Swoonbox

November-December 2017

 

Background: 

75% of dating app users never go on dates. Swoonbox's mission is to get people out on dates through a mutual interest in concerts, sports, and theater events. The app provides a platform for users to discover events and find love - and allows them to purchase tickets.

Problem: 

People are excited about Swoonbox. However, navigation elements and icons outlined in the onboarding process are neither useful nor learnable to users. As a result, users experience difficulty learning how to match with other people and find events of mutual interest, which leads to abandonment of the app.  

Goals: 

  • Afford users a clear, learnable way to make a match and identify an event of mutual interest for a first date.
  • Explore methods for unifying matches and events suggested to users.

Outcomes: 

  • An app which allows you to meet new people and ultimately find love through a memorable first date.
  • Progressive onboarding to improve learnability throughout the user's experience with the app
  • Toggle between searching for events and searching for people
  • Chat stickers to make setting up dates easy and enjoyable

Roles:

  • Scrum Master
  • Researcher
  • User Interviewer
  • Usability Tester
  • Interaction Designer

Methods:

  • Screener Survey
  • User Interviews
  • Affinity Mapping
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Sketching
  • Feature Prioritization
  • Wireframing
  • Prototyping
  • Usability Testing

User Interviews & Beta Testing:

We conducted 6 user interviews with NYC-based singles from age 23-32. Additionally, we conducted 6 beta tests with these singles to determine the state of the app as it stood, in order to learn more about how people interacted with the app prior to making any changes. We learned:

Beta Testing:

  • 0/6 users were able to complete the task of finding a match and suggesting something to do on their first date.
  • Events and Dates felt very disconnected.
  • There was a clear opportunity to improve the overall onboarding, learnability and usability throughout the app.

Interviews:

  • First dates are for gauging personality and if there is an attraction or connection. 
  • It's important that first dates happen in a fun, comfortable setting. 
  • First dates should not be too long or expensive. 

 

Other Research:

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS:
Since we were initially tasked with providing a frictionless onboarding experience, we took a look at several other popular dating apps to determine the best way to onboard users. Through looking at these competitors, we decided that a progressive onboarding was the simplest approach to solving the users' issues and satisfying our stakeholders.

HEURISTIC ANALYSIS:
Our analysis of the app in it's current state revealed an opportunity to improve usability to ensure users were able to complete tasks without frustration.

heuristic analysis.png

 

Research Synthesis:

The user interviews and beta tests generated insights into the minds of the users. Through affinity mapping, we were able to spot trends in the data:

PAIN POINTS:
Dead end conversations. Dating apps are time consuming. Inability to gauge match's personality from profiles.

USER GOALS:
Meaningful relationships. Authentic connections. Respect from matches. Go on a date.

OPPORTUNITIES:
Get matches out on dates. Build robust user profiles. Improve first impressions in-app.

 

Affinity+Map.jpg

Personas:

After identifying clear needs for users we created two primary-personas based off of the users we interviewed, each with different needs and motivations in regards to dating app usage. Meet Alex Erikson and Aaron Winters!

Alex Erikson Persona.png
Aaron Winters Persona.png

 

Design Studio:

We conducted several design studios to rapidly generate ideas for the beta app redesign while focusing on the needs of our users.

Design-Studio-1-Sketches.jpg

 

Feature Prioritization:

The team prioritized which features to implement that best fit the needs of the business and the users - the Minimum Viable Product, or MVP. Our MVP features consisted of the following: 

  • A toggle between dates and events
  • An initial and progressive onboarding
  • Chat stickers to more easily offer or buy tickets to events

 

Prototype Demo:

 

Next Steps:

Based on the feedback of our user testing, we suggested that our stakeholders consider implementing a split-pay feature, as some users felt that they shouldn't be required to pay for their date's ticket to an event on a first date.