Rethinking Trust and Usability in a Public Digital Infrastructure: A Human-Centered Lens on ONDC

🧾 Project Overview

Despite India's digital boom with millions of daily transactions, many small shopkeepers and rural sellers struggle with e-commerce. They have smartphones but lack digital fluency and trust in existing platforms.

ONDC, a government initiative, offers a decentralized alternative to platform monopolies. It's a protocol-based infrastructure designed to democratize digital commerce in India, similar to what UPI did for payments.

But with its distributed system and multiple actors, the question remains: Can such a decentralized approach truly deliver a cohesive, intuitive, and trustworthy experience?

My North Star How might ONDC become not just open—but usable, trustworthy, and inclusive for those who need it most?

🔧 Focus: UX Research, Service Design

🏗️ What is ONDC?

The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is a Government of India initiative that aims to transform e-commerce by unbundling it from platform monopolies like Amazon or Flipkart.

Unlike traditional platforms where the buyer and seller are locked into a single app, ONDC allows any buyer app to connect with any seller app via a shared, open protocol—called the Beckn Protocol.

Think of it as the UPI of e-commerce. You can buy groceries from one app,the seller could be listed on another, the logistics and payment may happen through others. But it all works together, invisibly

What makes ONDC different?

• Decentralized: No single app owns the transaction
• Interoperable: All apps “speak the same language” using APIs
• Inclusive: Aims to empower small sellers, kirana stores, and rural businesses
• Public Infrastructure: Operates more like a utility than a business

❓ The Problem

ONDC introduces a radical shift: instead of one platform, users interact with many. Products shown on one app may be fulfilled by another, with payments routed through yet another.

For users, this decentralization leads to:

• Confusion about who they’re buying from
• Inconsistent support and payment systems
• Poor discoverability and control for sellers

🔥 Design Challenge:

🔬 Research Approach

What I Did

This project unfolded through multiple layers of inquiry. I began by reviewing academic and policy literature on e-commerce ecosystems, digital public infrastructure, and decentralization. From there, I designed a mixed-methods study that included:

📱Usability Study

To understand how ONDC-enabled platforms compare with traditional e-commerce apps in real-world usage, I conducted usability tests with 10 participants. Each participant was asked to complete product search and checkout tasks using both ONDC apps (e.g., Ola Foods, Paytm) and traditional platforms (e.g., Amazon, Flipkart).

Methodology:

• System Usability Scale (SUS) scoring post-task
• Custom post-test survey on ease, satisfaction, and trust
• Think-aloud protocol during task completion

Key Observations:

• Amazon and Flipkart scored above 80 on the SUS, indicating excellent usability.
• Ola Foods scored moderately; Paytm scored low due to inconsistent navigation and unclear flows.
• Participants expressed frustration with ONDC’s “store-first” model and lack of real-time tracking or seller reviews.

What This Revealed:

ONDC platforms often mirror the UI of mainstream platforms but fall short on consistency, predictability, and decision-making support. Usability challenges, particularly around product discoverability and refund processes, break user trust quickly.

👥 Contextual Interviews

In parallel, I conducted 10 semi-structured interviews over a month with three key groups:

• Small and medium-scale sellers
• ONDC app developers
• Ecosystem facilitators and cooperative partners

Focus Areas:

• Onboarding experiences
• Logistics and payment reliability
• Cataloging workflows
• User education and app support

Recurring Themes from Sellers:

• Manual product uploads were time-consuming and overwhelming.
• Strict KYC and GST requirements excluded many small retailers.
• Payment delays created anxiety, especially among low-volume sellers.
• Sellers had little visibility into how discoverable they were on the network.

From Ecosystem Stakeholders:

• App developers were unsure how much hand-holding was their responsibility.
• Facilitators noted gaps in education and support, especially in non-urban regions.

What This Revealed:

Decentralization shifted operational responsibilities—but not always with sufficient support infrastructure. Sellers felt unprotected; buyer experiences varied dramatically depending on the app used.

