Giving The round
a better flow
The Round is a dating app that sets itself apart by focusing on the pain points of all other dating apps, which are always accountability and user follow through. With assist from the app, the date would be planned within the next 48 hours of a match.
My Role: UX Designer, Qualitative research, Visual design, and Usability
Tools: Sketch, Invision, Photoshop
My Contributions:
- Researched/develop stats for dating apps
- MSCW for overall criteria for the app
- Focused on time alignment for daters
Created questions for user interviews
Conducted interviews
Defined user flow and journey maps
Wrote copy for "no match"
Designed high-fidelity wireframes
Methods Used:
Business Research
User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Persona Development
Scenarios/User Flows
Sketches
Layout
Wireframes
Comps
Usability Testing
Prototype
WHAT I’M SOLVING
The Problem:
Accountability is the number one problem across all dating apps. Often what the users want, is not necessarily better for them. These users wanted more control, but more control conflicted with the business goals of not letting users have an opportunity to become unaccountable.
User Goals:
Know how the app works
Easily create a profile
Short onboarding process
Go on actual dates
Avoid being ghosted
Have a degree of control
Receive a match and gain an ego boost
Cut down on back & forth messaging that goes nowhere
Business Goals:
- State the value proposition
- Explain how the round works
- Get users to fill out their profile
- Create an easy flow for setting up times available for a date
- Generate more buy-in for people on their matches
- Encourage users to stay engaged when they don’t receive a match
APPROACH
Research: Here I'll learn how The Round operates, what its flow looks and feels like, and get to know the overall content.
Define: Questions that pop up during the analysis are pushed into user interviews- where I'll poke, prod and gain insight to define how people experience the process of using a dating app.
Ideate: Once I'm clear on the problems, I'll use the design method to kick things off. I'll sketch out an amalgamation of The Rounds current format, successful aspects of its competitors, and my ideas for improvement.
Test: Based on the previous steps, I'll create my first attempt at reworking The Rounds layout. I'll then user test to establish a foundation.
Iterate: With the recent findings, I'll start the process all over again.
Research
Industry Overview
I started out by conducting research on the dating app landscape and found the following stats:
Competitor Research
My team then researched competitors in the dating app space. Below is a detailed SWOT analysis (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats).
Strengths
Strong visual look
Unique concept
Meets user pain points across all dating platforms
Game style feel
Focused approach with one match a day
Weaknesses
Little user control
Onboarding is long
Timing constraints
Matching logistics
Low market share
- Higher likelihood of not receiving a match
Opportunities
Revenue from restaurant incorporation
Clear reasoning for what sets it apart
Market penetration for paying users is low across all apps
Threats
- Many competitors
Low number of users
Lack of marketing
Many constraints
Difficult concept to understand
Tinder tried similar idea for easy dates
User Flow
Once I had a better idea of where The Round fit in with current dating apps- I created a user flow map, keeping in mind what happens when people try to coordinate a date, and their times don't work.
User Journey
Given the amount of constraints of the app, I also created a user journey map to predict where the pitfalls for the users may lay- and with this, I could anticipate how it would affect other parts of the app.
interviews
I was interested in hearing from people who regularly use dating apps. I wanted to learn why they use apps, and what makes them want to follow through to set up a date after receiving a match. The other things I was looking to learn was:
Example Questions:
When looking for a dating app, what criteria do you use when choosing to try something new?
Do you have any fears or hesitations around using a dating app?
What are the hardest parts about setting up a date with someone you've matched with on a dating app?
What would you tell yourself about yourself if you didn’t get a match?
What would you do immediately after not getting a match?
DEFINE
With the Interview questions set and competitive research done- It was time to define what was learned, and help explain what those discoveries could mean for iterations on the app.
Interview findings
I used the affinity map method to synthesize the data from the interviews.
Our dating app users:
Feel insecure and have a distrust with dating apps:
More so when they don't receive a match
The quality of the person they will meet
That people are not as they appear online
The stigma of meeting people on a dating app
Apps can feel seedy
Find dating apps to be a waste of time:
To keep swiping and not receive a match feels like wasted effort and demoralizing
Matches rarely go somewhere
Many people never message
Re-asses their matches after receiving them:
Usually, people do a re-review a persons profile
Decide if they are truly interested or attracted
Will reach out after if the answer is yes
May re-asses their own profile to make things similar to their matches interests
Go on dating apps and return because:
Gives them confidence/ego boost
They are in the mood to meet someone
They are feeling confident that day
The potential and possibility is exciting
Personas
Goals
Find a meaningful connection and get off all dating apps
Feel like there is a degree of control with setting up a date
Wants to experience more follow-through from others
Challenges
Tired of being ghosted by people after messaging
Distrustful of dating apps since he has had very few experiences that feel positive
Concerned about the quality of people in person
How The Round can help
Create more accountability for users by requiring users to provide times available
Provide more detailed profiles with mandatory photos to reaffirm about someone looks
Take away the drawn-out process of making choices
Goals
- Be spontaneous and meet someone quickly when she is feeling up for it
- Generally likes to meet new people often
- Reduce the back and forth of where to meet and when
Challenges
- Will switch apps immediately if she doesn’t find someone that excites her
- Easily bored by people
- May be more casual then others, has a hard time committing to more
How The Round can help
Create more investment in others by having users fill out more detailed profiles
Create excitement through a gamification feel
Make the process of choosing times and restaurants easy
IDEATE
After research was done, it was time to try and shake out some ideas.
sketch
I sketched and worked out a path with results from the previous steps.
TEST
user testing
In the usability tests of our initial low-fi version, we found a number of things we needed to iterate on:
The language needed to be clearer for people to know they were to select times to hang out that same day
Trying to reduce the number of steps by adding more content to one page, made directions less clear, and the overall look more cluttered
The copy on the buttons was ambiguous as to what was happening next
Users felt frustrated they couldn’t see other users times selected when they didn’t match, since they may willing to be flexible by an hour
ITERATE
With the feedback received through usability tests, I worked on revamping aspects of The Round to keep things clear and motivating
I focused on:
Simplifying the content of the time selection page
Make the text clear as to what was expected of the user
Users needed to see the times selected by their counterpart
Men and women felt differently about themselves when they didn’t get a match, we needed to cater to each gender to encourage them to return
All changes can be seen below.
Want to see the flow in action?
Click to view prototype
REFLECTIONS
Challenges
- Flow for selecting times was clunky, needed to cut down on the number of screens
- Consistency with design placement and aesthetic
- Because of many constraints, there will be fewer matches
Solutions
- Borrow UI aesthetic from other successful time-choosing apps
- Clear communication for when times don't align
- Copy that keeps users motivated when they don't receive a match
Next
- Usability test with scenarios of very invested in the selected date, versus a little unsure
- When there is no match, AB test language on "no match" page
- Conduct further research