UX Designer // UX Researcher
ROLE
Online dating is rife with issues of superficiality and a lack of meaningful relationships. This project attempts to marry the good of online dating with offline/traditional dating.
BACKGROUND
PROBLEM
Users lack prospective partners in their social circles and wish to meet more people however, online dating has been a superficial experience.
Research
We need to learn about the current problems in modern dating and determine whether current solutions work.
GOALS
MARKET RESEARCH + USER SURVEYS
I first conducted market research to form my assumptions that could be validated in my user surveys. In my survey, I asked questions such as:
What do you think are some struggles in
modern dating?
What made you turn to a dating app?
Can you tell me about your experience using
dating apps?
How do you think it is different from meeting someone physically without a dating app?
Do you think that online dating allows you to get to know someone fully?
Do you think that online dating has created an illusion of options?
Do you think it would be better to minimise interactions on the app and take it offline?
What do you think contributes to dating success?
Synthesising the research…
AFFINITY MAP
KEY PAINPOINTS
01
Limited prospective partners in current social circles
66.7% of respondents
02
Matches are based on superficial qualities
…whereas, online dating you tend to judge a person's external looks and qualities first…
03
Meeting scammers or catfishes
44% of respondents
USER PERSONA
INSIGHT
Dating is a real life experience not a digital one.
CHALLENGE
How might we allow users to meet more prospective partners in a safe traditional dating context?
The Big Idea
Simplify the dating app as a tool to allow users to meet new potential partners and facilitate real-life dates.
Reduce superficiality by hiding the date’s profile picture until users meet them.
SimpleMeets will match users based on character, personality and interests.
TASK FLOW 1 (ONBOARDING)
TASK FLOW 2 (COMPLETING PROFILE)
TASK FLOW 3 (MATCHING)
USER FLOW
Initial Wireframes
User Testing
To test the overall quality and ease of use of the app I provided 3 tasks based on the flows set out earlier for participants to attempt.
You wish to create a new account using SingPass, how would you go about it?
You wish to schedule two dates and you are available on the 25/26th of April between 7pm and 9pm how would you go about it?
You wish to top up 12 credits, how would you go about it?
Prototype
Click on any screen to access the figma prototype
While the user test was largely successful, there were still some improvements that could be made to enhance the overall experience.
ITERATION 1
Provide an option to top-up credits with a preset amount
Before
“Hmm maybe can have presets of how much one wishes to top up? So can simplify the top up process if the user needs to make frequent top ups”
After
Provided a preset option so that users can go straight into topping up without keying all the details from scratch.
Onboarding: Let users preview their profile before booking a call with the SimpleMeets team
ITERATION 2
Before
“I think it’ll be a nice touch to show me a preview of my profile details before booking a call with the SimpleMeets team.”
After
Users now can preview their profile inputs before moving on to the next part of the process.
Summary
This project was a fun and meaningful learning experience for me. I got to practice my research skills and learned a new testing tool, UsabilityHub.
Initially, even before the user research was done, I had many ideas and thoughts that I felt could be implemented in the design solution however, I realised that to serve the users well, less was more.
The challenge for me was to find a way for users to expand their network of potential partners while keeping the dating experience as organic as possible. Hence this UX solution emphasises on keeping the experience in real-life as much as possible and keeping the app as a facilitator of the experience rather than a platform for the full experience.