STUDIO

CERES

Problem

Solution

Research

Low Fidelity

User Flow

Reflection

Overview

Tradefeed is a mobile-first bartering platform designed to help people exchange skills, services, and goods without money. Built for a generation navigating rising costs and unstable economies, the app reframes value as flexible, social, and community-driven. Instead of transactions, Tradefeed centers mutual benefit. Users offer what they can and request what they need, forming exchanges grounded in trust, communication, and perceived fairness.

Trade Lane was a project exploring vibe coding to create an Interaction Experience(IX) application, we were tasked to use two API's to integrate in our self lead research project.

Tradefeed is a mobile-first bartering platform designed to help people exchange skills, services, and goods without money. Built for a generation navigating rising costs and unstable economies, the app reframes value as flexible, social, and community-driven. Instead of transactions, Tradefeed centers mutual benefit. Users offer what they can and request what they need, forming exchanges grounded in trust, communication, and
perceived fairness.

Complete
77019
1225

Ceres
UI/UX
2026

Made In Collaboration With:
Mason Nguyen, Juliet Work, Eleanor Phillips, Christina Rosas

Made using Cursor, Claude, Chatgpt, and vibe coding

Problem

Opportunity

Modern marketplaces trade through money and often have crazy markups, scalpers, and poor communication. Money is not the only tradeable currency, people have underutilized skills and time.

Trade Lane aims to address:

  • Informal exchanges happen but lack structure and safety

  • Trust between strangers is fragile in peer-to-peer systems

Existing platforms like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist fail to:

  • Measure trust beyond scarce reviews

  • Support non-monetary exchange

  • Encourage ongoing community interaction

Reframe commerce as exchange instead of purchase.

Cultural and behavioral shifts:

  • Rise of mutual aid networks

  • Skill-sharing communities (online + local)

  • Gen Z prioritizing access over ownership

  • Increased interest in sustainable, low-waste systems

Tradefeed positions bartering as:

  • Social

  • Trackable

  • Trust-driven

  • Mobile-native

Solution

Core Features

  • Personalized Feed
    Listings based on skills offered, wants, and proximity

  • Skill + Want Tag System
    Users define:

    • What they offer (Design, Cooking, Repairs)

    • What they want (Groceries, Rides, Help Moving)

  • Karma System
    Users are rated across:

    • Reliability

    • Transparency

    • Communication

    • Fairness of Exchange

  • Mobile-first UX
    Scrollable, social-feed style interface
    Designed for quick discovery and low friction

  • Post-Trade Rating Flow
    Builds trust through structured, behavior-based feedback

APIs

As per the project guidelines we were to incorporate two APIs for the user experience I integrated a google SSO and google maps API into the app to enhance the user experience and making bartering easier

Experience Design

Feed

A vertically scrolling list of listings:

  • Clear title + description

  • Skill tags + want tags

  • Location + availability

  • Karma badge

Designed to feel closer to a social app than a marketplace.

Filtering

Users can filter by:

  • Skills offered

  • Wants

  • Trade type (local, remote, quick trade)

Multi-select tags allow users to shape their feed in real time.

Listing Cards

Each listing communicates:

  • Who the user is

  • What they offer

  • What they want

  • When they’re available

The goal: instant clarity of value exchange

Karma System

Trust is quantified beyond a single rating.

Each user has:

  • Category scores (0–5)

  • Aggregated score (0–100)

  • Visual trust badge

This shifts evaluation from popularity → behavior.

Reflection

This was my second major collaborative project in my program, I worked with five others, we had divided this project into two teams of three and I was responsible for UX design and animations. It was a learning curve balancing the teams workload with my own schedule however I learned better time management skills. I further deepened my skills with figma as a prototyping tool and I improved my animation qualities. This ended up being one of the first projects I was truely proud of because the fantastic job we did as a team!

This was my second major collaborative project in my program, I worked with five others, we had divided this project into two teams of three and I was responsible for UX design and animations. It was a learning curve balancing the teams workload with my own schedule however I learned better time management skills. I further deepened my skills with figma as a prototyping tool and I improved my animation qualities. This ended up being one of the first projects I was truely proud of because the fantastic job we did as a team!

Prompt Logs

To be completely transparent in the process of making this project and for transparency sake I have included my prompt logs below. Generative AI was mandatory for this projects creation

To be completely transparent in the process of making this project and for transparency sake I have included my prompt logs below. Generative AI was mandatory for this projects creation

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STUDIO CERES

STUDIO CERES