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BumbleBFF

Improving the Friend-Search

Client

My Role 

Timeline

Team AlphaMoon

Platform/Tools

Bumble

Lead UI Designer

UX Researcher

iOS 

Figma

Miro

Trello

2 week sprint

Jane Moon

Robin Gibbs

The challenge.

Despite being a well known platform for friending and dating, there was a need to make the friend-search process take a uniquely different venture from searching for a romantic partner. Bumble bff’s friend-matching is currently a clone of their dating platform, bumble date, and users can only find people of the same gender.  

First, a little background...

Bumble was first founded to challenge the antiquated rules of dating. They’ve strived to make it not only acceptable, but necessary for women to make the first move, shaking up outdated gender norms. Using almost the same business model as their dating app, Bumble BFF provides users the opportunity to match with others around them platonically, with some not-so-helpful limitations. 

Our goal.

Determine  the current effectiveness of Bumble BFF's approach and determine ways to refine and add features to make the friendship search more effective. 

What qualities

does a user attribute

to a friendship

as opposed to a romantic relationship?

How do users

feel about only being

able to meet people from

the same gender?

emojione-right-thought-bubble_edited.png

What determines

success or failure in an

online friending experience?

Do users have any

frustration or stressors

about pursuing friendships through apps?

What features

are expected in apps

where people can meet a friend?

Discovery

In order to understand what areas of the current app are working for the user and what aren't, my team and I conducted interviews and usability tests with 5 users. We were able to get to the foundation of the user's needs, motivations, and pain points when it comes to using dating or friending apps that would answer some of our burning questions.

Current-State Usability Testing

 

We wanted to get a first-hand glimpse of how our users interacted with the product in its current state. We were able to gather a lot of valuable feedback during these tests and noticed how people found no strong connection behind the "matching" being done. We learned that people cared more about a person's detail versus their photos. They wanted more access to a potential friend's interests, even political views, before making the decision to interact. Our testers found the Profile Settings page to be straightforward, but they wanted to have more options and be able to customize their personal profiles. 

We started to learn that Bumble BFF really needed to separate itself from Bumble Date in order to attract users looking for friends.

Research Findings

 

With the initial interviews and testing done, we gathered and synthesized a lot of data through affinity mapping. We found that there were many commonalities in all users with how felt about online friend-making apps. Let's discuss what users struggled with and what they were actually  looking for. 

  • Users want to be able to match with any gender. They don't just want to be with friends with people of the same gender.

  • They dislike having a timeframe of 24 hours to reach out to their potential match before it disappears. Many users often don't have time to check their phones. 

  • Constant swiping is desensitizing. Many people end up with multiple matches they wouldn't necessarily talk to as a result of mindless swiping and low-effort matching. 

  • Users find it stressful or awkward to send a direct message as the first move and have trouble coming up with icebreakers when trying to make friends. They felt there needs to be more organic options for creating connections.

  • Users want to learn more about the user rather than just seeing more pictures. They felt that looks rarely mattered when it came to making friends. 

  • Since the current app doesn't allow users to add anything about themselves other than cookie cutter details, users want to be able to add categories unique to them when building their profile. 

  • Some users want to see the different causes that people support, since they felt it is an integral part of who a person is. 

"I want to be able to match with any gender."

"I expect to

see more detail

in bios."

"I find Bumble's friend-search process very limiting."

"Making friends by swiping feels inorganic."

"I never know

what to say when making the first move."

"I want to match based on similar interests and be able to type my own."

Building Empathy

With the help of our research findings, we developed a user persona that would best embody Bumble BFF's target users. We wanted to paint an accurate picture of the user we were going to solve for and visualize various aspects i.e their personalities, needs and goals, frustrations and more. 

 

To uncover areas of opportunities, we created a user journey map to visualize the steps users currently take to make a match and send a message to their matches. 

