OwlMart
0-1 Campus Marketplace
Product Designer
1 Product Manager
1 Designer
9 Developers
September 2025 - Ongoing
OwlMart is Rice University's first marketplace platform, designed with login verification and advanced search/filtering tools to improve discoverability and trust for campus transactions.
As the sole Product Designer, I drove OwlMart's end-to-end experience, leveraging user research insights to create a visually engaging, intuitive product that students will actually want to use.
Check out the launched platform: https://owlmart.rice.edu/
What's the Problem?
Currently, buying/selling at Rice University is super disorganized and unreliable.
Students rely on an informal GroupMe channel called "Rice Students Selling Stuff" to buy and sell items on campus, but the platform's lack of structure means listings are buried within minutes. Additionally, the channel's open nature makes it easy for non-students to infiltrate and post scam listings.
We surveyed students about buying/selling on campus: out of 55 participants, 83% (!) of respondents are less than satisfied with their current options.
Specifically, there are 2 major types of pain points: organization (difficulty finding listings due to volume of messages) and reliability (lack of trust due to scams).
Let's Ideate!
Based on these research insights, I created a user flow map covering all the MVP features to guide my design process:
Sketches began with pen and paper…
and were refined into digital wireframes!
I'm a huge fan of paper wireframes in the early stages because they allow for rapid-fire iteration. Though not shown above, I created 50+ paper sketches before moving to digital wireframes.
Along with highlighting new features that the GroupMe chat lacked (sorting and filtering), my main focus throughout these iterations was simplicity: could sellers post a listing just as easily as sending a message in GroupMe? Among hundreds of listings, could buyers process the content of a listing with a quick glance?
Many of my changes from wireframe to wireframe were minimal, as even small details can make or break whether a user decides to continue or stop using a new product.
Final Stages: Prototyping
Design system:
Bonus: Logo design evolution!
Now… onto my favorite part: the high-fidelity protoype! Below showcases key pages/features.
Sign in/sign out:
Filtering and sorting:
Favorite a listing:
Viewing a listing:
Creating a new listing:
Profile page:
Here's the full Figma file for more of my prototyping process: OwlMart Figma File
What Now?
Our team officially deployed the MVP on February 3rd, 2026! 🎉
Since then, I've been wireframing some post-MVP features, including buyer requests and a messaging system. OwlMart is currently in the launch phase, with our team working hard on marketing across campus.
Here are fun little flyers my Product Manager and I collaborated on designing! (Shoutout to my PM Trisha Chinnimeni my 🐐)
Growth 🌱
OwlMart is my first time contributing to a 0-1 product with a cross-functional team, which calls for retrospection & reflection. After some post-MVP thought, here are my key takeaways:
1) Design decisions don't stop at handoff.
When design elements were altered or omitted in implementation (e.g., typography, spacing), I quickly discovered how much can get lost in translation. Especially as the sole designer, I learned to advocate for my choices, both to point out what needs change and articulate why it matters.
2) Adaptation is crucial in a non-linear process.
Restating my earlier point, implementation rarely matches the design 1:1. Even with clear communication, some elements simply aren't technically feasible (e.g., complex interaction animations), while others must be adjusted due to new constraints or insights. This experience taught me to keep an open mind and treat change as an opportunity for improvement.
Overall, seeing my designs come to fruition and have real-world impact has been incredibly rewarding, and I'm so thankful to my product team at RiceApps for making OwlMart possible :)
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