Buy-Sell all in one place 💰

Whether you’re hunting for rare finds or hosting your own auctions, DollarAuction turns every interaction into a thrilling, social experience. It’s not just an auction app — it’s a playground for smart shoppers and creative sellers.

Airlurn brings trainers and learners together on one powerful platform — create, share, and track courses effortlessly. Whether you're mastering a new skill or teaching one, Airlurn makes learning feel simple, social, and fun.

Timeline

Dec 2023 - Early 2024

INDUSTRY

B2C | SAAS | E-Commerce

MY ROLE

Lead Product Designer

01. Introduction

02. Problem

03. Goal

04. Our Users

05. Process

06. Final Designs

07. Testing

08. Impact

09. Learnings

10. Future

Our USP 🏆

“Design that makes every tap feel like a win.”

📍 Introduction

Auctions used to feel intimidating — confusing rules, outdated UIs, and zero trust.
We thought: what if auctions could feel like games — fun, fair, and social?

So we built DollarAuction, a mobile platform app where anyone can auction or bid on products they love — from gadgets to collectibles — with real-time excitement and complete transparency.

👩🏻‍💻 My Role

🎨 Led end-to-end product design for mobile app
💬 Collaborated with product, marketing, and dev to align brand & flow

🟢 As Lead Designer, I conducted research, testing, and iteration from concept → launch

🧩 Problem

Defining the problem

Turn auctions into a simple, fast, and enjoyable experience for everyone.

Users didn’t trust auctions.
They found apps shady, complicated, or too time-consuming.

Pain points discovered:

Unclear bidding logic 🌀
Boring visuals, zero excitement 😐
Confusing checkout 💸
No proof of fairness or credibility 🔒

👉 "When people don’t trust the interface, they don’t trust the brand — even if it’s legit."

Users didn’t trust auctions.
They found apps shady, complicated, or too time-consuming.

Pain points discovered:

Unclear bidding logic 🌀
Boring visuals, zero excitement 😐
Confusing checkout 💸
No proof of fairness or credibility 🔒

👉 "When people don’t trust the interface, they don’t trust the brand — even if it’s legit."

Defining the problem

Turn auctions into a simple, fast, and enjoyable experience for everyone.

⚡ Goals

Our mission was simple:

We aimed to make budget-friendly treasures accessible to everyone, starting at just $1.00! Get ready for some serious steals.
Make users feel safe and excited.
Discover auctions not just nearby, but up to 100 miles away.
Promote eco-friendly wins, as one person’s trash is another’s treasure, right?

Our mission was simple:

We aimed to make budget-friendly treasures accessible to everyone, starting at just $1.00! Get ready for some serious steals.
Make users feel safe and excited.
Discover auctions not just nearby, but up to 100 miles away.
Promote eco-friendly wins, as one person’s trash is another’s treasure, right?

Our mission was simple:

We aimed to make budget-friendly treasures accessible to everyone, starting at just $1.00! Get ready for some serious steals.
Make users feel safe and excited.
Discover auctions not just nearby, but up to 100 miles away.
Promote eco-friendly wins, as one person’s trash is another’s treasure, right?

🙋🏻‍♀️ Our Users

We identified three core personas:

man wearing green crew-neck top and eyeglasses with black frames looking at side

Sam – The Everyday Shopper

Loves good deals but hates complex processes. Wants fun, quick wins.

Riya – The Competitive Bidder

Enjoys the chase and wants to feel in control. Trust and transparency matter.

Arjun – The Curious Newcomer

First-time user exploring the thrill. Needs guidance and confidence.

💡 Research & Insights

We talked to 20+ real users (shoppers, gamers, and casual buyers).
We found three big truths:

They loved deals, but the process felt intimidating.
They didn’t trust shady-looking apps with payment details.
They wanted excitement, not another checkout form.

💡 “People don’t want auctions. They want winning moments.

💬: Our insight? Turning emotional highs (thrill + trust) into design language became our main challenge.

We talked to 20+ real users (shoppers, gamers, and casual buyers).
We found three big truths:

They loved deals, but the process felt intimidating.
They didn’t trust shady-looking apps with payment details.
They wanted excitement, not another checkout form.

