Find My Date
MY ROLE - UX DESIGNER / VISUAL DESIGNER / RESEARCH
Client Background:
The client, an ambitious executive, aimed to launch a cutting-edge dating app, offering a distinctive experience in the competitive dating industry.
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Project Goal:
Develop an innovative dating app with a strong focus on human-centered design to enhance user engagement and satisfaction.
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Design Approach:
Our team utilized the double-diamond design framework, a structured methodology that emphasizes both user research and iterative design. This approach involved four distinct phases:
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1. Discover:
Our initial focus was on understanding user needs through extensive research. We employed various methods such as user interviews, competitive analysis, and surveys to gain a deep understanding of users' preferences, behaviors, and pain points. This phase was crucial in gathering diverse insights and identifying potential opportunities for innovation.
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2. Define:
With the insights collected, we moved into defining the core problem areas and user needs. We synthesized the data, created personas, and crafted user journey maps. This stage helped us narrow down the focus and set clear, actionable objectives for the app development, ensuring alignment with user expectations.
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3. Develop:
In this phase, we ideated and prototyped potential solutions, exploring various design concepts and features to address the defined user needs. The team engaged in collaborative brainstorming sessions to generate innovative ideas, which were then iteratively tested and refined based on user feedback. Mockups and wireframes were created to visualize the app’s layout and functionality.
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4. Deliver:
The final phase involved the development of a high-fidelity prototype, integrating the validated design solutions from earlier stages. We conducted usability tests to further refine the app, ensuring it provided a seamless and engaging experience. This process allowed us to make data-driven design decisions and ensure the app was intuitive and user-friendly.
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Result:
The rigorous application of the double-diamond methodology enabled us to create a prototype that not only met the client's innovative aspirations but was also closely aligned with user needs. By focusing on human-centered design, the final product stood out in the market, offering unique features and a user experience designed to increase engagement and satisfaction.​
MVP
At this stage we organised the features we believed would be more valuable for users, mainly focusing on early adopters for the first launch of the app. The features considered were validated on the research process.
Must have: Check in, Map, Profile, Connections List (incl. msgs), Match Pop Up, Settings, Profile, Preferences, Onboarding.
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Personas
According to the research we found out 2 different personas that can represent our main users.
For Catherine quality overcomes quantity. She wants an app that allows her to find a date according to her specifications and maybe find someone to network during her coffee.
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Matt socialises a lot with his friends and never miss a happy hour after work. He also doesn’t want to spend a lot of time setting up dates, for him convenience is extremely important.
Scenario
It was created to bring a better understanding on our target market, using the persona as the protagonist and developing the situation involving her problem and the solution for it.
It’s 4pm and Catherine doesn’t have any more meetings for today, she decides to go to a coffee place 5 minutes walk from her office. She wonders if someone around her could be free for a coffee, so she decided to enter this new app which she can connect with people around her for dates or networking.
She downloads Piin and checks herself in the location. After the check-in she was able to see her potential matches. She clicks “like” in one specific profile, Jack, who is 30 meters away from her in another coffee place. She sends him the first message and they start a conversation. They decide to meet each other and arrange the location for the date 5 minutes after.
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Userflow
The userflow below refers to a female user that already downloaded the app (there is no onboarding process).
The Flow— The steps involve the user checking into a location, browsing users, clicking “like” in a profile, receiving a match notification, sending a message and a virtual gift to the matched profile, receiving a reply from that message, chatting through the message system inside the app, meeting the match in person, going back to the map screen and unpinning her location.
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Once we had collated our research, we created a user journey map to help us visualise the entire end-to-end experience and understand pain points in the users current journey. We started the journey from the downloading stage right through to chatting with a match. It gave me an idea of where improvements could be made specially on the on boarding process.
Low-fi wireframes
I came up with several potential solutions to each of the pain points and made some rough sketches.
High-fi mocks
After sketching my ideas, I turned those ideas into high fidelity mock And create a prototype to taste & validate the solutions. / ofcource i made some iterations after getting feedbacks/
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Prototype
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Conclusion
This case study highlights the effectiveness of the double-diamond approach in ensuring a thorough understanding of user needs and creating a robust, user-focused product. Our focus on iterative design and constant user feedback allowed us to develop a dating app that promises to make a significant impact in the market.