PlayDate
PlayDate
Project Summary | Branding & UI/UX Design
Moving to a new city is always a daunting task - especially when going to one as dynamic and intimidating as New York City (NYC). As NYC transplants, the team behind this platform wants to help new movers fluidly assimilate into their neighborhoods while mitigating factors that make meeting new people difficult. Through features like self-generated scheduling and planning, PlayDate sets itself apart as a service that eases the user’s uncertainties while facilitating community building.
This project began as a response to the hypothesis that Gen Z and Millennials have difficulty finding community and engagement when they move to a new place.
Scenario
You are in your 20’s/30’s and made the BIG decision to move to NYC.
You’ve got all the logistics figured out:
Job
Apartment & move-in date
Packing & moving your belongings
Now that these important arrangements have been made, you are filled with excitement for D-Day!
The only thing is…
You don’t really know anyone in NYC…
But don’t worry! You’re not the only one.
Market Research
Despite the various services and platforms that exist to foster friendships, new movers still experience difficulty finding their communities. From my perspective, this is indicative of existing apps lacking something crucial to fill this need. To identify this key factor, I looked into Breeze, an innovative European dating app that not only offers its users opportunities to match, but also generates their first dates at either a local bar or for a “walk and talk”.
Breeze
Features:
A dating app that takes online dating offline. Every day, the app sends a user a handful of people it thinks they’ll like. If it’s a match, you skip the chat, and Breeze will organize the first date at a safe location.
Pros:
This method of matchmaking takes the pressure off the users to arrange a date. It also gives the users an opportunity to check out a new business in the city that they may not have previously visited.
Cons:
App offers limited activities for the arranged dates: going to a local bar or a “walk and talk”.
User Research
The user research provided clarity on what people think, feel, and do related to creating new friendships. User interviews with recent NYC transplants especially shed light on the core barriers they encountered when finding connections in their new communities.
Insight | Location in the city plays a major part in how young movers navigate their new neighborhoods and associate themselves with space.
People develop a sense of identity and belonging to the physical environment where they spend most of their time. Cultivating your community goes hand in hand with familiarizing yourself with your neighborhood.
“I end up exploring new neighborhoods when I head out to hang out with friends”
Virginia L.
Insight | Most young movers were interested in finding a community with others in similar life stages or with shared interests.
“I enjoy the process of discovering/exploring while finding the closest grocery store, bodega, etc.”
Josiah P.
The opportunity to meet other like-minded locals by frequenting third spaces in their neighborhoods sounded ideal for new movers.
“It’s hard to find friends in the same lifestyle/life stage as you”
Opal D.
“I think it would be easier to make friends if I had a hobby and found community this way”
Justine K.
Insight |Since the COVID-19 lockdown, Gen Z & Millennials feel that initiating social interactions are more difficult.
With more anxiety surrounding social interactions combined with the overall uncertainties of moving somewhere new and unfamiliar, movers had a difficult time taking the first step in creating new friendships.
“I’m kind of introverted, so joining social clubs was intimidating”
Cean P.
“ I had hopes of building community when I moved here but realized it was way more difficult than I thought it would be, especially with COVID - it just wasn't a good time.”
Evelyn K.
Problem:
Gen Z and Millennials have difficulty finding community and engagement when they move to a new place.
Research Goal:
We want to learn how young movers get connected in their new neighborhoods so that we can foster and streamline this process for them.
Point of View Statement:
We want to explore ways to help Gen Z and Millennial movers meet other locals in similar life stages so that they can feel a sense of community with those around them.
How might we foster an environment for Gen Z and Millennial movers to meet with locals who share the same interests and goals?
How might we facilitate opportunities for young movers to meet others with similar hobbies and interests in NYC?
How might we assist new Gen Z and Millennial movers to make friends organically while exploring the city?
Vision
With the insights from the user research, I was able to confirm the original hypothesis and focus on addressing the movers’ top pain points. The pressure and anxiety that surrounds coordinating a “date” with a potential new friend and meeting a stranger for the first time played a significant role in discouraging new movers from meeting people. Thus, the solution would need to make this process less scary.
This is Nina! She is packed and ready to move to NYC!
The only problem is, she doesn’t have friends in NYC and doesn’t know anything about her new neighborhood.
Her friend Dan tells her about PlayDate, a platform his college friends used when moving to NYC to make friends in their neighborhoods. It also creates an itinerary for you!
Nina started using PlayDate and quickly found someone in her neighborhood with similar interests
PlayDate created an itinerary for them, in their neighborhood, so all they had to do was wait for the day-of and show up.
