OLX App – Redesigned
OLX is a widely used E-commerce platform allowing users to buy and sell second-hand goods. It is a C2C marketplace in the online classifieds sector.
The Android app for the Indian market however, could use some improvement.
Follow along as we discuss and solve some key problems and revamp the user interface for a much better user experience.
Disclaimer: This project reflects my personal work and was developed independently of any professional association with OLX.
Rewinding to the start…
How it all began
I came across OLX as I was searching for a way to sell my old furniture during my house renovation. My furniture was well maintained and in fairly good condition and I wanted it to have a second home instead of just discarding it away.
I figured a second-hand goods selling platform would be a wise choice enabling me to give away my products to a like-minded genuine buyer while also making some short money from the exchange.
Afterall, we all know the famous proverb:
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure
However, as I navigated the OLX app on my Android phone, I encountered several frustrating issues—confusing workflows, redundant information, irrelevant steps, and an unintuitive interface.
This experience left me wondering:
- How could a platform from such a prominent company overlook basic usability?
- Was I alone in this frustration, or did others feel the same?
- How can I enhance this while preserving most of the app’s content, features, and branding choices?
These questions inspired me to explore a redesign to make the app more user-friendly.
Lets get the ball rolling…
to be noted:
- Most of the app’s core content and features are preserved. This redesign is aimed at improving what is currently already present.
The OLX brand’s primary color palette is retained.
- While the main goal of this redesign is refining the user experience, a new feature has been added to support business objectives —more on this later.
What went wrong in the current version?
Initial analysis of existing problems and challenges
An inconsistent App
OLX’s current design lacked user-centered design principles and patterns, with inconsistent icons, redundant information, poor item categorizations, and inefficient task flows leading to user confusion and reliance on trial and error.
This resulted in decreased user trust and weakened the app’s credibility.
Too many Ads, too little UX
While ads are a key revenue source for OLX, overcrowding the app with them hurts the user experience by making navigation cluttered and slow, distracting users from listings, and increasing accidental Ad clicks causing user frustration.
Is there a better way? Finding the right balance between monetization and usability was key to keeping both users and revenue happy.
Unintuitive visual design
A poorly structured UI without proper visual hierarchy, lack of visual cues for navigation and weak microinteractions felt unintuitive and disrupted a logical user flow, making even simple tasks feel difficult.
This led to users struggling to find what they needed and thus a subpar user experience and reduced engagement.
Open Marketplace, Open to Scams?
Anyone who has used OLX knows: You can’t trust everyone.
Apps like OLX, where anyone can buy or sell, are vulnerable to frauds like deceptive scammers, fake listings and advance payment scams. It is imperative to find a system that helps filter out scammers, making interactions safer and more trustworthy for genuine users —something OLX currently seems to be struggling with.
Am I alone in this? Or do others feel the same?
Research – Understanding the users
Besides my personal experience using the app, I conducted research to know if other users faced similar challenges and to understand their needs, pain points and motivations better.
But first, who are the users?
The potential users of the app can be categorized into 2 buckets:
- Buyers
People using the app to buy a product or service - Sellers
People using the app to sell their products to potential buyers
A buyer can also be a seller and vice-versa. However depending on the role they play at a time, each type of user may have distinct needs and motivations, and possibly different pain points as well.
To understand further, I conducted the research in two phases:
- Secondary Research
(App user reviews, Community forums like Reddit, Competitor Analysis) - Primary Research
(User survey and User interviews)
Secondary Research
Both types of users may have different needs and motivations, and possibly distinct pain points as well.