Roots
a dating tool for middle-aged singles
Team
Duration
Roles
Tools
Lily Mellor
↳ Co Project Lead
Tova Tilk Tobrand
↳ Co Project Lead
Gracie Nguyen
↳ Research Lead
Seth Stomberger
↳ Visual Lead
10 Weeks
Interaction Design
Product Strategy
UX Research
Figma
Miro
Dating became a challenge, especially for older due to the effects of the pandemic
With post pandemic singles, between the ages of 35-55 are having a challenging time looking for partners, as existing digital applications and platforms are too impersonal, full of inauthenticity, and are targeted toward younger or much older audiences.
Challenge
Opportunity
How might we foster a pressure-free environment where singles can easily explore connections and plan dates while keeping their past values in play?
How might we let trusted friends vet and voice their opinions to aid singles in the process of finding potential partners?
Research
Investigate the effects that come with pandemic and after
Research is the foundation to help us understand our users and support all of our insights and design decision. I started our secondary research by looking down following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and singles worldwide began to find it increasingly difficult to find potential partners.
Limited to staying at home during the pandemic, online dating was already on the rise and has even become more prominent.
Key Takeaways from secondary research
Committing to identifying user's need
We narrowed down our target groups from 35 to 55 middle-aged singles from our first round of research. With this new normal, we found middle-aged singles are having a challenging time looking for partners, as existing digital applications and platforms are currently too impersonal, full of inauthenticity, and targeted toward younger or older audiences.
We started to conduct extensive research in the first five weeks including secondary research, surveys, competitor analysis, dating app explorations, and thirty interviews.
500+ data points from the 30 interviews, secondary research and surveys
Identify insights that fuel our design direction
After collecting over 500 + data points from the 30 interviews, secondary research, and surveys, we started to affinitized our data points.
Progress of Affinitizing (Affinity Diagrams)
Clustering the data points to learn valuable insights from learned clusters
Key Insights
Users trust mutual friends and seek their friend's opinion to vet potential partners more than they trust themselves
Users find planning dates, especially first dates, to be stressful, a waste of their time and an awkward process
Users find existing solutions able to reduce the in-person and intimate aspects of dating
User find online dating to be misleading... because the current structure of profiles make users feel they have to depict an inauthentic version of themselves
Re-evaluating user needs and pain points
I started to turn insights and takeaways from our research into opportunities and built HMW statements to facilitate the ideation process. It was important to establish the common ground based on the user's needs and research insights in order to solve the user's problem.
Design
I mapped out the site maps to help the team better understand the information architecture within the app while developing the app's features and flows.
Define and prioritize features
We initially produced several features basic on the insights from our research; friend verified profile, food ordering, and virtual date with delivery features. I was designing the wireframes design for our solutions and noticed feature overload problems and over-complex task flow. I proposed to the team to re-evaluate the feature and aligned my concerns of prioritizing features with the team. It led us to re-develop our final product with share profiles, friends' suggestions, and plan date features.
Design Iterations
Features
Share Profiles
Users can share profiles of potential matches with their trusted friends.
Those friends then receive a link that briefly allows them to view their friend’s potential connection profile and give suggestions, decline, or add any other comments.
Friends Suggestion
Your friend's feedback will be displayed under the friend's suggestions page in the app.
Users aren't alerted if their profile is shared, and friends don't have to download the app to participate in giving feedback to their single friends.
Plan Dates
Users can browse different types of locations for dates, such as a coffee shop or museum, and choose what they feel is best for them and their connection.
Testing
Validating the final direction, features detail, and onboarding approach
I started to conduct the testing, eager to learn more from our users. I had a chance to learn more from "Date planning" and the "Share & Friends' Suggestions" feature. Before making improvements, I always indicate comments and takeaways and visualize them on the task flow to clarify the information for the team.
Reflection
I found that having a solid research foundation helps me and the team to make any design decision. I constantly reflect on what we learned from our users before moving forward with the design. Moreover, I learned how to design the information and considered the business side that was able to apply in our application.
In addition, I enjoyed the process of this project by learning people's perspectives on the relationship and interactions within the dating process. I learned I am passionate about fostering a community to help people connect and positively impact their real life. I enjoyed setting the direction and facilitating the research process to help the team move forward in this project.