BLINK DATE
SPEAK NOW, PEAK LATER.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Blink’s mission is to create a connection between people putting physical appearance as second priority and putting connection with voice and conversation first.
Blinks focus is to enable members to create real connections without the influence of assumptions based on physical traits. What makes Blink stand out is that they provide people to connect in a different and a new way. They want daters to build meaningful relationships that are not based on pure superficial preferences but rather on meaningful conversations.
ROLE
UX Designer
User Research, Interaction, Visual design, Prototyping & Testing
TOOLS
Figma, XD, Miro, Keynote, Zoom, Google Suite, Otter
TIMELINE
2 week Sprint
THE PROBLEM
Our team was asked to explore the problem space in regards two problem spaces:
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Explore the problem space in regards to user no-shows.
Improve overall functionality on the app.
Understand how to draw heterosexual males to Blink.
To discover the pain points, motivations, and needs around Blink users we used a wide range of UX methodologies to better understand how users go about using online dating platforms and their approach to dating in general. Some of our assumptions were the following:
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Online daters find it uncomfortable to engage in small talk without knowing the specific person’s interests and hobbies
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Users need incentives or motivation and penalties to get excited about their planned date
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Online daters may see blind dating as a hit or miss and they would like to spend their time elsewhere if they don’t know how successful the date will be
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There is no rescheduling option so users might cancel and then forget to schedule something again
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EXISTING APP PERFORMANCE
Some of the first things we did to understand how the Blink app was currently performing was conduct usability tests of the app. We wanted to see what’s currently working and not working for users, as well as assess its compliance accessibility and basic functionality.
Onboarding Screens
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Currently the onboarding process for Blink Date included 20 screens.
During our initial usability testing, participants expressed how they felt overwhelmed by the amount of screens they had to go through to sign up
Glances
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Glances are way for the user to pick and rate 3 photos that come after the date ( 10 min conversation ).
Many users were confused by this features and were not sure what they meant since there is no detailed explanation about Glances on the app
Welcome!
A warm introduction screen to keep users interested and engaged
1,2,3 Go!
Condensed Onboarding Screen to eliminate the amount of clicks
Sneak Peek!
Pre-date Glimpse Profile in order for users to have a conversation starter or a peak before the date
It's a Match!
It's a Match screen to let the user know if they have been matched or not
RESEARCH
Lead Design Challenge
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According to the scope of data collected, we can make the interpretation that online daters are often looking for a meaningful connection with potential matches. Combined with their busy lives, they are left with little time to dedicate to finding a soul mate and difficulties present themselves especially when building trust, especially over the stigma of the internet.
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How might we provide a way for online daters to commit their scheduled dates to gain more prospects?
In order to produce a viable set of enhancements and features to incorporate into Blink, we had to think about our target users and what we want to learn from them. We then focused on prospective users that were less likely to use the app to uncover their wishes and motivations for potential Blink Date enhancements and grouped it together to help pinpoint priorities in specific categories we should focus on.
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USER INTERVIEWS
User interviews are conducted to better understand our Blink users and non-Blink users’ direct experiences, motivations and approaches to online dating. The main goal of the user interviews is to capture actionable data to assess our assumptions and expand upon our problem space.
WE ASKED THE QUESTIONS. WE GOT THE ANSWERS!
We interviewed 18 participants total including 9 current Blink Users and 9 individuals that have used the dating app. Each interview was conducted with an interviewer and note-taker online via Zoom.
"I want to learn as much as I can about a person before I meet them in person"
"I find it easier to get to know my dates when we have a shared common interest or topic"
"Photos convey a story about a person and they give me insight into how the person lives their life"
"I feel more comfortable if a friend sets me up on a date but I would still like to see a photo first"
"I feel motivated to continue the conversation when there are commonalities"
"I want to see some improvements in the existing features on the platform"
"When I do schedule a date, I have to stare at a countdown to see if my date shows up or not"
"I want to see some improvements in the existing features on the platform"
RESEARCH SYNTHESIS
After conducting our interviews, we created an affinity map which is a method to synthesize the data collected from our user interviews. Our goal was to find common themes and insights to ensure that we design the right thing for our users.
