Duration
Phase 1:
January 2021–February 2021
Phase 2:
October 2022-December 2022
Team
Phase 1:
Christine
Izzy
Phase 2:
Independent Project
My Role
User Interview
Persona/Journey Mapping
Wireframing/Prototyping
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context
"Internet dating is symptomatic of social and technological change that transforms modern courtship into a type of commodified game*"
With the overwhelming amount of people using dating apps, the access to finding a match increased as people can find multiple potential partners easily just at the tip of their fingertips. But along with the ease of access, it has become more difficult to take these applications seriously as all they call for is a swipe or tap of the finger.
*Hobbs, Mitchell, et al. “Liquid Love? Dating Apps, Sex, Relationships and the Digital Transformation of Intimacy.” Journal of Sociology, vol. 53, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 271–284
problem
Does matching with someone on an online dating app mean you really match with them?
The current dating app market in the U.S. is big enough to have almost one out of three people have ever used a dating app, yet not even half of that 33% have ever married or been in a committed relationship.
The ease of swiping and liking actions foster an environment of mindless interactions that overcrowd potential matches which undermines how users would interact.
Main Features 1.0
Challenges
You can complete the challenges at your own interest and time schedule. Completing a challenge will heighten the interest on the receiving end because of the extra effort made by you. The challenges can be your icebreaker or a creative outlet.
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Main Features 1.1
Options
The challenge feature offers different ways to shine one's individuality: drawing, voice memo, quiz, and more! Choose one or as many challenges you would like to have on your profile, but remember they can complete only one challenge before matching.
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Main Features 2.0
Light a Match
All photos of the people will be blurred out until both of you agree to light a match and defrost the pictures. There's no limitation on the number of people you can light a match or time before doing so, so go ahead and light a match when you feel comfortable.
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Initial hypothesis
Before talking to the users
We found the main root of the problem to be the number of matches the users get in one sitting as an overwhelming number of matches undermines their ability to make good decisions* and transforms modern courtship into a type of commodified game**.
With that being said, we had an initial hypothesis that reducing the number of matches would result in more intentional and thoughtful user interactions.
* 2012 Eli J Finkel, Paul W Eastwick, Benjamin R. Karney, Harry T. Reis and Susan Sprecher “Online Dating—A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science”
**Hobbs, Mitchell, et al. “Liquid Love? Dating Apps, Sex, Relationships and the Digital Transformation of Intimacy.” Journal of Sociology, vol. 53, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 271–284
Market validation
Why and how do people use dating apps?
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survey (58 responses)
Issue 1: There is a stigma behind users' intentions
What do you think dating apps primarily used for?
from both dating app users and non dating app users
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What do you use dating apps primarily for?
from current and ex-dating app users
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In summary, although the majority of the survey participants were active dating app users that were looking for a significant other(63.3%), there were still such assumptions that dating apps are used for superficial reasons(e.g. hookups and peer validation) meaning that the users' intentions were not clearly aligned. We later conducted user research in order to understand why such misalignment exists.
survey (34 responses)
Issue 2: Finding a s/o isn't the priority for everyone
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As you can see, as the age group gets older, the percentage of the users that use dating apps for boredom decreases, as for finding a s/o increase. In other words, for the age group of 18-25, our target demographic, most people use dating apps to kill their boredom/ and finding a lover wasn’t their urgent priority. We were quite confused because does that mean that we are creating a dating app for the people that are not necessarily looking to date. However we wanted to still unravel this a little bit and find the opportunity space.
User interview (23 survey participants / 5 interviewees)
Talking to the users
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ANDREW (19, BOSTON)
"I'm usually very fast-paced on dating apps and it easily creates muscle memory of swiping."
CELINE (21, LOS ANGELES)
"Everything starts on a superficial level because you have to swipe on their picture first to match."
WILLIAM (25, HOUSTON)
"I tend to be hesitant but only until when I see the other person puts effort to engage in a conversation."
key insights
“Small talk” is repetitive, but there aren’t really other methods of initiating conversations
Users are often afraid to appear desperate first, making them hesitant to be honest
The expectation for a user to present the most physically attractive versions of themselves pressures them to give the impression of a certain image that deviates from who they really are.