Nina and her new friend, Kelly, met at the scheduled location and were able to hit it off. Without the pressure of picking a meeting location or activity, they met easily and connected through their interests.
UX Design | Low Fidelity
Initial Sketches
Making the Process “Less Scary”
Onboarding Flow
PlayDate uses the user’s neighborhood and areas they want to explore to generate potential matches who also either live or want to explore the same areas.
Matching Flow
When the user wants to match, all they have to do is select their availabilities and the app will generate an itinerary for the users to meet.
Tablet Screens
Matching Flow
Brand and Style
With the focus of this new PlayDate platform solidified, I wanted the branding to radiate the idea that creating friendships can be a painless and enjoyable process. While highlighting this ease, I also wanted it to be playful and bold while adhering to accessibility standards.
Some of the keywords that served as a guideline for the branding were: adventurous, inclusive, and playful.
Branding
Initial Sketches
Fine-tuning the Logo
The logo manipulates the letters “p” & “d” from PlayDate to create a cheeky face that embodies the keywords. I played around with different line weights and colors to find the logo that felt the most authentic to the project goal.
Final Logo Design
The final logo utilizes a cream, orange, & deep blue color. The logo title is in a bold Montserrat font. I ended up forgoing an outline on the face because it felt stuffy.
Assets
UI Design | High Fidelity
The Onboarding and Matching Flows have been streamlined and the branding has been solidified. The high fidelity wireframes actualize the concepts and iterations from the previous steps of the design process and bring us closer to the final product.
Onboarding Flow
The onboarding/sign up process was made with simplicity in mind. With a mobile number login and selection of neighborhood(s) as the 2 main steps to complete registration, the onboarding is as easy as it is crucial to the match generation process. After registering, users can begin to personalize their profiles and add as many interests as they’d like to get matches that are most similar to them.
Matching Flow
The platform offers 5 daily recommendations that it believes will be a good match to the user. The user has the opportunity to look through each profile and select whether or not they would like to meet. The highlight of this process is that the user does not have to engage in the initial small talk with their match, but instead, skip this awkward step and go straight to selecting their availability. PlayDate takes it from here! If both parties want to meet and their schedules line up, a PlayDate will be scheduled with an itinerary that is shared to both parties with their interests and neighborhoods taken into consideration.
User Testing
Usability tests were conducted to see the Onboarding and Matching flows in action. The users felt that the idea behind the platform and overall user experience was playful and fun. Most participants also stated that the steps were intuitive and that they did not feel overloaded with information.
Constructive Feedback
The most common feedback I received from these tests were on user safety, a desire for more content to be shown on the profiles of potential matches, and difficulty in tapping/selecting parts of the forms.
“How do users know they will be safe on these PlayDates?”
Ellie L.
“I want to know more about the person on their profile screen.”
Stephanie K.
“I had a hard time selecting some of the boxes on the availability screen”
Chelsey B.
UI Iterations
Solutions
Final tweaks and iterations to address the feedback from the user testing added validity and more substance to the user experience. Safety measures were incorporated through flagging and profile verification capabilities. User personalities are further highlighted through self-populated prompts. Calls to action and touch areas for interactive fields are now larger and easier to tap.
Final Prototypes
Onboarding
Setting up the user’s profile and selecting their neighborhood and areas of interest.
Browsing through suggested profiles and selecting availability to meet with the potential match, Hannah.
Matching
Final Results
The insight from the initial research and the feedback from user testing refined the solution’s mission to mitigate awkward and discouraging interactions while promoting relationship building. PlayDate approached this nuanced process with a fresh perspective that helps users feel confident when putting themselves out there. With continued research and iterations, this platform will further develop into a product that is valuable and a holy grail for new NYC residents.
Retrospection
Hindsight is 20/20
The iterative design process for this project was an insightful journey that heavily drew from the lived experiences of recent movers. I appreciated the initial research process and enjoyed learning about the participants’ experiences with moving to NYC. Looking back on the conducted interviews, I wish I asked more questions about how they felt in each step of the moving process and why they might have felt that way. Having this information would form the product solution in a more meaningful way that directly address the human experience that it is trying to facilitate.
Next Steps
Design projects feel like there is always more work that can be done. Moreover, with the Onboarding and Matching flows fleshed out, I would like to dive deeper into the matching process and fine-tune some of the details. The next interactions that I would develop include:
What the itinerary looks like and how users interact with it
Coordinating playdates for larger groups
Partnerships with local businesses