Weedmaps · Regulated marketplace · Multi-surface redesign
Aligning a fragmented delivery experience across three surfaces
A marketplace delivery experience had evolved differently across web, mobile web, and native app. Each surface was trying to solve the same user problem, but the underlying structure had drifted: filters behaved differently, cards carried different information, and page layouts reflected platform-specific decisions rather than a shared system. This project was less about redesigning one page and more about creating a coherent model for how delivery discovery should work across surfaces.
Context
This work was for a regulated marketplace where consumers discover retailers and place orders through local operators.
The delivery experience was a major entry point into the marketplace, but the surface had become fragmented over time. Web, mobile web, and native app each presented a different version of the same core experience. Filters, cards, sponsored placements, and edge_lines had been shaped by separate launches and platform-specific decisions.
The opportunity was to create a more coherent delivery discovery system: one that gave users clearer information, helped teams reason from a shared model, and supported business constraints without letting those constraints define the entire experience.
The brief
What was asked for
Modernize the delivery experience and bring the three platforms into closer alignment.
What it actually was
A shared model for how the delivery experience should work. Before the page could be redesigned, the team needed to agree on the core building blocks: what a delivery card needed to communicate, which filters mattered most, how sponsored content should be integrated, and where platform differences were acceptable. The challenge was not simply visual consistency. It was structural consistency.
Constraints
Every project has the constraints you negotiate and the ones you live inside. The ones that shaped this work:
- The experience existed across three surfaces with different technical and interaction patterns.
- The page had to support user discovery, business visibility, and marketplace operations at the same time.
- Paid placements needed to remain visible without overwhelming the user's ability to evaluate options.
- Search visibility and page structure could not be treated as afterthoughts.
- The redesign needed to move quickly while still creating a foundation that could scale beyond a single page.
Decisions
Design the surfaces together, not separately
The biggest risk was treating web, mobile web, and native app as three independent redesigns. I approached the work as one system with platform-specific expressions. That meant defining one filter vocabulary, one card content model, and one set of edge-state rules before resolving individual layouts. This helped the team distinguish between true platform needs and accidental inconsistencies.
Resolve the card before resolving the page
The card carried the most important decisions in the experience. It had to help users compare options, understand delivery availability, recognize relevant business information, and move forward with confidence. It also had to support marketplace and business needs without becoming overloaded. I focused first on the card content model: what information appeared, what hierarchy it followed, and what could be removed or deprioritized. Once the card model became clearer, the page layouts were easier to align.
Treat filters as decision support, not decoration
Filters were not just controls. They were part of how users narrowed a complex marketplace into something actionable. I prioritized filter visibility around the decisions users were most likely trying to make: availability, speed, relevance, and confidence. The goal was not to expose every possible filter at once, but to make the most useful paths easier to recognize.
Make business constraints visible without letting them dominate
The surface had to support monetization and marketplace visibility, but users still needed a clear path to evaluate delivery options. I worked through placement, labeling, hierarchy, and density tradeoffs so sponsored or business-prioritized content could exist within the experience without making the page feel less trustworthy or harder to use.
Tradeoffs
- Consistency vs. platform fit — chose create one shared system without forcing every platform into the exact same layout over pixel-perfect uniformity across all three surfaces.
- Visibility vs. comprehension — chose support business and marketplace visibility without overwhelming users with too much competing information over maximum density of business content.
- Filter access vs. decision clarity — chose give users control while keeping the primary discovery path focused over exposing every filter category upfront.
- Speed vs. foundation — chose move the redesign forward quickly while still defining patterns that could support future marketplace surfaces over a slower, more exhaustive system-wide rollout.
- Business needs vs. user trust — chose preserve important business placements while making sure users could still understand and compare their options clearly over prioritizing business content at the expense of user comprehension.
Working with the room
The hardest part of the project was not the visual design. It was getting multiple priorities into one coherent model. Delivery discovery touched user experience, marketplace visibility, technical constraints, search considerations, and business goals. Each group had valid needs, but those needs were not always aligned at the interface level. I used content models, annotated layouts, and written rationale to make the tradeoffs visible. Instead of treating disagreement as a matter of preference, I framed decisions around what the surface needed to help users understand and what the business needed the system to support. That shared language made it easier to move from competing requests toward a more durable design direction.
Outcome
The work created a more unified delivery discovery experience across web, mobile web, and native app. More importantly, it established a clearer model for how delivery cards, filters, sponsored placements, and edge states should behave across surfaces. That gave the team a stronger foundation for future marketplace work and reduced the amount of decision-making that had to be repeated platform by platform. The redesign also clarified where consistency mattered most and where platform-specific differences were appropriate.
In hindsight
The most valuable part of this project was not the page layout. It was creating agreement around the system underneath it. Once the team had a shared model for the card, filters, and surface behavior, the visual design had something solid to respond to. Without that alignment, the redesign would have been cosmetic. With it, the work became a foundation for a more coherent marketplace experience.
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