TradeSource — Reimagining B2B Procurement

TradeSource set out to modernize B2B furniture procurement in a $1.3 trillion global market. Ryan led design across desktop, mobile web, and native apps — research, design system, and a social feature called ShopTalk — and the engagement was extended multiple times beyond its original scope.

Role: Design Lead

Global furniture market: $1.3T
US market: $200B+
Engagement: Extended multiple times

Overview

The global furniture market is valued at $1.3 trillion, with the US accounting for over $200 billion. TradeSource sought to disrupt this vast, complex industry by modernizing the B2B furniture procurement process. The goal was to create an integrated platform that would simplify the process of furniture sourcing for interior designers, their clients, and furniture manufacturers. As the design lead, Ryan was responsible for leading the design efforts to create an efficient, user-friendly ecosystem that unified this fragmented process. TradeSource is an internal studio name for the project.

Project Scope

Furniture procurement in the B2B space is complex and often messy, involving multiple stakeholders, long supply chains, and outdated systems — primarily paper catalogs and fragmented digital tools. Ryan's task was to help TradeSource design a new platform that could:

Streamline procurement by integrating multiple systems into one unified experience.
Provide a seamless experience for interior designers, manufacturers, and clients throughout the entire project lifecycle.
Simplify the process of sourcing, purchasing, and delivering large, costly items while reducing risks like vendor bankruptcies or product unavailability.

Ryan was brought in early in the project to provide UX leadership, setting the vision and collaborating with the client's internal team. His role involved everything from conducting research and building a design system to designing touchpoints for desktop web, mobile web, native apps (iOS/Android), and marketing materials. Due to the success of his work, the project was extended multiple times beyond its original scope. The design studio continued to develop the project after the client engagement.

Process

1. Generative research

Before jumping into design, Ryan conducted in-depth research to understand the needs, pain points, and behaviors of the primary user personas — furniture manufacturers, interior designers, and their clients. This research, primarily conducted remotely, included interviews with interior designers (with additional research on manufacturers and clients), a combination of qualitative and quantitative data including Likert scale questions, and guerrilla-style research to maintain speed and flexibility, allowing for fast iterations on findings.

Challenges faced by interior designers: designers were overwhelmed with the abundance of resources and struggled with inconsistent and outdated information from vendors. The COVID-19 pandemic added complexity by impacting vendor reliability and delivery times.
Desire for a unified platform: designers expressed a strong interest in a consolidated system providing up-to-date product specifications, pricing, availability, and vendor information in one place.
Client communication and pricing sensitivities: designers needed a way to interact with clients while maintaining the confidentiality of trade pricing and product catalogs.
Interest in a social platform: designers saw potential in a social feature that allowed them to share insights while maintaining control over the information they shared with clients.

2. Customer journey mapping

To ensure the platform would address the needs of all users, Ryan mapped out the customer journey, charting each step in the procurement process — from initial product discovery to final delivery. This included:

Client onboarding and communication: a streamlined process for designers to onboard clients to the platform.
Sourcing and product discovery: simplified tools for designers to search and filter through manufacturers' catalogs.
Proposal and collaboration flow: features to facilitate communication between designers, manufacturers, and clients, with particular emphasis on sensitive trade pricing.
Payment, production, and delivery: the ability to track orders and maintain transparency across all stages of the procurement process.

Ryan envisioned TradeSource as a central hub bringing all these interactions into one place, with designers at the center of the ecosystem. Manufacturers could directly connect with designers, and designers could easily share proposals and communicate with clients.

3. Design system development

A key part of the project was creating a design system that allowed for consistency, scalability, and rapid development: core UI components (reusable design patterns such as buttons, input fields, and cards); modular components — these "atoms" were combined into "molecules" and larger design elements, ensuring flexibility across various touchpoints; and consistency — a unified visual language (colors, typography, spacing) ensuring a cohesive experience across the platform. By creating a comprehensive design system, Ryan ensured the development process was efficient, consistent, and could easily accommodate future iterations as new features were added.

4. Iterative design & prototyping

The design work progressed from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity visual designs: ideation through hand-drawn sketches and brainstorming sessions; competitive analysis to ensure the platform met industry standards and offered a unique value proposition; wireframes and process flows serving as the blueprint for the platform's UI; visual designs using Sketch and Adobe Creative Cloud tools; and clickable prototypes demonstrating key features, such as product discovery and the social shopping feature, ShopTalk.

5. Evaluative usability testing

Throughout the design process, Ryan conducted evaluative usability tests to validate the design. These tests used a guerrilla-style approach, where participants (interior designers, manufacturers, and clients) interacted with prototypes, completing real-world tasks while sharing their thoughts using the think-aloud protocol. Key areas tested included product discovery and catalog management, the proposal flow (from sourcing products to sharing proposals), the user flow for purchasing and receiving quotes, and social features such as the ShopTalk platform for communication and product releases.

Results

Business impact

The social shopping feature (ShopTalk) enhanced product discovery and user engagement.
Native mobile apps (iOS/Android) opened new opportunities for reaching customers.
The visual design became a cornerstone of TradeSource's brand, helping to attract customers and investors.

UX success

Happiness: the holistic focus on the customer led to high satisfaction with the platform.
Engagement: the unified platform for one-stop shopping improved user engagement.
Adoption and retention: the mobile apps and improved manufacturer catalog management contributed to sustained user engagement and retention.
Task success: consistent design patterns, such as easy-to-use filters, improved product discovery.

Collaboration and efficiency: the design system and agile process greatly improved team collaboration. By slotting into the client's two-week sprint cycle and using standard design patterns, the team was able to increase velocity and efficiency, bringing the project to completion on time and within budget.

Conclusion

The success of TradeSource illustrates how a user-centered design approach, combined with a well-thought-out design system, can transform complex B2B processes into seamless, user-friendly experiences. By integrating interior designers, furniture manufacturers, and their clients into a unified digital ecosystem, Ryan was able to create a platform that simplified furniture procurement, improved UX metrics, and accelerated the startup's success in a competitive market.