Rebuilding the Buy Nothing marketplace from scratch
A ground-up redesign of the mobile and web app for nearly 2 million members, with a new design system.
Overview
The Buy Nothing Project is a gift economy where neighbors give, ask for, and share things for free. Its original app had a large user base, but the experience felt outdated and clunky. We rewrote the app from first principles, matching the feature parity of the robust prior app while launching private communities and a Pro subscription with impact dashboards, saved search alerts, and more.
Problem
Core workflows like gifting, choosing recipients, messaging, commenting, search, and notifications all needed an overhaul. Millions of members in Buy Nothing’s Facebook groups also wanted a home off Facebook for data privacy. And as a free marketplace, the company needed to earn revenue to support its long-term sustainability.
My approach
Buy Nothing is a hybrid of a marketplace and a social platform: every item is one of a kind, and much of the engagement happens through comments, likes, and raves. I designed to make that engagement visible, blending best practices from both worlds for members of every level of technical ability. I also built trackability into the core gifting loop. Recording who gives and who receives each item gives the organization the engagement data it needs, and reveals behavior patterns that shape our design and marketing going forward.
Process
- I audited pain points in the old app and researched what motivates members, from decluttering and moving to keeping things out of landfills, helping neighbors, saving money, and finding things they need.
- I studied other marketplaces and social platforms for patterns worth borrowing.
- I took a deep dive into every workflow and redesigned the core gifting flow from first principles.
- I owned the overall experience and took on the more complex net-new features myself, while assigning foundational work, like migrating existing features, to the rest of the design team.
- We launched the new app as one major release, followed by several months of rapid fast follows and triage.
- I brought RevenueCat to the team so we can quickly test paywall messaging before investing limited engineering time.
Outcomes & lessons
The new app is working: our member base keeps growing, and new members are posting more than ever. Looking back, I’d research subscription messaging before launch, since we learned the hard way that “support Buy Nothing” messaging works better than “pay for more features.” I’d also start with a leaner, AI-first design system that grows with the product, and focus the small team on polishing the core experience before adding new features.
