Research

• I researched and analyzed what other competitors did (Bumble, Hinge, Tinder, etc.)
• I tried out dating apps for myself to get a taste of the experience
• I interviewed people and watched videos online of people describing their dating experience online

Key Findings

• Online dating feels too superficial (based on looks, status, quick hookups, etc.)
• Users feel like dating is a part-time job because of the load of work you need to do to win over a stranger
• It’s difficult to tell if you’ll have face to face chemistry with your match

HMWs

• Thanks to the insights gained from my research, I'm now well-equipped to craft "How Might We" (HMW) scenarios. These will serve as valuable guides in addressing design challenges with innovative solutions.
• I decided to focus on the following to work towards my solution: "How might we help users to gauge their chemistry more effectively prior to meeting in person?"

Experimentation and Patience

• With a clear direction in mind, I started experimenting with screen designs to improve online dating – think interactive games, direct chats, shared humor, and discussions on niche topics. It's all about making meaningful connections from the very start!
• The picture above is one of my multiple attempts at creating a wireframe for the home page

Team effort

• After a lot of back and forth with the developers on my team, we settled for the designs above to allow users to gauge their chemistry more effectively.
• The goal of these designs were to encourage users to communicate using primarily sound instead of text and images like other dating apps.
• These designs were also selected for their ease of use and familiarity to the target audience, reminiscent to the controls of TikTok (for the swipe interface) and Messenger (for the chat interface).

Audio-centered app

• Instead of using text to converse with your match, we thought it would be more interesting to simply use audio recordings to get an experience closer to a real conversation.

Chatroom games

• We wanted to have games that created conversations between the users that got matched together.

Since the app is still in the beta stage with a small amount of users, we don’t have enough data to find trends or patterns, but here’s a list of things I would look at to measure success:

Matchmaking Efficiency

Time spent on the app between onboarding and finding a match

Feedback on user satisfaction

Analyze the data gathered from user reviews in order to verify whether the new app features help with creating long lasting relationships.