🛒 Journey Mapping

To bring stakeholder experiences to life, I created detailed journey maps for both buyers and sellers. These maps visualized each step of their interaction with ONDC—from product discovery to post-purchase support.

Buyer Journey Highlights:

• Pain points in store-first discovery flow
• Confusion around product filters and SKU redundancy
• Anxiety during payment and lack of delivery tracking
• No visible redressal channel for complaints or returns

Seller Journey Highlights:

• Tedious onboarding with unclear steps
• Manual catalog entry without bulk tools
• Limited control over logistics and delivery timing
• Uncertainty around payment cycles and order visibility

These journey maps were instrumental in identifying exact moments of friction—and helped me design targeted interventions rooted in real user behavior.

🌎 Ecosystem Mapping & Competitive Benchmarking

To visualize how ONDC differs from traditional models, I mapped its layered architecture:

• Buyer apps
• Seller apps
• Payment gateways
• Logistics partners
• Grievance redressal entities

This contrasted sharply with platforms like Amazon that offer an integrated user experience. I benchmarked ONDC against Amazon, Flipkart, and JioMart to highlight:

• Inconsistent logistics across ONDC
• Absence of a growth strategy for user acquisition
• Limited tools for sellers to improve visibility

What This Revealed:

ONDC’s open architecture encourages competition but sacrifices cohesion. Without standardized experiences or trust-building mechanisms, users lack confidence in the system.

🧠 Insights

What I Heard (and Felt)

From Buyers:

• "I had to pick a store before even seeing the product. It was confusing."
• "There was no rating or review. I didn’t know if the seller was legit."
• "Refunds are a black box—I didn’t know who to contact."

From Sellers:

• "Listing products one by one took me three evenings."
• "I had to rely on my nephew to complete the GST and KYC steps."
• "I didn’t know when or how I’d get paid after an order."

Key Interventions Based on the findings, I proposed targeted interventions across three key dimensions:

✍️ Beyond Interfaces: Storytelling as Design

📘 Zine – Visualizing the Invisible

Recognizing that ONDC’s complexity can alienate the very users it aims to serve, I created an illustrated zine titled “Can E-commerce Be Truly Democratic?” It explains the ecosystem using relatable characters and situations—from buyers unsure who to trust to sellers confused about their listings.

The zine unpacked the promise and pitfalls of decentralization using familiar metaphors—traffic jams, marketplaces, relay races. When I tested it with 17 users, reactions were immediate:

• “Now I finally understand how ONDC works.”

Feedback survey highlights:

• 47% cited trust as their biggest concern.
• 76% said shared logistics would help sellers most.
• Many requested translated or audio versions—suggesting its potential as a literacy tool.

📱 App simulation: Interactive Scenario-Based Roleplay

To extend the engagement, I built a scenario-based app simulation. Users role-played as buyers and sellers, facing decision points pulled directly from interview data.

🎯 Purpose:

• Demonstrate hidden frictions
• Test mental models around decentralization
• Show ecosystem complexity in a playful format

.Participants noted how the simulation “felt real,” helping them pinpoint where their experience on ONDC diverged from mental models shaped by Flipkart or Amazon. It became not just a prototype, but a research method in itself.

📈 Outcomes

• Created an ecosystem-level understanding of ONDC’s frictions
• Synthesized findings into two research-driven artifacts
• Shared findings with ONDC-affiliated teams and design researchers
• Showcased how storytelling + systems thinking can drive comprehension

🪞 Reflections

My Takeaway

This project wasn’t just about ONDC. It was about the possibilities of design when it moves upstream—when it intervenes in systems, not just screens. I saw how storytelling, visualization, and service thinking could expose hidden assumptions, build empathy, and propose better futures.

Looking Ahead

My vision is to see tools like this zine embedded in digital literacy programs, cooperatives, and seller onboarding flows. I believe the app can evolve into a simulation-based policy testing tool—helping ecosystem players prototype and align on experience standards before launch.

Beyond ONDC, I’m excited to apply this methodology to other digital public goods: from health (UHI) to education (ONEST) to finance (Account Aggregators).