Mobile mechanic marketplace for Los Angeles from scratch

KarKar is a vehicle services marketplace for the US, launching its MVP in LA. It offers a customer experience for booking services at their location and a provider experience for mechanics, locksmiths, and detailers to receive and manage jobs.

My role: As the sole product designer, I designed the customer and provider interfaces from the ground up, adapting both experiences for desktop and mobile. I worked directly with the founders to help shape the product, contributing a product management perspective alongside design.

Pain points for US car owners

Car repairs in the US can be expensive, yet service quality doesn’t always meet expectations. Customers need confidence in who they hire and what they’ll pay.

KarKar makes choosing a vetted mechanic easier with detailed profiles, qualifications, reviews, and photos. The scope and price are agreed upfront, payment is released after completion, and KarKar helps resolve disputes.

What service providers need

Service providers need more than new jobs. They need tools to manage bookings, plan their workload, track earnings, and access rewards. The goal was to bring these tools together in KarKar, making it the go-to platform for their day-to-day work.

Keeping both sides on the same page

The biggest challenge was designing a chat-based booking flow that keeps order details and status updates consistent for customers and service providers. From changes to completion, both sides can see what’s happening and what comes next—without losing the ease of a conversation.

Knowing what could wait

Another challenge was keeping the MVP focused. Working with the founders, I helped prioritize the essential customer and provider flows and defer non-essential features, balancing product ambitions with the time and resources available.

Design beyond interfaces

Startups need more than a polished product—they also need a strong presence from day one. I developed the initial brand concepts and refined the identity and logo in collaboration with partdirector.ch. For KarKar’s marketing materials, I then defined a photographic style and a graphic language built around the logo.