The Dating Game
I worked in a team of 5 for a concept project for the Hinge dating app, to enhance the dating experience via enhanced video calling and gamification.
My Role: Researcher, UX/UI Designer
Duration: 2 weeks
Completed: October 2020
Tools: Figma, Sketch, Miro, Google Drive
Problem
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Keeping the online dating experience engaging to create more deep and meaningful connections whilst in the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.
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Challenge
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Finding ways to seamlessly introduce mini-games and enhanced video calling on Hinge, without affecting the overall experience of online dating.
Deliverables
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Competitor analysis
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User research findings (user interviews, user testing)
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Experience map/User journeys
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Information Architecture
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User flows
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App map
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High fidelity mock-up
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Final presentation
Outcomes
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Project completed on time​
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Very detailed insights​
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Finding a number of ways to introduce mini-games into a conversation
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High-fidelity wireframes and clickable prototype
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Final presentation to summarise project
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Overview
Hinge is an online dating app "designed to be deleted". It's aim is to create meaningful and lasting connections for its users.
My team were tasked with introducing mini-games to the app, in order to enhance the dating experience and help remove some of the possible awkwardness of meeting online.
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How do I find out more? You may ask...just keep scrolling.
Develop & Deliver
One challenge we faced throughout was being in a large group with no hierarchy, someone to make the final design decisions. Naturally, we had differing opinions on what would work best for our users and it was difficult to come to a solution.
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Using my team-working ability, my suggestion to combat this issue was to hold a design studio. This really helped produce some imaginative ideas, made everyone feel involved in the design process ​and ultimately helped shape our final designs.
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Low-fidelity mockups were created, tested and iterated. The same went for mid-fidelity and then final high-fidelity mockups were produced.
Conclusion
Overall, an amazing project working with some truly amazing people. I learned so much during the two weeks about working within a team, having a lot of fun in the research phase, interviewing users, creating a persona and then being able to produce a number of incredibly well thought out wireframes. I feel many users of dating apps would benefit greatly from a gamified experience.
Discover & Define
A lot of fun was had downloading and comparing a variety of dating apps. This research showed how apps, such as Tinder, Bumble and Match.com had adapted to the lockdown situation.
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User interviews gave superb insights into how people use these apps, how long they spend on them, what sorts of games they would enjoy.
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At this point we were able to introduce our heroine persona for the project, Claudia, and create a scenario to help introduce the games.