SOME OF THE KEY TAKEAWAYS WE LEARNED:
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Blink users see room for improvement with the existing features on the platform.
Having common ground and mutual effort from both sides helps continue the conversation.
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Little to no matches on the platform make users believe that there are not enough people in the dating pool.
Physical attraction is almost always critical when searching for potential partners.
PROSPECTIVE USERS:
BLINK DATE USERS:
Little to no matches on the platform make users believe that there are not enough people in the dating pool
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
PERSONAS
From our synthesized research for both Blink and non-Blink users, we were able to draw 2 personas.
Meet Michelle!
Meet Joseph!
USER JOURNEYS
The Journey of Finding Love.
To visualize the user’s process going on Blink Date we mapped out a journey map for Michelle. The persona will be used as our “user” as we’re mapping out the emotional journey.
OPPORTUNITIES
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Provide insights behind the onboarding fields on the app.
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Consolidate onboarding fields to shorten the onboarding process.
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Provide a glimpse of your date’s photo without revealing the entire photo and bio.
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Provide calming screens while users are waiting for their date.
DESIGN STUDIO & IDEATION
We began to sketch key features out with a design studio  which is a great way to generate many ideas rapidly without having to lean on a solution at the inception of the product development process. With the persona's needs, pain points, and goals in mind, the primary focus for all participants is to quickly sketch out easy low-fi wireframes in order to accomplish four main goals:
Onboarding Screens
Consolidate onboarding fields to shorten the onboarding process
Profile Glance Screen
Date Scheduler where the user can have a sneak peak of the dates profile
Avatar Screen
Provide an avatar screen with a brief description
Joining Soon Screen
Provide calming screens while users are waiting for their date
Date Scheduler
Date Scheduler where the user can have a sneak peak of the dates profile
Match Screen!
Match Screen with a photo of your date!
USABILITY TESTING
From our design studio we jumped into hi-fidelity screens to start testing right away. We used Maze.co. and moderated our participants to make sure we we had the most fruitful insights.
The Onboarding Process
We tested the original onboarding screens with 21 participants. Our testers noted that the flow was very long. 10% of the testers gave up completing this process altogether so we knew we wanted to consolidate some of the screens.
Time to complete the onboarding process
Bounce / Give up Rate
From date to Evalu-Date!
We also saw a MAJOR confusion with users completing the Glances process in the original process. After updating our screens, we saw a big increase in the completion rate without compromising the order or essence of this process. We also decreased the time to complete by 75 seconds after testing our new concept!
Time to complete the date to Evalu-Date process
Bounce / Give up Rate
NEW & IMPROVED BLINK DATE
Introducing the new and improved Blink Date!!!
We focused on the pain points of our target audience while still considering the main concept of Blink and we made sure to further emphasize the importance of building the connection without photos.
So what exactly did we do?
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Consolidating Onboarding Screens
Currently the onboarding process for Blink Date included 20 screens. We were able to condense these screen to 12 screens to minimize the amount of clicks.
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Starting Your Date
Before users start their date they also have an option to cancel their date and give a reason as to why they canceled. Right before the date begins the users have a countdown and 3 options to let their date know if they are ready for the date.
After the date is over, there is an evaluation screen where the user can evaluate the date and write some notes about how the date went.
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Post Date Features
Users are able to go back to their date scheduler to view the post date profile where the details about their date are shown. They are also able to report any kind of issues they might have encountered on the app.
NEXT STEPS & IMPLEMENTATION
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Next steps:
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Focusing on improving the existing features on the platform based on our user insights.
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Considering the key insights we highlighted in our research when proposing new features.
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Capturing core metrics around the features such as user adoption rate, and weekly user retention.
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Implement a more customized filters for users.
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Determining which features to roll out and get testing!
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Measuring Success
There are a number of things we suggest to monitor to determine whether we’re on the right track.
We believe that there are 3 of the most critical items that need to be implemented:
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Adoption - does our value prop ring with customers? We would see this play out in signups and signup conversion
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Retention - we’ve defined an active user as a customer who successfully went on the date within 21 days. After 21+ days, they would be considered off-line.
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Engagement - our app is all about building an authentic connection with their date with our product. We would want to monitor how often they show up to their scheduled date and the number of total date sessions.
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