Destined Case Study
The app for date routes on location and popularity.
Overview
The Problem
People have difficulty finding where to date and how to plan the locations efficiently.
Before going on dates, people frequently discuss 'where to meet,' 'where to eat,' and 'what to do.'
Dates usually turned out to be bland and forgettable, and planning them was a pain since thinking of ideas that the other person would enjoy was not the simplest thing to do in our busy lives.
The Goal
Design an app to help people plan routes and date locations based on popularity and location. This will give the user confidence and a great first impression to continue dating.
The Responsibilities
Visual design, wireframing, onboarding, user research
The Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop
The Love Dilemma
I searched the web and App Store figuring there should be something that could help with this problem. Many of the choices I went over were either too limited in giving distance choices (OpenTable and BetterHalf), too centered around correspondence between couples (Kahnoodle and Couple), or weren't accessible in every state (5 Every Day).
Taking the first step
To solve this, I began researching the components of a successful date. What makes a date effective? What activities are people excited about? How can I execute this in a realistic city? What are a few different necessities, interests, and issues that can happen while going out on the town?
Survey Research Findings
"A date that allows you to talk on and off without having an awkward silence would be perfect. You can get to know somebody while doing an activity. No talking sucks, but talking the entire time is tiring. A movie and dinner are clichés. Something new would be amazing."
— Quote from a survey participant
What matters most for a date is engagement.
The overall activity that allows you to do something with your date like walking in a park.
The difficulty in finding what to do on a date is sometimes, but we figure it out.
The uncertainty of the outcome makes the success rate of the date not as effective as it could be.
The Design of Destined
From the information I gathered, I made an ideal client experience of how my application will work. Also detailing what the user's experience would look like. It later formed into a touchpoint map, which shows the user's journey and emotions with each touchpoint they perform inside the application.
The outline process of what the wireframing will look like.
The significance of this journey map is finding a consistent experience to keep the user motivated as they go through the app.
The highlight of the touch points are:
The greatest experience was seeing all the locations and activities a user can choose from that will create a route.
The lowest experience was the user having a daunting feeling of not knowing how to impress their date.
The significance of the site map was choosing a theme for activities in yellow. This led to a curated list for the user to have the perfect activity without them being overwhelmed with choices.
The application design included four decisions on sifting date choices: by the user's location, by themes, by random selection, or by picking your activities.
You can explore how it works below.
After the user tested the application with a small group of ideal people, the application lost its primary focus, setting update activities quickly. I thought the themed dates be the most exciting choice and should be the first choice. I overhauled the design to ensure that date themes were much quicker.
I began using UI inspired by well-known map applications to focus on how they guide users through complicated journeys.
The redesigned user flow including wireframes and hotspots.
I highlighted the most recent overhaul of the Destined app centers around showing dates you can choose by topics like Romantic, Adventurous, and Casual through the ‘Choose by Theme’.
It is vital to help you imagine your ideal date before going on it.
My objective was to make an application that would help you have better dates with an easy-to-use interface.
Pushing Ahead
There is still much more to explore with Destined. Imagine a scenario where activities were presented through business organizations and events.
Imagine a scenario where dates were made by users and shared publically. Could we, at any point, use different ways of communicating and reviewing dates?
These are only the start of the questions to develop as I designed this application.
You can view the latest prototype of Destined below.