Gian Mendoza
UX Case Study · 2026
Pocket Trading: from match to completed trade
A fan-made companion-app concept for Pokémon TCG Pocket.
Role
Sole UX/UI designer and researcher
Timeline
January – May 2026
Context
Senior Design Project (DES 505), SFSU
Platform
Mobile (iOS-first companion app)
Tools
Figma, FigJam, Mobbin, InDesign
01 · In short
Pokémon TCG Pocket lets players trade cards, but almost no one finishes a trade. In a survey of nine players, 100% finished zero trades in 30 days. Not because they didn’t want to, but because finding the right partner (89%) and trusting a stranger (44%) pushed them off the app and into Discord and DMs. Over one semester I ran the whole UX process and designed Pocket Trading, a companion app that puts collection tracking, trusted matching, and a step-by-step cross-app guide in one place. In the final round, all four testers said it was easier than the in-game flow, and the usability rating went from 4 to 6 out of 7.
02 · The problem
Trading exists in the game, but it doesn’t work
Pokémon TCG Pocket launched in October 2024 as the casual, mobile version of the trading card game: 20-card decks, free daily packs, animated cards. It added trading between friends, but the feature is locked down and hard to use. Players called it too restrictive, and the developers publicly promised to remove the most-hated part (Trade Tokens). When the people who built the game start pulling out its own trading currency, that’s a sign the friction is real and baked into the game, not just a few players being picky.
So people who want to complete their collections can’t reliably make trades happen. The work spreads across friends, DMs, Discord, Reddit, and a few third-party apps. It’s slow, messy, and low on trust.
100%
of surveyed players (N=9) made 0 trades in 30 days
89%
say the barrier is finding the right partner
44%
leave the app mainly for trust
Competitive comparison: Live vs Pocket
research/comparison-table.png
03 · My role
Solo, start to finish
This was a solo senior capstone, so I did every part myself: background and user research, the survey, synthesis, information architecture, all the wireframes from lo-fi to hi-fi, the design-system build, and two rounds of moderated usability testing. I recruited the testers, ran the sessions, wrote up the transcripts, and fed what I learned into the next design pass. My instructor gave critique along the way, and I used it directly (more on that in Key Decisions).
04 · Research & discovery
The hard part isn’t making a trade, it’s finding the right person
I started with the big picture: the game’s history, why people collect (nostalgia, the thrill of the chase, finishing a set, community), and how Pokémon TCG Live compares to Pocket. One difference shaped the whole project: Live dropped trading for crafting, while Pocket brought trading back but made it hard to use. I then tore down the three main third-party tools (PokeHub, PokeTrade, Pocket Swap) and found three gaps they all shared. That was my opening.
Finding 1: Trading has basically stopped
Every one of the nine players I surveyed finished zero trades in the last 30 days, and two-thirds didn’t even try one. The interest is there. The follow-through isn’t.
Finding 2: People need help finding a match, not a faster trade
89% said they’d trade more if it were easier to find people with the cards they want. Only 11% wanted the trade itself to be faster. The problem happens before the trade, not during it.
Finding 3: People leave the app to feel safe
Two-thirds coordinate through friends and DMs, a third through Discord, a third through Reddit. The top reason for leaving the app was trust (44%). Players rebuild, by hand, the confidence the game never gives them.
Persona
Ryan
Collector who wants easier trading
QUICK PROFILE
Age 26
Bay Area
iPhone
Discord · Reddit
Collecting & casual battles
GOALS
Finish sets & missing cards
Find trade matches fast
Trade with trusted people
Add collection without manual entry
CHALLENGES
Hard to find right person
Trades take too long
Trust is unclear
Tracking is annoying
“I’d trade way more if I could instantly find someone with my missing cards without the constant DM back-and-forth.”
Job to be done: When missing cards, he wants the app to match him with a good trade so he can finish his collection quickly and confidently.
05 · The reframe
Going in, my hunch was that the real job was helping players find someone to trade with. The research confirmed it and sharpened it: the trade flow itself is fine. Players stall one step earlier, because they can’t find a partner they trust.
