"LISTO" is a service platform similar to Angie's List, but localized for the Dominican Republic. It aims to connect customers with trusted professionals, including plumbers, beauty stylists, electricians, mechanics, housekeepers, and more. The goal of the platform is to build trust, transparency, and accessibility in a market where word-of-mouth is the dominant method for finding service providers.
In the Dominican Republic, finding reliable service providers is challenging. Customers often depend on personal referrals, but these are not always reliable, leaving users frustrated with inconsistent service quality, pricing, and lack of timely communication. At the same time, service providers struggle to grow their businesses due to limited digital exposure, relying primarily on word-of-mouth recommendations.
With 10.40 million mobile phones among 11 million people, the Dominican population is highly connected via mobile devices. Yet, no centralized platform exists to address these challenges efficiently. LISTO's mission is to leverage this mobile-first environment by creating a trusted digital marketplace that fosters transparency, convenience, and trust between users and providers.
To design an effective solution, we conducted extensive user interviews and provider surveys to understand the challenges, frustrations, and opportunities within the service market.
15 users from Santo Domingo and Santiago participated in in-depth interviews to identify key pain points when booking services.
20 providers (electricians, plumbers, beauty professionals) were surveyed to explore their challenges with client acquisition and pricing.
The research revealed that while both customers and providers have similar goals, they differ in their needs and expectations.
What's most important to you when hiring a cleaner?
✸ Maria: ❝I want someone affordable, but they need to be thorough. I also prefer someone recommended by a friend.❞
Insight: While Maria thinks affordability is the most important, she truly needs a cleaner she can trust-someone with positive reviews and a background check. LISTO could highlight verified professionals over simply offering low-cost providers.
How do you currently find house cleaners?
✸ Maria: ❝Usually, I just ask my neighbor or family if they know someone. It's quick that way.❞
Insight: Maria's want is convenience, but her need is access to a larger pool of trusted providers, which could eliminate reliance on personal referrals.
Have you ever had a bad experience hiring someone?
✸ Maria: ❝Yes, the cleaner didn't show up and didn't answer my messages. I was so frustrated.❞
Insight: Her experience shows that communication tools are critical. While she initially thought a referral was enough, what she really needs is reliable communication-which LISTO's in-app chat can address.
Summary of Wants vs Needs Insights (Maria - Customer)
➥ Wants: Convenience and low prices.
➥ Needs: Verified, reliable providers with clear communication.
What's your biggest challenge in finding new clients?
✸ Luis: ❝I want more clients, but I don't have time to promote myself online or build a website.❞
Insight: Luis thinks he needs more clients, but what he truly needs is better visibility. A platform like LISTO can provide him with a digital presence without requiring extra effort on his part.
How do clients usually contact you?
✸ Luis: ❝They call or send me WhatsApp messages, but sometimes it takes me a while to respond if I'm on a job.❞
Insight: Luis wants flexibility in communication, but he needs a structured system to manage inquiries without missing opportunities. LISTO's real-time messaging feature with push notifications addresses this gap.
How do you decide how much to charge for your services?
✸ Luis: ❝It depends. Sometimes I charge differently based on the customer. Some expect a lower price, so I adjust.❞
Insight: Luis wants pricing flexibility, but he needs to offer transparent pricing to build trust with new customers. LISTO's pricing transparency feature can help him establish credibility.
Summary of Wants vs Needs Insights (Luis - Service Provider)
➥ Wants: More clients and communication flexibility.
➥ Needs: Better visibility and tools for pricing transparency and inquiry management.
We followed an iterative design process, starting with user research data and insights, and later moving through prototyping, testing, and refinement to align the platform with user needs.
Through research and user feedback, we identified the following key design requirements to ensure the success of LISTO:
➥ Provide easy navigation to help users quickly find, compare, and book providers.
➥ Ensure that booking, reviews, and payments flow intuitively without unnecessary steps.
➥ Implement in-app chat to allow quick communication between users and providers.
➥ Include notifications for booking confirmations, cancellations, and inquiries.
➥ Display verified badges for background-checked providers to enhance user trust.
➥ Incorporate user reviews and ratings prominently to guide decision-making.
➥ Design the interface to work smoothly across both Android and iOS platforms.
➥ Ensure the app is lightweight and performs well on devices with varying internet speeds.
➥ Implement in-app chat to allow quick communication between users and providers.
➥ Include notifications for booking confirmations, cancellations, and inquiries.
➥ Create a modular design system for future features such as AI-driven recommendations and loyalty programs.
➥ Make it easy to expand the app to cover new service categories as needed.
To explore design solutions, the team conducted brainstorming workshops with designers, developers, and product managers. We used crazy eights sketching and mind mapping techniques to quickly generate multiple ideas for the app's key features.
Key Design Concepts Explored:
➥ Explore different layouts: List view vs. grid view of service categories.
➥ Display popular services on the home screen to reduce friction.
➥ Embed chat in the booking process to allow users to ask questions before confirming a service.
➥ Explore ways to notify providers and users instantly with push notifications.
➥ Use icons or badges to indicate which providers have passed background checks or completed additional training.
➥ Test how users respond to different placements of trust signals (e.g., next to the provider's name or prominently on the profile).
➥ Offer side-by-side pricing comparisons.
➥ Include an estimate calculator that lets users adjust variables to get a more accurate quote.
We began by mapping out the user flow for both customers and service providers to visualize how users would move through the platform—from browsing services to booking and leaving reviews..
➥ Customer Flow: Search > Compare Providers > Inquire or Chat > Book Service > Pay > Leave Review
➥ Provider Flow: Create Profile > Respond to Inquiries > Manage Bookings > Get Paid > Collect Reviews
The branding reflects the platform's mission to foster trust, accessibility, and reliability. The main focus was the clean typography and modern fonts for easy readability. The use of a minimal color palette of no more than 12 colors. However, the banding was also focused on reflecting Dominican culture.
Please Note: The following images of the design were authorized by the company that owns Listo. However, per the company's petition, this case study cannot show the rest of the design: design system, navigation features, interactivity, and functionalities.
LISTO bridges the gap between customers and service providers in the Dominican Republic by offering trust, transparency, and seamless communication. With a user-centered design, robust features, and a mobile-first approach, LISTO is poised to become the go-to platform for local services.
