SwapSpace MVP

Co-founder, Product Designer | 2 months

Designing for trust in a double-sided marketplace.

Background

SwapSpace started as a passion project born from a simple observation: travel was becoming increasingly expensive, yet most homes sit empty for weeks at a time. I saw an opportunity to solve both problems simultaneously through home exchange. While home exchange platforms existed, they often felt transactional, lacked trust mechanisms, and didn't provide the kind of experience that would make people feel confident swapping their homes with strangers. I wanted to build something different:

A curated community where verified members could travel authentically and affordably.

The goal

We aimed to create a member-only home exchange platform that makes travel more affordable and accessible while building a trusted community of verified members. The platform needed to feel welcoming yet premium, making people confident enough to swap their homes with strangers while discovering authentic travel experiences they couldn't access through traditional accommodation.

Designing for Trust

0.1 An invite-only platform

The invite-only model was central to solving the biggest challenge in home exchange: trust. Instead of granting direct access to the platform, users had to fill out an application form. This allowed us to vet every member and curate the community from the start

The application process set the expectation and ensured every member valued meaningful, affordable travel. By limiting our initial cohort to 100 founding members, we maintained quality and built a platform where people felt safe enough to hand over the keys to their homes.

0.2 Trust as a design principle

Trust and safety were foundational to our product strategy. I designed identity verification as a core requirement. Every member must verify their identity with a government ID before they can initiate a swap, and verified members receive a visible badge on their profile. By gating core functionality behind verification, we embedded trust directly into the user journey. This design decision ensured everyone in the community was accountable and real, giving members the confidence to hand over their keys.

By gating core functionality behind verification, we embedded trust directly into the user journey.

0.3 Introducing moments of delight

My passion for designing experiences filled with delight rather than feeling transactional meant that incorporating delightful moments into Swap-space was a natural step. This involved finding natural parts of the journey where delight could be injected unobtrusively.

The first place I injected delight was after a user created an account, when we wanted to inform them about their welcome credits. The thought process was to design a card that felt like a keycard, symbolizing access to explore the world or gain entry to a home. I explored different ideas in Figma Make, prompting until I landed on something I was happy with.

0.4 Impact & Scale

Swap-space onboarded 100 founding members within the first month of launching, validating the demand for a more affordable and personal way to travel. Of those onboarded members, 45% listed their homes on the platform, demonstrating strong engagement and confidence in the community we built. This early adoption showed that our focus on trust, verification, and curation was working. Members weren't just signing up, they were actively participating and opening their homes to the community.