Consumer · Early career
Designing for connection: a safer dating app MVP
How do you make it easier to find a better first date, and feel safer doing it? Start by finding out where trust actually comes from.
30+
In-person research interviews
5
Principles that filtered every feature
1
MVP tested with the first user cohort
The real constraint
We were asked to design an MVP for Guroo, a dating app. The question underneath: how do people actually decide to trust someone they've just met?
What we found
We ran 30+ in-person interviews, including sessions on college campuses, about how people really meet.
The pattern: women only felt confident in their choice of date after meeting in person.
That led to the insight the whole product hangs on. Most dating apps try to replicate meeting someone online and skip the one thing that builds trust: face-to-face conversation.
The decision
Recreate the first date inside the app.
Conversation starters, timed dates and trivia questions take the friction out of two strangers talking, so people can screen each other before committing to meet.
We tested the idea with wireframes and quick prototypes with the first users, then distilled five principles that every feature had to pass:
- A feeling of safety
- Entertaining
- Filtering and screening people
- High inventory
- Conversation flow
Meeting through friends
To widen the pool without losing trust, we added second-degree connections to the match card. Users meet friends of friends instead of strangers, and can invite friends by SMS.
The pitch was simple: pick a friend, match them or ask them to match you, then see what happens.
Results
We delivered an MVP and tested it with the first user cohort. The timed dates and conversation starters got the strongest response in early testing, and the five principles became the filter for every later feature call.
What I learned
The best feature idea came from asking where trust comes from, not from studying other dating apps.
