ROLE/SERVICES

UX Architecture & Product Design

LOCATION

Colombia / Panama

YEAR

2022

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Summary

A two-sided B2B marketplace designed from scratch, with two very different user experiences that still needed to feel like one product.

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APPURA

The Platform

The Architecture

UX architecture & information design Two-sided product design Design system (built and maintained) User research & competitive analysis Lo-fi to mid-fi to high-fi prototype

Scope

Appura is a B2B marketplace connecting businesses such as restaurants, hotels, catering operations, and retail chains with food, beverage, and supplies distributors. The main UX challenge was that buyers and suppliers needed fundamentally different experiences. Buyers needed discovery, comparison, and checkout. Suppliers needed order management and fulfilment. That meant the information architecture had to separate the two clearly before getting into screen-level design.

On the buyer side, I designed two parallel ways to navigate the same inventory: browse by Supplier or browse by Product. Product pages let buyers compare multiple suppliers for the same SKU and sort by delivery speed, price, or rating. The cart also handles minimum-order requirements progressively, showing exactly how much is left to reach the minimum instead of waiting until checkout to block the order. The supplier side was designed separately around operational needs: real-time notifications, a paginated order dashboard, payment tracking, and a revenue view split between received and pending payments.

Research

Research
75%
of B2B buyers sourced suppliers via word of mouth — no structured comparison tool existed in the market
88%
ranked punctuality and quality as primary selection criteria — directly informing delivery date and rating prominence in the comparison UI
54
B2B partners onboarded via product-led acquisition before financial constraints halted launch

Competitive analysis of Choco, Katoo, and PhiloMarket helped confirm a few gaps in the market. None offered real-time comparison between suppliers at the product level, progressive guidance for minimum-order requirements inside the cart, or a fully integrated payment layer. I used MoSCoW prioritisation to define the first phase around supplier comparison, minimum-order enforcement, Google Maps delivery, and the Crédito APPURA payment instrument. Recurring delivery scheduling was left for phase two.

Key Design Decisions
01
Dual navigation paradigm
Browse by Supplier or browse by Product — two entry points into identical inventory, each optimised for a different intent state. A buyer who knows what they want searches by Product. A buyer with a preferred supplier enters via Supplier. Both surfaces maintain persistent filter state so context is never lost mid-session. The decision to build two parallel paradigms rather than a single hierarchy was an IA call made before any screen was drawn.
02
Progressive minimum order enforcement
Rather than blocking at checkout, the cart implements progressive threshold validation: the CTA is disabled and surfaces the exact delta to minimum, while the supplier's full catalogue renders below — converting a hard friction point into a cross-sell surface within the same interaction. The minimum is real and enforced. The experience is designed to resolve it, not punish it.
03
Architecturally separate supplier dashboard
The supplier-side shares zero UI patterns with the buyer side — separate navigation, information hierarchy, and interaction model. A supplier managing incoming orders, tracking revenue across delivery types, and monitoring payment method split needs operational density. Keeping both sides architecturally clean required explicit decisions at the IA level: no shared components where the mental models diverge.