What I designed
Tandem runs live auctions online. I designed the experience and interface (UX/UI) of the platform where they happen: the room where people bid, and the panel the auction is run from. Development was outside my brief.
The problem
An auction is a problem measured in seconds. If bidders aren’t sure what’s happening, expensive things start happening: two people think they’re winning at once, someone overbids on a lot they’d already topped, or someone stops bidding because they don’t trust what they see.
Their existing system felt slow and messy. And an auction people don’t believe is an auction that loses bids: the moment you doubt what’s on screen, you stop offering.
The second problem sat on the other side of the counter. Whoever ran the auction had to handle the catalog and its images on the fly, and that became a bottleneck at exactly the moment they could least afford one.
How I solved it
The room was designed around a single moment. The one where somebody decides whether to raise their offer. Only what serves that decision survived on that screen: what it’s at, how long is left, and the button to bid. Everything else gets in the way.
Every change stands out. I designed how a new bid and the running clock are shown so nobody has to look for them: the change catches the eye the moment it happens. That’s what makes people trust what they’re looking at and keep bidding.
The person running it gets a place too. A panel to manage the catalog and follow each lot, instead of wrestling spreadsheets while bidding is under way.
Designed for the phone. Plenty of people bid from a handset, one-handed and against the clock. So every screen was designed for mobile first, with the essentials within thumb’s reach.
The result
The design for a platform where the auction actually feels live, and where the person running it keeps control without leaving a single screen.
The interface is dark and restrained, with one purple accent that appears only where it matters: the bid button and the active lot. In an interface people watch under pressure and against the clock, every element competing for attention costs money.