Nearville
Designing a Peer-to-Peer Rental Platform From the Ground Up
01.
Overview
In compliance with my confidentiality agreement, I have omitted and altered any confidential details.
My Role
Co-Founder, Product Design Lead
TEAM
3 Product Designer
2 PM
Engineers
SCOPE
MVP Design
Branding
UX Strategy
Design System
STAT
MVP in 6 Months
End-to-end rental flow
Build first design system
Launched in 3 pilot neighborhoods
Shipped
As co-founder and product design lead, I was responsible for driving Nearville’s 0→1 product design—from shaping the product vision to executing the end-to-end rental experience. I led a lean team of three designers, built the company’s first design system, and collaborated cross-functionally to ship a full MVP in under six months.
Shipped
02.Problem
We’re drowning
in stuff we rarely use.
Thousands of dollars in idle items collecting dust in every home. But when people want to borrow instead of buy, existing platforms feel clunky, uncertain, or unsafe.
Borrowing locally often means long message threads, nerve wracking cash exchange, unclear pickup expectations, and trust concerns. Most people give up before they even try.
Nearville was set out to fix this.
03.
Goals
Design a mobile-first platform that makes peer-to-peer lending as simple and trustworthy as typical online shopping.
Simplify the rental flow so that borrowing felt more like shopping
Prioritize local convenience by emphasizing items nearby
Support both sides of the experience equally—borrowers and lenders
Inspire first-time users with relevant items and ideas at launch
04.
Research & Early Insights
we needed to understand the barriers and motivators behind local borrowing and lending. While the concept of sharing tools or gear is familiar, the behavior often stalls due to uncertainty, lack of trust, or unclear expectations.
To guide early decisions, I focused on qualitative discovery and behavioral mapping:
Audited existing P2P and community platforms (Fat Llama, Nextdoor, Yoodlize)
Conducted interviews with potential users and mapped the full rental journey to uncover high-friction touchpoints: search, pickup logistics, trust-building, and communication
Key insights that shaped our MVP direction:
Borrowers want clarity and confidence before requesting an item
Lenders need assurance and control—around pickup timing, damage risk, and communication
Common:
Trust signals (e.g. profile verification, clear item condition, reviews) are non-negotiable for engagement
Most users expect mobile-first convenience and flows that mirror e-commerce behavior
05.
Design approach
The product was designed around three insights from the initial research:
People are open to sharing—if the process is clear and reliable
Trust needs to be visible, not assumed
→ Profiles, reviews, condition tags, and verifications were surfaced early and often
Discovery drives action when it feels personal
→ Onboarding collects user interests to surface curated categories and spark ideas
→ Borrowing flows to be kept linear, focused, and guided by familiar patterns
06.
Core Features
Curated Category Onboarding
During sign-up, users select interest-based categories (e.g. camping, photography, DIY). Their selections power a personalized home feed showing relevant local items—making the app feel immediately useful and engaging.
Geo-Driven Discovery
The landing feed highlights available items nearby, filtered by user interest and location.
Booking Flow
A streamlined, guided process designed to mirror familiar e-commerce flows—one step, one focus, no clutter.
Trust Signal
Verified profiles, ratings, and item history to build confidence in both directions.
With the MVP live, our next stage of research focuses on identifying where product-market fit is strongest—and where our core mechanics need to evolve.
Key areas of investigation include:
Usability testing to evaluate discoverability, retention, and trust perception
Messaging and booking behavior across different user segments
Comparative feedback from student communities and family households
Behavioral patterns behind repeat usage and lending frequency
We’re actively refining our research plan to prioritize roadmap features that drive meaningful transactions—not just app installs.
07.
What we’re Exploring Next
Designing Nearville has been a lesson in building while learning. In early-stage products, the goal isn’t perfection—it’s clarity. Every test, launch, and conversation helps sharpen our understanding of what makes people act: what drives them to borrow, lend, and trust a stranger.
The grit comes in staying close to the problem even when the path forward isn’t clear. And the reward is in seeing a product move from an idea to something real—something used, questioned, tested, and improved. We're not done yet—but we're designing forward, driven by user needs, local momentum, and a belief that sharing should feel natural.
08.
Reflection
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