With Kaylee in mind, and understanding exactly what her experiences were and the challenges she faced, we carefully developed the problem statement to represent her and her needs, and brainstormed some How-Might-We questions that would help us address the problem areas. 

"Kaylee needs an organic way to find friends and have conversations because she finds it awkward to directly send a message to make the first move." 

"HMW alleviate the stress of sending a DM to strangers?"

"HMW connect Kaylee with people who match her personality?

"HMW eliminate the desensitizing experience of constant swiping?"

"HMW allow users to customize their profiles with less limitations?"

Profiles of Potential Matches

Profiles

Notifications

Profile Setup

Solutions, solutions, solutions

To approach our solution, each of my team members and I decided to propose our own ideas by white-boarding. We each tackled one HMW question and created some low-fidelity sketches addressing those questions. This way, we were able to look at different styles and communicate our quick design decisions as a team, and how it would benefit the user experience. 

This activity revealed that we had similar ideas in mind which lead us to the following solutions:

  • Eliminate the right swipe 

    • Allows users to comment or like in order to match ​

  • Eliminate the 24-hour no-response disappearance of the match.

  • Give users more freedom to customize their profile. They will be able to:

    • Add stickers related to causes​

    • Write their political views

    • "Add More" category 

  • Give users ability to view and match with any or all genders.

  • Notifications tab will be created to view comments and likes from other users who show interest. 

We then went on to build our proposed user flow to accomplish exactly what our persona intends in a seamless path. and used it as a guide to create our mid-fidelity wireframes. 

HMW alleviate the stress of sending a DM?

Added: comment icon, double tap for like

HMW eliminate the desensitizing experience of constant swiping?

Added: comment, double tap for each section, comment pop-up screen, notification page of likes/comments

HMW allow users to customize their profiles with less limitations?

HMW connect Kaylee with people who match her personality?

Adding more pictures, categories, comment screen

Profiles Setup

Profiles of Potential Matches

Filters

Gender Options

Advanced Filters

Comment

Notifications

Message

Proposed-State Usability Tests

After designing our wireframes, we wanted to know what our users think. We conducted 3 usability tests and this is what we found: 

  • Profiles: users were confused by the placement of the comment icon above and on the picture. They felt that the comment icon was actually a direct message icon.

  • Notifications: Users were unsure where to click and what the page was doing. So we turned the comment rectangles into message bubbles so users know this would be displayed in a chat box where the user can reply. We also provided a quick-view of the profile of the person who commented/liked. 

  • Advanced Filters: Users wondered why it was asked the option to specify age and gender they wanted to match with, since it was seen on the previous page (BFF filters)

  • Replying back to match: After clicking on the comment, users were confused on what would lead to a match, so we added an extra screen to show what would happen after they reply to their comment. 

Profiles

Advanced Filters

Notifications

Replying Back to Match

High Fidelity Prototype
Profile Setup

Kaylee can input her details that can be seen by other users. She now has the option to:

  • Add fun stickers related to causes she believes in 

  • Share a topic unique to her in the Add More category

Explore Profiles

Here, Kaylee can explore different profiles to match through comments or likes or pass by pressing X or left swipe. Comments and likes would be notified to the other user. 

Users can select filters to specify the type of profiles they want to see, and are now able to select any or all genders. 

Notifications

This is where Kaylee can see comments and likes sent to her by others, and view their profiles. She can click on Jessica’s comment or preview her profile, and if Kaylee chooses to connect, she can simply reply to her comment. 

Messages

Finally, this is the tab where all of Kaylee’s matches and conversations are stored. She’s able to use the search button or the horizontal scroll to see everyone she’s matched with, and view her recent conversations. 

Interactive Prototype

Reflection

After hours of user-focused research and design, I believe our solution of the new and improved Bumble Bff app fulfills the goals and expectations of the user. 

With that in mind, I would like to keep working on improving the “like” feature and the notifications tab and possibly create an onboarding process for matching to give some instructions on how to make a match. 

© 2023 by Dean Raven. Proudly created with Wix.com

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