The Challenge 70% of artisans in developing countries cannot subsist on their craft despite a growing global demand for "handmade" design. The barrier isn't the quality of work, but the lack of democratic, autonomous linkage mechanisms between local producers and contemporary designers.
As part of my Master’s at PUC Chile, I developed a service to bridge this gap in the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico (ZMVM).
Role: Lead Researcher & Product Designer.
Scope: Ethnographic Research, Service Blueprinting, UX/UI Design, Business Model Strategy.
Methodology: Double Diamond + MADA Factor (Strategic Design).
To build a solution that actually worked for both sides, I conducted a deep ethnographic dive:
Ecosystem Mapping: Analyzed 37 stakeholders across design, craft, and market sectors.
Methods: In-depth interviews, Service Safaris, and Netnography (Fly-on-the-wall) during a global pandemic.
Insights: I identified that designers spend too much time scouting, while artisans lack a specialized space to showcase their technical "Habilis" (skills) to the creative industry.
mucHabilis is a crowdsourcing-based mobile ecosystem that reduces the friction of collaborative production.
Key Features:
Trade-Based Matching: Designers search for specific artisan trades (carpentry, textiles, ceramics) with verified technical capacities.
Requirement Synchronization: A standardized flow to define project requirements, budgets, and timelines, reducing common misunderstandings in co-creation.
Inclusive UX: An interface designed for two very different user personas: the "Space Specialist Designer" and the "Contemporary Urban Artisan."
SOME SCREENS
SEARCH SECTION VIDEO
Unlike many design projects, this included a full 5-year Financial Projection and a Business Model Canvas to ensure long-term viability:
Value Capture: Created a model where the platform facilitates the link and provides the framework for contract safety.
Social Impact: Designed to preserve Intangible Cultural Heritage by inserting artisans into the contemporary creative economy autonomously.
"This project proves my ability to take a complex social and industrial problem and transform it into a high-fidelity digital product. It highlights my mastery of the Double Diamond process and my capacity to design not just an app, but a sustainable business ecosystem that balances social impact with market efficiency."
WIREFLOW + ECOSYSTEM MAP + ARCHICTECTURE + SERVICE BLUEPRINT + CONCEPT + BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
INTERVIEWS AND TESTING
PERSONAS+ FINDINGS + LINK MECHANISMS