End-to-End Application

Problem Statement

With the rise of remote work and online learning due to COVID-19, young adults in their 20s are facing increasing challenges in making meaningful connections. We aim to address this need with a friend-making app tailored to their preferences. Our app will offer personalized matching for one-on-one interactions based on shared interests, values, and goals, as well as group settings for events and activities. Our goal is to create a user-centric platform that encourages genuine friendships and community engagement among young adults.

Foundational Research

Competitive analysis

I reviewed each of these competitors and listed out opportunities to differentiate from each competitor.

Bumble BFF:

  • The website is marketed to mostly young women so maybe targeting a male audience can open a new opportunity for a new customer base

  • Since it started as a dating app, there is a good amount of people going to this app with the wrong intention which can irritate users

Meetup:

  • People go into this app with different goals and maybe if we stick to only having one goal, we can give users a better experience

  • Include features that implement one-on-one interactions in addition to group interactions

  • Gathering people should be only about making friends

User interviews

User interview participants:

User interview results:

  • 67% of people admit they either faced recent trouble making friends or wish they had more friends

  • The participants who admitted this described themselves as more introverted 

  • 83% of participants stated they prefer going out or meeting people in person is an effective way to meet new friends

  • 100% of participants have stated that they are either open to meeting new people online or have already done so

  • 83% of participants have stated that one-on-one interactions can generate more personal and intimate friendships

  • 83% of participants have stated they would like to have similar interests with someone else to become friends with them and doing something both parties are interested in doing (watching football, shopping, etc) is also a great way to make friends

Themes discovered through Affinity Mapping

User persona:

Define & Design

Plan a hangout: This feature will allow users to invite others to hangout. This also helps them more effectively plan a hangout, because users can fill in what time, what day, and where they want to go to hangout. The option will pop up as soon as two users match with each other

Response rating: Each user will be given a percentage of how often they respond to other users' messages

Myers Briggs personality type: While the user is getting their account started, a link will appear that allows the user to complete a personality quiz figuring out what kind of Myers Briggs personality type they possess. The Myers Briggs personality information will also be availble for the user to access to find out what it is exactly and which personality types are the most compatible

Impactful solutions:

Sitemap:

Low-fidelity wireframes

Style-tile:

Solutions:

The screens below the flow of planning a hangout when a user matches with someone else.

  • These screens shows how the receiving end of the user can edit changes within the hangout if they are unavailable or is not comfortable with the presented location

  • Whether the user chooses time, day or location, the process is follows the same path as the screens presented when planning a hangout

  • The first screen pops up when a user is signing up for an account

  • As you can see, it lets the user choose their own personality type if they know that already, click the “Myers Briggs Personality Type” link to learn some information about what that is, and they can click the link on the bottom to learn what personality type they possess to find out which other personality type is the most compatible with theirs to increase chances of the user meeting friends

  • The second page shows the Myers Briggs Personality Type page

Usability Testing

  • The following participants have been selected to assist in testing the two task flows I will be analyzing

Usability testing participants:

  • This is shows the game plan going into the usability testing

  • Shorter times indicate more successful results

  • A higher difficulty rating (1-5) correlates with a higher success rate

  • Hypothesis: changing the decline hangout options to edit hangout

Usability testing plan:

Usability testing results

  • For the match and plan hangout task flow, include both users' preferred destinations for their hangout

  • For the decline hangout task flow, implement an 'edit hangout' option to prevent confusion

Iterations

Before:

After:

Before:

After: