Time: 1 month (80 hours)
Role: End-to-end UX/UI designer
Team: 2 individuals - myself and mentor
Tools: Figma
Platform: Mobile
Challenge
Online dating can be overwhelming for users and improving the way people find their connections for efficiency and creating a one stop shop to finding deep connections.
solution
Increase user satisfaction with updates to improve how users find and see their connections, and date spot recommendations providing places to go on your date. Helping to alleviate the stress of dating and provide a personalized experience.
Potential IMPACT
Increase in user engagement
Increase in user retention
Increase in user satisfaction
DEsign process
Empathize
Research goal
To better understand how users use Hinge, what pain points they face currently, and if they are stressed to find a place for their date.
Competitors
Bumble
RAya
tinder
competitive insights
-
Opportunity to further develop match screen to include search and filtering to help users find the people they want to connect with.
-
Opportunity for user verification allowing users to find their matches on Instagram to feel more comfortable meeting in person.
-
Opportunity to develop feature to provide recommendations for offline experiences for a stress free experience. This can also lead into partnerships and collaborations with places that are featured as a date spot from Hinge.
User Survey and findings
I created survey questionnaire for Hinge users asking them about their experience using Hinge, asking how often they use Hinge, their frustrations using the app, who chooses where to go on a date, and if they are stressed to be the one to pick where to go.
5 out of 7 users said they get stressed choosing where to go on their date.
71%
7 out of 7 users said they would love to search their matches after connecting.
100%
Personalization - Offline Experiences
This is an opportunity as most dating apps do not offer a feature like this. Users are interested in being recommended places to go and this can support users from being stressed choosing a date spot. This feature can also lead to partnerships and an opportunity for Hinge to increase user satisfaction.
Quiz
Prompt with places to go
One stop shop
Seamless Experience
Users are very passionate about the overall seamless experience using dating apps and finding the people they are talking to. Users may have a lot of matches and sorting through them may be time consuming and frustrating.
Verification
The pain points were not knowing enough information about their matches and having the ability to see their Instagram would support users to feel more comfortable.
Impactful ideas
-
I would like to explore ways to have a more impactful user experience to improve users making meaningful connections
How might we support users to verify if profiles are real? How might we collect customer data to input their social media handles?
-
I would like to explore ways to organize users matches to improve users decision fatigue and feel as though they can see the right people they want to meet.
How might we help organize users' match screen? How might we understand what are users searching for when they want to find a match? How might we lead users to filter / sort the people they are looking for?
-
I would like to explore ways to support matches, find a place to go on a date and promote Hinge’s brand perception as a helpful tool that wants you to succeed when meeting your dates and personalize date recommendations and partner with restaurants to provide customers with a free drink / dessert?
How might we help matches to use a date spot recommendation? How might we personalize date spot recommendations? How might we lead users to find the best place to go? How might we find the best part of the user journey to utilize this feature?
define
Utilizing user surveys, competitor insights, and user journey map to ideate and define impactful ideas to explore solutions for. Combined with an iterative approach for my deliverables discussing with my mentor for feedback.
User Journey map
I created a user journey map to point the user highs and lows of the current Hinge experience of a user showing their friends a potential date. I emphasized the points when the user has an issue with the app and the thoughts they may have.
Scenario
User wants to show match to friends and get approval from friends before asking them to go on a date. User is frustrated by their experience as it is not a seamless experience finding match and seeing their social media to feel more comfortable going out with them. User is also stressed to find a date spot to recommend.
Expectation
User wants a seamless experience on the app to easily and quickly show their friends their match and find a place for them to go on their date.
HMW Questions
How might we support users to verify if profiles are real with Instagram?
How might we help organize users' match screen?
How might we lead users to find the best place to go on their dates?
User Personas
I created two user personas one organized user and one user that is a romantic.
overview
Dates that have meaningful connections and can seamlessly message them and find great new places to try with as little stress as possible.
Looking for
Organized Dater
“I want to show my friends who I am talking to quickly and easily.”
Romantic
“I want to take my dates to great new places that fit our vibe.”
Organized Dater
-
Motivations
Show friends to see what they think of the person they are talking to without going through all their matches.
-
Core Needs
Ability to search, filter, sort through matches to find the right one easily.