Age group 18-25 are the users that find joy in random encounters. The way they turn online dating organic, is to get to know the other person authentically and organically with no set expectations and purposes.
→ How could we solidifies this idea into features?
competitive analysis
How is the current marketing utilize different features?
Takeaways
The less instant gratification the dating app desires to produce, the more friction exist during the matching process
The less instant gratification the dating app desires to produce, the fewer likes the users can send out per day (although the limitation is mostly served as their business model)
Ideation
Our goals
Because we were tacking a problem with quite amount of ambiguity, it was crucial to open up a creative outlet for us to brainstorm for most successful solution. By having clear HMW's, we were able to broaden our range of possibilities, which later turned into next actionable steps.
Redefining our hypothesis
Having an alternative way to show sparks of individuality and personality than just a profile with a bunch of images, the user will find the overflowing selection enjoyable.
By adding friction in a matching process, users would be more intentional and thoughtful when sending a like and throughout the conversations.
Users will gain more trust in the connections made on Ember when they spend more time on Ember even when they don't end up dating.
challenge
How can we make blind connections intimate?
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Video call model designed by Izzy
At this point, we knew we really wanted to minimize the physical attraction aspect of our app. We were thinking of various options, like using premade faces, blurring out the images, or customizing their own avatar.
One challenge we had with this was that it lacked identity. It made it really hard for users to keep track of different conversations they had as they had to rely solely on the names and blurred images. We might have successfully removed physical attraction from this app, and so were the individuality and intimacy. We took this as a challenge with the hope to make the trade-off worthy.
trials and errors
Individuality through experience, not physicality
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Idea 1: Coupons
Hypothesis: Having to reach certain milestones will incentivize users to spend time with one another.
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Idea 2: Missions
Hypothesis: Users will bond as they experience more tasks together creating a more genuine relationship and providing a foundation to build relationships upon.
designed by Izzy
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Idea 3: challenges
Hypothesis: Optional challenges that allow users to complete at their own interest and time schedule will highten the interests of users on the receiving end.
→ This can be a both thoughtful and personal approach which will be a win-win on both giving and receiving ends from the extra effort made by their potential matches..
design
Introducing Ember v.1
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2.2 Profile
3.3 complete a challenge
5.4 light a match
usability testing
The first version of Ember was made in early 2021. One thing I wished when we finished off the project was to learn what can come AFTER the first set of designs was made. Fast forward to the end of 2022, I wanted to come back to this project for the second version.
With our first version of the product, I led an open conversation with 5 active dating app users from our initial survey on how our product is doing well and how I could improve.
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user pain points
Users were frustrated when creating their profiles because of too much freedom
Navigation around common flows and new features were often misunderstood
Users took longer time building trust with the challenge feature because of lack of expectation
what success looks like
User are encouraged to complete their profile
Users discover new features easily
Users are engaging with the features
Users feel confident in using the features
Users feel more comfortable matching with users
design
Revisiting user flows
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target results
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final screens
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1.3 preferences
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1.4 highlighted profile
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2.4.2 tutorials
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2.4.3 tutorials
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3.1 new profile
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3.4 complete challenge
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4.1 new like
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5.1 profile
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5.1 profile
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5.2 chat
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5.2.1 menu
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5.3.1 light a match requested
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5.3.2 push notification
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5.3.3 light a match
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5.4 reveal profile
reflection
Behind the scenes
For this project, we went on a 'virtual ethnographic study' to get more informal conversations on real dating app users' experiences. All three of us went on to three most popular dating apps(Tinder, Hinge, Bumble) and had some amazing opportunities to meet and connect with the interviewees! Also a quick shoutout to Terry.
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reflection
Our Key Takeaways
Version 1:
As we were in charge of this project end-to-end(even outside of the design!), it was such a fun exercise for the three of us to virtually collaborate. We became more creative about how to utilize the digital space more efficiently, better showcase our ideas and proposals to our supervisors, and communicate with limited resources. Designing with no business constraints allowed us to fully explore and get fully adventurous as well, and I was able to find what it's like to design with joy.
Version 2:
After taking internships and getting a glimpse of what it's like to design for an actual consumer-facing product, I wanted to use this project as an opportunity to adapt those learnings. This past few months revisiting my favorite project after 2 years has been refreshing, and I learned that the design process is always iterative and never linear.
Thank you!
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