Dating & Match Making Network
Modern matchmaking service, Better Half claims over a thousand singles , helping them find love one at a time. All you need do is download the app from playstore, fill your details correctly, fill that of your aspired love correctly and automatically get a match!
Go to Website
Project Brief
Design a mobile/web application that allows interested users meet like minded individuals to date as well as its administrative dashboard.
MY ROLE
Requirement Gathering | Product and Target Market Research | Interviews | User flow | User Journey Mapping | Wireframes | Hi-Fi Prototype | User Testing
Live
A safe space to meet and date for singles
Discovery Phase
The Challenge
In 2021, estimates show Nigeria has about 201 million people with about 40% of the people falling between 20 - 49 years old. It was also reported that about 19% of individuals in this age group are single and actively looking to find a partner. This age group reflects the abundant number of people who would be at some point in their lives looking to find a worthy partner. In 2018, a report by Vanguard publishers showed there has been an increase in couple separations and divorces across the country. They gathered that about 40% of marriages do not make it to 5 years. These individuals also ultimately add to the statistics of single individuals.
Opportunity
The target age group shows young adults with little to no free time who will be looking to make a romantic long-term relationship and will be looking for a fast and secure way to do this.With the increasing number of internet users across the country (estimates show that about 110 million people will have access to the internet in 2021 in Nigeria alone), there will be a rise in the frequency of meeting partners online and the idea of meeting new people to create meaningful long term relationship right from your comfort. This means that a system needs to be put in place to verify individuals who are looking to find partners to show they are who they say they are.
Project goals & objective
My first task was to hold a discovery session with the stakeholders to get a concise view of what this project means to them and how they envision it to be. Here are some of the main goals of this session.
- Identify Business goals
- Merge business and user goals together
- Painpoint Identification through surveys and interviews
Findings from discovery session
Product owners make too many assumptions for potential users.
Businesswise, stakeholders are looking to provide enough value for monetization
Product Owners have no concrete knowledge of market and base a lot of decisions on sentiment and Personal Experience.
Discovery Phase
User Interview Survey and results
Some Results from our user interview rounds
Conclusion from Survey
- Participants scored high on importance of the profession and similar interests when choosing a partner.
- They want to have a deeper understanding on what people actually like, motivations, and hobbies.
- Painpoint Identification through surveys and interviews
- Painpoint Identification through surveys and interviews
Findings from discovery session
Major target age group 26-30
Looking for specific types of people
Quick view of motivations & interests
Discovery Phase
User Interview Survey and results
Some Results from our user interview rounds
Note: Comparison is based on Data available between 2019 and 2021
Define Phase
Present Situation
Chika & Daniel are ambitious young people. They both are goal driven professionals. Being tech savvy gives them a good chance of meeting new people on the internet but there are some constraints to this such as:
- Dating Apps do not filter through matches enough
- Difficult App Navigation
- No channel to meet new people due to schedule
Problem Statement
Young adults with little free time who are looking to make a romantic relationship try to optimize the time it takes them to find a partner. They fail to do that and set up real-world dates because the available apps do not do a very good job in providing viable matches and suggestions, which makes them feel fatigued and frustrated when browsing through so many individuals and end up settling for less than they want.
"Young adults face frustration and settle for less in their search for romantic partners due to non flexible match specifications and inefficient match suggestions from existing dating apps."
Design Solution
Design a dating solution that narrows suggestions and matches down to every filter or criteria set by a user.
Also, allow users to manage when matches can see their entire profile. This is managed by moving connected matches through 3 stages of interaction:
- Introduced- here the users can chat and only see profile photo, cover photo, and basic information like age and occupation but rest assured all other specified criterias have been met
- Dating- Here users can see the entire profile to include hobbies, faith, height, body type, photos, physical attributes, education information, and so on.
- Committed: Once users at this stage, all other connections are ended to allow the users to focus on each other and possibly move to a very serious physical relationship.
DESIGN Phase
High Fidelity Designs
DELIVER Phase
Usability Testing
The solution went through one round of user testing with 9 users. My aim was to understand if users could complete the key tasks and how they interacted with the prototype
Positive Findings
- Navigation was simple and intuitive.
- User Verification Process was well received
- Flexibility of criteria selection and matches filter was very much appreciated
- Robust filter selection options was a big sell.
- Stages of interaction (introduction, date, commitment) got mixed reactions with about 65% very excited to get to a point where we limit interactions within the App to just them and their potential partner
Concerns
- Final draft of sign up process which was the partner criteria specification was a bit frustrating due to the amount of information required.
- Pricing model for subscription needs to be set at a more accomodating point.
Learning Points
I found this project refreshing as it opened up my mind to different approaches to solving a user needs.
We tried to solve the major concerns of user testing by moving our partner criteria specification from the sign up flow to an optional onboarding step after signing up. The flexibility here meant that users didn't get the daunting task of setting up the details of their profile to also setting up a partner criteria all in the same go.
One key learning for me was to get the input of user cases and unique requirements early in the research study. This will help to envision the application in its entirety to the users and all relevant stakeholders. I also learned to Refine Interview questions to be more open-ended