💡 “People don’t want auctions. They want winning moments.

💬: Our insight? Turning emotional highs (thrill + trust) into design language became our main challenge.

🔥 Design Process

Design Sprint

Our approach was simple but strategic:

Understand People → Interviews, surveys, and usability sessions.
Sketch & Wireframe → Strip away clutter until every step feels obvious.
Design for Emotion → Add color, motion, and microfeedback.
Test & Refine → Watch users interact, tweak, repeat.

💡 “Good design doesn’t just solve problems — it changes behavior.”

Our approach was simple but strategic:

Understand People → Interviews, surveys, and usability sessions.
Sketch & Wireframe → Strip away clutter until every step feels obvious.
Design for Emotion → Add color, motion, and microfeedback.
Test & Refine → Watch users interact, tweak, repeat.

💡 “Good design doesn’t just solve problems — it changes behavior.”

📰 Setting Out to Solve

To bridge the gap between our auctioneers and bidders, we needed to rethink how we portray our auction flow within the app. Below are some of the older designs we had.

🪄 Final Designs

Here’s where things got exciting.

Homescreen

Homescreen

A bright, welcoming dashboard showing live auctions, trending products, and clear “Bid Now” CTAs.
No clutter, no confusion — just instant engagement.

Iconography

Created a simple yet effective well curated list of icons/components to be used

Insights

Why Insights Matter
Auctions move fast. Users need clarity, not confusion.
The Insights pages help both buyers and sellers understand what’s happening, what worked, and what to do next—without digging through data.

Why Insights Matter
Auctions move fast. Users need clarity, not confusion.
The Insights pages help both buyers and sellers understand what’s happening, what worked, and what to do next—without digging through data.

Auction Creation Flow

A simple 4-step auction process which is hassle-free and easy. Now auction creation won't be a tedious process or part of fishy scams - just trustworthy simple process.

Easy Photo Capture Assist

We provided with built-in app's photo-capture facility so that users are not switching between multiple apps to capture perfect product photos.

Bidding Flow

Select item
Place bid instantly
Get live feedback (leading/outbid states)
Celebrate when you win

Gamified feedback = 38% longer sessions.

Select item
Place bid instantly
Get live feedback (leading/outbid states)
Celebrate when you win

Gamified feedback = 38% longer sessions.

Chats & Notifications

Outbid alerts, win confirmations, and system updates. Both bidders and auctioneers can chat effortlessly.

🔍 Usability Testing

Tested with 12 users (6 buyers, 6 sellers).
💬 93% found auction creation simple.
⏱️ Time to first bid dropped by 41%.
❤️ Seller satisfaction grew by 67%.

🔖 “We didn’t just test usability — we tested excitement.”

💫 Impact

After refining flows based on testing insights, the results spoke loud and clear:

📈 1K+ downloads within first 30 days
🔥 80% daily active users in Week 2
💬 50% fewer drop-offs mid-bid
⭐ 4.8★ user rating

📗Learnings

Trust is built visually — clarity is credibility.
Users remember how it felt, not what they tapped.
Subtle motion and feedback can turn a product into a game.

👋 Future

We’re just getting started:

Introducing Social Bidding Rooms (bid with friends in real-time)

AI Smart Bids Suggestions to auto-play based on your past actions
Expanding into digital collectibles & NFTs

Bug fixes

For a project of this scale, even though we have already fixed plenty of bugs before public release, there are bound to be minor bugs.

Post-launch optimization

This is a crucial next step for every UX improvement or product launch. With informed, actionable insights, we are able to design a better experience for our consumers.

Continue to design better experiences

To follow through our product roadmap and continue to stick to our design principles.

This has been one of my coolest projects I have worked on. DollarAuction redefined how people feel about bidding.
We turned anxiety into excitement, and confusion into confidence.
It wasn’t just about selling products — it was about selling joy.

Thank you for reading through! Hope you enjoyed learning about my design and thought process. :)

Our Observation 🧐

Everyone loved winning — but hated the process.
Most auction apps were confusing, untrustworthy, and visually dull.

‍

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Have an idea?

Let’s talk about it

Got an opportunity, want to team up on something interesting, or just want to say hi !

guptamaansi3@gmail.com