Taro: Profile Enhance

Simplify and gamify dating profile in Taro

Mobile Design, UX Design

Role:

UX Design Intern (responsible for User Survey, Ideation, Prototyping, Visual Design)

Timeline:

Oct. 2023- Jan. 2024

Team:

Daryl Li
Fiona Zhao
Hailey Fu
Hongqian Li
Shiny Cui

Tool:

Figma
ProtoPie
Adobe CC
Google Forms

Project Overview

This project is to improve the current version of a mobile application for online friend-making, dating, networking -Taro. Right now, the app users often struggle with articulating their personal information in a compelling way. The objective for the design team is to develop an intuitive system for users to create and enrich their profiles, effectively showcasing their unique values and interests on our platform. The design scope is to simplify and guide the profile creation process for new users; and provide mechanisms for users to enhance and update their profiles over time.

User Research

For primary research, we gathered over 134 responses from online survey, and interviewed 13 people. Our survey suggests that people still need diverse and rich information to form real connection; the reasons why they don't update their profile more often are they sometimes forget or feel lazy, feel uncomfortable sharing, and don't think help get matches; Same interests can boost the success of matching.

For secondary research, we conducted competitive analysis on current trendy online friend-making, dating, networking apps inculding CoffeeMeetsBagel, Tinder, Bumble, Soul, 2RedBeans.

Key Insights

The key insights from user research are: 1. Users need more detailed and enriched profile to build trust, but they sometimes forget and feel lazy to update overtime. 2. Users feel uncomfortable and shy when sharing more detailed personal information. 3. Users think shared interests could boost the success of matching.

What Are the Solutions?

Then we held several ideation workshops in FigJam, where we brainstormed multiple solutions to the problem statement by creating and organizing sticky notes.

We narrowed down to 3 main key design features:
• Encourage users to create and update profile;
• Make users comfortable to share more personal info;
• Highlight personal traits and shared interests.

Lo-fi Wireframes

Base on the three ideation directions, we started building our user stories, user flow and crafting Lo-fi wireframes.

First Round of Hi-fi Prototypes

Then we built our first round of Hi-fi prototypes.

Solution I-I Quick Onboarding

We introduced an option for users to connect their Google or Facebook account, streamlining the onboarding process by automatically populating their basic information.

Solution I-II Gamify Process

We introduced a gamified feature that visually represents profile completion with animated progress indicators.

Solution I-III Regular Reminder

Solution II Positive reinforcement

Solution III Highlight shared interests in profile

Stakeholder Meeting & User Testing

We had meetings with the company CEO, software developers, marketing team after the first round of design ideation and hi-fi prototype review.

Iteration of Hi-fi Prototypes

After meetings with the company CEO, software developers, marketing team, they provided several feedback. We did a second round of iteration on our designs.

Solution I-II Gamify tag-choosing

Solution I-II Daily prompt question game

Solution II Positive reinforcement

Solution III Highlight shared interests in event page

UI LIBRARY

Reflections

1. Just try a lot. I discovered the importance of creating multiple design iterations. Unsure which interactions would work best, I quickly developed various versions. In meetings, discussing these iterations with other teams made it easier to find a design that stakeholders approved.

2. Eliminating the “Student Mindset”. I received feedback from the engineering team that my design still had a “student mindset.” The idea was interesting, but I needed to evaluate its necessity as its implementation could take months, and the potential impact might not justify the effort.
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3. Working with Existing Design Systems. Instead of starting from scratch, we utilized and refined the existing design visual system. I learned to work within design constraints and update the design while maintaining visual harmony with the overall brand.