How might we help players find the right trade partner, and trust them enough to follow through, without leaving the app?
06 · Exploration
Find the pain first, then decide what to build
I mapped a seven-stage user journey (Awareness → Intent → Discovery → Engagement → Coordination → Execution → Resolution). The lowest point sat right at Discovery + Engagement, exactly where players quit for Discord. That told me where to aim.
I brainstormed features and ran an affinity map, which gave five themes, with Trading & Matching the biggest. Then I scored every idea on an Impact × Effort matrix to set the MVP. That gave a clear MVP tier (saved searches and alerts, filtering, “find people offering my wishlist cards,” guest mode, clear data controls) and pushed the bigger bets (smart recommendations, a missing-card dashboard) into a later tier to revisit.
07 · Key decisions
Three moves, each tied to a finding
01
Put trust signals up front
44% named trust as the blocker. Every trader now shows a trainer card (rating, level, last-active), so people vet each other in-app, not on Discord.
02
Show what a trade does for you
Round 2 testers asked “what’s in it for me?” A Trade Impact panel shows how much closer a trade gets you, plus the exact count changes (0 → 1, 32 → 31).
03
Make the hand-off obvious
Round 1 testers didn’t realize trades are completed in-game, not in the app. I rebuilt the hand-off as a guided checklist that reveals one step at a time, then cut it to two primary actions after instructor critique.
08 · The solution
One place to find a trade, trust it, and finish it
Pocket Trading uses a 5-tab layout (Home, Collection, Trade, Inbox, Profile) and a restrained design system: a clean surface, navy as the trust color for identity and structure, and one bright accent for the main action. Here’s the core flow.
Home dashboard
Opens on your trainer card (your public trust signals), a “missing cards” summary, and your active offers. You can see the app’s value before you tap anything.
Trading Hub: Discover
Answers the 89% finding directly: a scrollable list of other people’s offers. Each one shows the trader’s trust signals, the card they want, what they’re giving, and a “Make an offer” button. Search, filter, and sort sit on top.
Trade Details + Impact
A side-by-side “you get / you give” view with the exact count changes, plus the Trade Impact panel that shows what the trade does for your collection.
Trade in process
The 3-step cross-app checklist with built-in “how to” tips, the fix for the biggest usability problem in Round 1.
Design system
19 components, 22 text styles, and 357 variables on an OKLCH color scale, with Zain for display and Nunito for body.
Try the prototype
Two flows from the Figma prototype. Play them right here.
Onboarding flow
Discovery flow
09 · Outcomes
Testers called the redesign “smooth,” and rated it higher than the version before
This is a concept, not a shipped product, so the proof is usability testing across two rounds. Round 1 (3 participants, mid-fi) exposed the hidden “switch to the game” step and drove the redesign. Round 2 (4 participants, hi-fi) confirmed the fix.
4 / 4
said it was easier than the in-game flow
4 → 6
usability rating (out of 7) vs the prior prototype
4 / 4
named the core value (search + wishlist) unprompted
“Not a tutorial, more like a helper that makes it easier to find people to trade.”
Usability tester (P4)
One-word reactions: “Smooth.” “Satisfying.” The honest part: three of four named the real blocker that’s left. The app only works once enough people are using it. That’s a network problem, not a usability one.
10 · Reflection
What I’d change, and what’s next
What I’d change
Round 2 turned up three fixes I’d do first: the “trade in process” screen still looks like it’s just loading, the copy-friend-ID button doesn’t move the checklist forward, and the two heart icons (your wishlist vs the other player’s) look too much alike.
What I learned
The most useful move was seeing “nobody trades” as a broken-process problem, not a low-interest one. Once the data showed interest was high, the real target became trust and discovery, not the trade mechanic itself.
What’s next
Less design, more making it real. The trust and badge signals are already built into the design, so the honest next step is getting it into people’s hands: find a developer to build it with, or vibe-code a working version myself and see if it comes to life.