Friendlier

Everyone has tried dating apps – but what about meeting new people in a non-romantic setting? Having talked to friends and colleagues who expressed this difficulty, I thought it was worth entertaining the thought in a more practical manner. I set out to design a product which would enable its users to enjoy their hobbies with like-minded others and make new friendships in the process.

Project background:

😇
The lack of such a (functional) product has been mentioned in my social circles. Friendlier was my project completed in Growth Tribe's Cross-functional UXD course.

Early insights:

🧐

1. This product can explore an area neglected in the age of dating apps.
   
2. People are starved for connections – both romantic and platonic – in the post-lockdown world.
   
3. It can help to drive satisfaction and improve general quality of life.
   

Methodology:

💡
surveys
empathy interviews
moderated (thinking aloud) and unmoderated usability tests

Defining the problem:

I identified other social meeting apps (i.e. ones not specifically made for dating) as competitors. While some are focused on getting big groups of people together to hang out, others seem to prioritise only direct communication or on a much smaller scale.

I learned that, across the different apps, some of the most common painpoints were:

• no means of communicating, purely browsing and confirming attendance;
  
• confusing UI;
  
• geographical proximity being ignored;
  
• short time slots to establish a connection.
  

Social media channels, my non-direct competitors, have much better reach but suffer from altogether disparate problems (e.g. generation gap).

After researching the market, I ran some screener surveys in which I asked about familiarity with social meeting apps, social media usage and making friends online. In the end I decided to talk to and test with the following groups:

• Introverts,
  
• Expats,
  
• Those feeling extra alienated by the lockdowns,
  
• New kids on the block.
  

Key findings:

1. There comes a point, generally after school, when making new friends becomes difficult (because of work, family, moving homes, general lack of time, other friends having entered new social circles).
   
2. It’s not about the quantity, but the quality of connections.
   
3. Common ground, world view and staying within one’s comfort zone is essential.
   
4. Covid has intensified the need for socialising.
   
5. Swiping is superficial and unenjoyable.
   
6. People rely more on connecting online than in person.
   

User personas:

Ideating:

Users need to be provided a safe space and incentives for meeting up with others. They will want to connect online before doing so offline, ideally having been matched based on interests and geographical proximity, so that a conversation topic is already present.

Success would be defined by them participating in activities together and ultimately becoming friends.

Low-fidelity prototyping:

I thought about two possible routes to explore: activity- and connection-based. The flows would not be fundamentally different and the end goal still to start a friendship in real life, but one would utilise more steps than the other.

Below you can see my early manual wireframes.

Usability testing:

I translated my designs from simple paper wireframes to working prototypes in Figma and cleaned them up to allow for intuitive navigation. At this stage I was still considering running A/B tests to compare the two routes (activity versus connection focus), but taking into account all prior findings and the overabundance of mostly chat-based apps, decided to proceed with just one.

I ran a total of 8 tests: 3 on mid-fidelity, 5 on high-fidelity prototypes.

In the early ones I specifically wanted my participants to understand what actions they can take on the home and activity screens. The face-to-face moderated tests naturally allowed for more exploration so I addressed some concerns such as making the map interactive, adding the bio part in user profile and a countdown to a chosen activity. Some carried over to the high-fidelity prototype, some others were removed.

Below you can see screens from the refined clickable prototype.

High-fidelity prototyping:

Being pressed for time and feeling that I need to get more hands-on with Figma, I quickly moved onto high-fidelity prototyping, UI designing and running more tests. Again, I started by checking whether the main screens flow logically. I then tasked participants with confirming event attendance and navigating to the chat window.

The catch here is  this – you only see 5 events tailored to you and a conversation can only begin once you and the other participant have both confirmed the intention to attend an event. I assume this self-imposed restriction is the main difference when comparing Friendlier to potential competitors. Quality over quantity.


My high-fidelity prototype guides the user from the homepage to choosing an interesting event and chatting with another participant. There is the option of exploring others' profiles, seeing another event if the top activity is not to the user’s liking and changing one’s location.

Here are some of the final screens:


😵‍ What am I looking at?
The early round of mid-fid looked confusing to the first testers. By the time I was sharing high-fidelity, everything became much easier to digest!

😬 Is everything clickable?
This one was tricky as testers were viewing on different devices – I’ve made more buttons and chips.

🤔 Why does the flow not retain information?
Major concern for functionality and a big learning in Figma for me. Between the iterations, I added multiple navigation elements and panels.

😎 Is it about the best events for me or just the ones that are happening close?
Best fit > proximity. My idea wasn’t to flood users’ feeds with hundreds of events they will never commit to, but to pick out those of value.

🤓 Do introverts really want to talk to others?!
Yes, they do – but on their terms! They prioritise connecting based on mutual understanding.

Closing thoughts:

I am aware that the scope and duration of the project did not allow me to explore all facets which potentially could have been implemented, such as microinteractions. Still, I believe that I have created a solid base for a likable product.

When testing my prototypes, I was particularly concerned with success rate and ease of use. Majority of the users stayed on the happy path, using Friendlier as intended.

Beyond just reflecting on the functionality and looks, they mentioned that the concept itself is interesting and they would enjoy using the real product. "As an introvert, I'd love to use this app," wrote one of the participants of the unmoderated tests.

Interestingly, I have since joined the team behind Clik, a real-life meeting app which brings people together through events.