Role:
Product Designer (Solo)
Deliverables:
Personas, Competitor Audit, Wireframes, Design System, UI Screens, Prototype
Duration
4 weeks (Aug–Sept 2024)
Tool Used:
Figma, FigJam, Notion
PeerPapers: A Marketplace for Academic Materials
summary.
PeerPapers is a mobile-first academic marketplace designed to help students find, share, and monetize course-specific study materials. Built in response to fragmented group chats, shady note-sharing platforms, and a lack of trust in peer-contributed content, PeerPapers aims to centralize and legitimize academic exchange—especially for students in MENA and other underserved markets.
the problem.
In the UAE and across the MENA region, students often exchange study notes informally via WhatsApp groups or campus chats. However, these notes:
Are disorganized and difficult to discover
Lack quality assurance
Can’t be monetized by students
I set out to design PeerPapers, a concept mobile app that lets students upload, browse, and purchase verified study notes by subject, course, or university.
the goal.
Make high-quality study materials searchable by university, subject, and language
Let students sell their notes securely and build reputation
Create a mobile-first experience with local UX expectations (Arabic + English)
research.
Research Goal
To understand how university students discover, evaluate, purchase, and share academic materials — and to identify the trust barriers, usage habits, and unmet needs that shape their interaction with existing note-sharing platforms.
Methodology
1. User Interviews
Conducted 4 interviews with students across the Sudan, Jordan, Egypt, and the UK. Participants included undergrads and recent graduates from fields like biology, computer science, and economics.
Discussions focused on day-to-day academic study behaviors, how they find and vet notes, their ethical boundaries around buying/selling content, and their views on subscription-based learning platforms.
2. Online Ethnographic Research
Analyzed 50+ user reviews from platforms like Course Hero, StuDocu, OneClass, and Chegg
Scanned discussions on Quora, Discord, and X/Twitter around “study hacks”, “selling notes”, “past exams”, and “chegg unlocks”
3. Persona Simulation Based on Patterns
I synthesized this data into the representative persona of:
Yasmin Fathi (20, Biology student, Jordan) – grade-conscious, time-strapped, skeptical of paid platforms, and reliant on group chats to get through exam season. She's open to using new tools but only if they're transparent, relevant, and save her stress during finals.
Research Questions
How do students currently find and evaluate academic content?
What makes a study document feel trustworthy or worth paying for?
What are students’ frustrations with uploading their own notes?
What kinds of peer signals (ratings, verification, social proof) increase confidence?
How do students weigh ethical concerns when using paid academic material?
insights.
Trust is key: Students need previews, course tags, and verified uploaders to feel confident buying.
Search > Browse: They want fast, filtered access to relevant notes — not endless feeds.
Money ≠ Motivation: Uploaders need clear payouts; many just want to help or build rep.
No subscriptions: Students prefer small, one-time payments over monthly plans.
Ethics matter: Clear usage boundaries (e.g. not for graded work) increase adoption.
process.
1. Research & Synthesis
Interviews and ethnographic research across study forums. Affinity-mapped responses into core themes: trust, monetization, discoverability, and ethics.
2. Persona & Journey Mapping
Created the primary persona Yasmin, a biology undergrad in the Jordan. Mapped her experience across search, evaluation, and purchase flows.
3. Information Architecture
Structured key flows: smart search, document preview, purchase, upload, and rating. Prioritized minimal friction and mobile-first behavior.
4. Wireframes & Flowcharts
Visualized core user journeys with low-fidelity sketches and mobile flow diagrams. Focused on clarity, credibility signals, and content surfacing.
5. Style Guide & Components
Defined visual language (clean, academic, bilingual-ready), trust UI elements (badges, stars, tags), and interaction patterns for uploaders and buyers.
solution.
PeerPapers is a mobile-first academic marketplace designed for fast, trusted, and course-specific study material exchange.
Core Features:
Smart Search & Filters
Find notes by university, course code, subject, and file type with real-time previews.Verified Uploaders & Ratings
Trust built through university email verification, author badges, and student reviews.One-Time Purchases
No subscriptions. Pay only for what you need, with transparent pricing and preview-first flow.Contributor Tools
Upload in minutes, earn per download, and build a public reputation with ratings.
Search & Filter screen
Students can quickly filter by university, subject, language, price, and file type.
This replaces unstructured group chats with structured results that reflect Yasmin’s real study needs. Courses are auto-suggested, and search is intent-first.
Account Verification
Each note is tied to a verified uploader, shown with university affiliation and contributor badges. A 5-star rating system with short reviews builds social proof — helping users assess value at a glance before spending.
One-Time Purchases
Instead of a monthly subscription, each document has a clear price tag and preview. Students purchase one note at a time — a model aligned with their low-frequency, high-intent buying behavior.
Contributor Upload Flow
Uploading is fast — contributors drag in a PDF, tag it by course and university, preview the file, and set a price. Uploaders see an estimated payout and can monitor download counts and ratings.
final designs.
what I learned.
Trust isn’t a feature — it’s an ecosystem
Students aren’t just buying notes, they’re buying certainty. Verified uploaders, previews, and reviews aren’t “nice-to-haves” — they’re the baseline.
Microtransactions outperform subscriptions in academic contexts
Users want control and immediacy. Low-cost, one-off purchases aligned far better with their behavior than locked-in monthly plans.Students rely on informal systems — because they work
WhatsApp and Google Drive might be chaotic, but they’re fast, familiar, and communal. To replace them, the product has to be just as frictionless and add value.Designing for ethical gray zones requires clarity and humility
Academic integrity isn’t black and white. Transparency, usage guidance, and community flagging go further than hard policing.
