection motivated the project. Social platforms keep people digitally connected, but often do little to create real-world support between neighbors.
Trading with strangers can feel uncertain. BarterO needed to make exchange feel natural and trustworthy while encouraging people to share their time, skills, and resources.
DESIGN OPPORTUNITY
How might we make sharing goods and skills feel simple, safe, and community-driven?
The team and professor at Dartmouth’s quarterly student project showcase, Technigala.
Research & Strategy
A competitive scan of Nextdoor, Citizen, and Front Porch Forum informed the product direction: stronger trust signals, more supportive onboarding, and a focus on meaningful community exchange.
Reduce uncertainty
Hesitation around trading with strangers informed reviews and guided matching.
Make participation welcoming
Unclear onboarding informed a more supportive flow that helps people join and navigate with confidence.
Build beyond the transaction
Donations and reviews support reciprocity and a sense of community.
FROM FINDINGS TO PRIORITIES
The impact–effort matrix prioritized profiles, account creation, and trade acceptance as valuable early work. More demanding features, including chat and verification, were identified for later phases.
Original prioritization matrix: balancing community value with implementation effort. Select image to enlarge.
Designing the Experience
Rapid sketches explored discovery, posting, reviews, and trade progress. Low-fidelity flows then connected these moments into an end-to-end experience, helping the team refine points of uncertainty before committing to visual detail.
Early sketches explored lighter, more social ways to discover, exchange, and review. Select image to enlarge.
From discovery and profiles to messaging and trades in progress. Select image to enlarge.
Exploring trade confirmation, donations, listing creation, and review patterns. Select image to enlarge.
Visual references for a welcoming, playful, and community-centered experience.
A FRIENDLIER WAY TO EXCHANGE
Plum purple, lilac, and a smile within the logo give BarterO an approachable character. The app’s Nunito typography and simple iconography were chosen to support readability and a sense of warmth.
The Solution
The final interface brings discovery, exchange, and trust-building together. High-fidelity screens established a shared blueprint for interface hierarchy, component behavior, and implementation.
The final screen system spans onboarding, matching, listings, messaging, trade progress, and reviews. Select image to enlarge.
A welcoming starting point
Account access leads into a homepage with perfect and close matches, donations, and filtered search—helping neighbors discover relevant opportunities.
Original BarterO prototype recording. Use the player controls to explore.
Share an item or a skill
Listing creation brings images, descriptions, and categories into one flow so people can offer goods or services to their community.
Original BarterO prototype recording. Use the player controls to explore.
Give without a trade in return
Donations let people offer items without expecting something back. Together with post-trade reviews, the experience supports generosity and trust.
Original BarterO prototype recording. Use the player controls to explore.