Rethinking Vinted product discovery
Role
UX Designer (self-inititated project)
Duration
Personal project (2026)
industry
Marketplace
Process
UX Audit · Research · Ideation · Wireframing
Tools
Figma · FigJam · ChatGPT
Project Context
While using Vinted daily, I noticed an increasing number of recurring usability issues, primarily on desktop. Rather than appearing as isolated errors, these issues emerged as repeated patterns throughout search, browsing, and product evaluation. The goal was not to redesign Vinted in its entirety, but to identify the user problems creating the most friction and define a research-driven direction for redesign.
Initial Observations
UX Audit Summary
As the first step of the project, I conducted a UX audit of Vinted’s desktop experience. I collected 94 observations and organised them into eight main themes using affinity mapping.
Product Discovery
Navigation & Orientation
Buying Experience
Favorites
Product Upload
Profile & Wardrobe Management
Notifications & System Feedback
Global Usability
Affinity map
Initial Patterns
The audit showed that most issues were related to finding and browsing products. Recurring patterns included limited search, missing filtering criteria, an unclear results list, and product cards with poorly structured decision-supporting information. In addition, navigating to a product page and then back to the results often interrupted the browsing flow.
Research
I validated the audit findings through desk research and benchmark analysis. I reviewed Reddit feedback, a Vinted redesign case study, and relevant articles from the Vinted Engineering Blog. The aim was to determine whether the desktop experience itself was the problem and which user tasks created the most friction.
The research indicated that desktop use is not inherently problematic: users find several tasks - such as browsing, searching, and managing listings, particularly convenient on a larger screen. Recurring frustrations are instead connected to search, finding relevant results, and maintaining continuity in the browsing flow. The benchmark also confirmed that successful marketplaces support Product Discovery primarily by surfacing decision-supporting information early and reducing navigational interruptions.
Research Synthesis
Validated Findings
Product Discovery is one of the most critical areas of the user experience
Desktop use is not a problem in itself; friction is tied to specific tasks
Users want to assess the relevance of results quickly
Losing browsing context creates unnecessary cognitive effort
The benchmark suggests adopting proven UX principles rather than specific features
Problem Statement
On Vinted’s desktop experience, the Product Discovery process does not support users’ decision-making efficiently enough. As a result, finding and evaluating relevant products requires more time and effort than necessary.
Opportunity Areas
Support the Product Discovery process with fewer interruptions and greater continuity
Enable faster decision-making by presenting relevant information earlier and more clearly
Preserve browsing context by supporting product discovery and comparison without making users lose the context of the results list
Ideation
I developed several potential solutions for the identified opportunity areas, then evaluated them against the problems uncovered in research and their expected user impact. The directions taken forward shared the same goal: faster decision-making, continuity in browsing, and better use of the desktop experience.
Clearer product cards with information that supports decision-making
A mini carousel on product cards, enabling users to view more images without leaving the results page.
Solutions that support faster, more structured browsing
Product discovery flow
Wireframing
I developed the selected concepts as low-fidelity wireframes. At this stage, the focus was on information architecture, interactions, and user flows rather than visual refinement. The next step would be an interactive prototype and usability testing.
Low-fi wireframes
Expected Impact
Together, the concepts aim to make Product Discovery more efficient: users should be able to evaluate results with fewer unnecessary product openings, less cognitive effort, and without losing their browsing context. The information hierarchy of the product cards and the carousel, which enables a quick overview of multiple images, primarily support the early stage of decision-making.
Learnings
At the beginning of the project, I saw fixing issues in the interface as the main task. During the research, however, it became clear that the real challenge was not an individual missing feature, but the efficiency of the overall Product Discovery process. This shift in perspective helped me focus on the underlying user problem and on reducing the effort required, rather than on solutions themselves.
The next step would be to validate the concept through an interactive prototype and moderated usability tests. As the current solutions have not yet been validated with users, the impacts described in Expected Impact are hypotheses, not proven outcomes.