-
Pain Points
Not finding the match they are talking about easily and getting frustrated during the process.
Romantic
-
Motivations
Impress dates with a great date spot and have high quality connections.
-
Core Needs
Personalized recommendations to help find a great place to go.
-
Pain Points
Decision fatigue and not knowing a great date location that is in a good location for both parties.
Solution
Create MVP new feature on app that allows for a seamless way to find connections and develop connections with thoughtful dates.
Ideate
user flow 1: finding a match
Finding the match you want should be quick and easy and keeping this flow as simple as possible was the main objective. Keeping the steps minimal to decrease user bounce rate. I focused on prompting the user with matches that align with their searching.
user flow 2: offline experience
To further develop a connection the second flow involves a quiz to find the best spots to go to with the ability to share to the person you are talking to. I created the second user flow for the user to answer several questions to find places to go and meet their match in person.
Lo-fi wireframes
The user profile, match, and quiz pages were the main screens created in the low-fi stage. The low-fi wireframes allowed me to map the current components from the Hinge app and build my new feature from the existing template.
The user profile to feature the users Instagram handle was built off the existing design. I thought to feature their profile information with the main portion of their account. I thought a toggle in the profile overview would be an efficient and easy way to choose if a user wanted this feature available with the idea that they already were logged into their Instagram account through Hinge.
User Profile
The match screen was interesting to dissect using inspiration from Bumble and the updated Hinge match screen I formatted the conversations and filtering options by Your turn, Start chat, Nearby, and Hidden. The search screens were in the same design as this was a combined feature and as the user would type the matches would appear.
Matches
The quiz screens involved the most innovation as this would be a completely new feature. I was inspired to ask several questions that identified the type of date the user would want to go on and information to understand the best places the user would be interested in going to. I developed screens for each of these questions and the result screen to then be shared in the chat. Deciding where the feature would live was difficult as in this stage I thought it would be best to have it on the match screen rather than just the message screen.
Quiz
1. Finding match
Allowing users to find their matches seamlessly with a search and filter feature.
2. offline experience
Helping users further develop their connections by providing date spot recommendations.
test
User test Results
Overall, the first flow had the highest success rate as there was very little error. The flow that had the highest error rate was tested with user 3 who was not sure of the iconography for the filter. The second flow to update was adding the Instagram to the profile and how this would be accomplished logically. Lastly, updating the match screen to feature favorites rather than most recent conversations was an interesting idea.
Lastly, the fourth flow needed the UI styling revised, removing colors on buttons that at first made the user think they were already clicked.
2 out of 3 users struggled to find where to filter matches.
75%
3 out of 3 users did not know which button was available to find date spot recommendations.
100%
Iterations
I tasked users with the goal of finding their match and finding a place for them to go on a date.
Observing each user, I noticed areas where the user seemed visibly happy with their experience, as well as a few areas of hesitation.
This allowed me to determine what was working and what needed to be updated.
BEFORE
AFTER
A few testers got stuck on this screen while trying to choose where to filter their matches.
Making the icon larger and adding text underneath to describe it helped users find where to filter. Re-testing this screen yielded stronger results with a 100% success rate and a task completion time 3 seconds faster on average.
BEFORE
AFTER
We had limited space to inform users where to find date spot recommendations. Updating the message screen to be the only one featuring the quiz streamlined the process.
I researched where users would want to recommend a date spot if they were to and 100% said in the messages. Moving the button to the keyboard allowed for seamless design. Re-testing this screen yielded stronger results with a 100% success rate.
Final prototype
The final prototype was a success after revising the prototype for the case study.
next steps
In conclusion designing a new feature to an app I use all the time was rewarding. I have a lot of knowledge on the Hinge app and wanted to help improve an app I use often. The prototype was a success and I was able to inform my designs from the users I interviewed as well as the findings I found during my competitive research. The process showed me that everything is designed with the users best interest in mind by providing users with the right tools on their applications helps improve user retention and satisfaction.
Conclusion
future considerations
The next steps of this project would be narrow and define the additional features such as where the date spots could live for later reference, how users like the new match screen and the favoriting ability, lastly partnering with featured date spot locations for Hinge marketing programs. After the new feature would deploy we would measure how many users use the new date spot recommendation quiz and how many users utilize the Instagram handle feature to measure the success of user engagement.