Marketplaces & Platforms
1stDibs iOS App
A rich mobile iOS app to discover the world's most beautiful things
Client
1stDibs
Timeline
2013–2020
Service & Offer
Sector
Platform
1stDibs is a curated marketplace offering furniture, fashion, jewelry, fine art, and collectibles from notable dealers and galleries worldwide. The design team collaborated with product and technology partners to create the company's first native iOS application, resulting in a sophisticated shopping experience enabling discovery, curation, and purchasing.
Challenge
Extending a complex marketplace to mobile
1stDibs needed to understand how a native app could extend its existing web platform for both shoppers and dealers. The team began by interviewing stakeholders to understand business priorities, then conducted dealer interviews to comprehend workflows, physical environments, and customer communication methods. Research findings were synthesized into shopper spectrums, personas, and usage scenarios illustrating diverse engagement approaches.
Solution
Discovery, search, and in-the-moment purchases
The team leveraged 1stDibs' extensive catalog to support both exploratory discovery and intentional shopping. Customers can search or browse by category, explore curated collections for inspiration, save searches and items, message dealers directly, and complete secure purchases — with the app using iPhone geolocation to help shoppers locate nearby galleries and dealers.
Key design features include rich imagery within subcategories that provides context while browsing, a streamlined product detail page emphasizing photography and essential information, and fixed "Buy Now" and "Make an Offer" actions that maintain purchase accessibility. The design system adapted the 1stDibs style guide for app implementation, and each customer's favorites page draws colors from saved items to create personalized headers reflecting their taste.
Post-launch development included a messaging center for product-specific communication between customers and dealers, "Make an Offer" functionality enabling price negotiation, follow features for tracking dealers and galleries, and favorite folders for organizing saved products by category.
Outcome
A foundation that kept evolving
The app launched as 1stDibs' first native iOS experience, distilling a complex luxury marketplace into a simple, delightful shopping experience. The team subsequently designed a dealer-facing iOS application, released in 2017, extending the design system across the platform.
“Working with the Everyday team was amazing! They were able to distill the complex aspects of the 1stDibs marketplace into an easy-to-use and delightful mobile iOS app for our customers.”
Xiaodi Zhang, Chief Product Officer
Interested in working together?
Whether you’re launching something new, scaling an existing product, or need a design partner who can navigate complexity and move fast without sacrificing quality — I’d love to hear about it.