Bumble Bhive

Incorporate new features into the existing platform that help users to create and explore the events.

My role

UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Visual Designer, Researcher

Team

Joanna K.

Khyati B.

Trev P.

Tools

Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, Trello, Figjam

Design process

Overview

Bumble is a well-known dating app, which has 3 modes: date (for romantic meetings), bff (for meeting new friends) and bizz (for networking). The brand positions itself as an app for meaningful relationships.

The user creates their profile with a picture and BIO, he/she can choose some questions to answer and some filters for their possible bff matches. Swiping right means you like that person, left means you dislike that person. If another user also swipes right towards you, you are connected and able to allowed to start a conversation.

Problem

01

People struggle to initiate the conversation or make the first move.

02

People are afraid to meet one-on-one for the first time.

03

People felt disappointed while finding friends on a Dating App

Solutions

01

Create opportunity to chat on a group.

02

Find events to attend (with similar inrests)

03

Create more opportunities to connect people with similar intrests.

The first step of the sprint was to understand Bumble Bff. I did extensive research on their successes and pitfalls in order to build our knowledge and create a new usable feature. My goal was to determine how we could help Bumble users stimulate activities, break the ice and discover affinities.

Understanding the market

I began identifying special features, priority features and layouts of some dating/friend aplike Hinge, Meetup OkCupid and Tinder. My goal was to find the attributes users care the most about. I examined the features, benefits, and layout of the four apps. We paid close attention to meetup preferences, filter and sort results. The information gathered from this analysis would help shape the key features we would include in the new feature.

How Bumble app stand out from the rest?

By offering what some of the competitors don't:

Finding a friend feature

Meetup preferences

Create activities

Find an event or invite to the event new friends

Understanding the users

After gathering competitive data, I was well equipped to begin sending out surveys and conducting user interviews to gather qualitative and quantitative information on people’s experiences of using friends/dating app.

Me and my team interviewed 8 individuals all between the ages of 30-42.

All interviewees already use Bumble app or had been using app in the past.

I compile all data received into an affinity map. This gave us insights and common trends for users. As a team, this was key to prioritizing our design.

6

Surveys

8

User interviews

30-42

Age range

Interview insights

The group meetings is less nerve-racking

I prefer to meet people for a specific activity

I would like to see who from matches are going to the event

If the activity is suggested by the app then it's less awkward

Survey insights

Who are we designing for?

Based on my research conclusions, I was able to create a user persona to help establish the problem that needs to be solved, focus and inform our design decisions, and further empathize with our users. Persona Chandler emerged from our affinity map.

The user needs a better way to meet friends so that he can build a community in the new city he just moved to.

Empathizing with the user allowed us to find pain points very quickly

How might we...?

01

HMW facilitate an environment where Chandler can meet new friends who share the same interests?

02

HMW help Chandler find different opportunities to hang out with potential friends?

03

HMW help Chandler build a safer community so that he feels more comfortable meeting new friends?

Priority matrix

I prioritized the features based on the user insights to increase the user engagement ratio for Bumble app.

Must have

Replicate swipe feature for events

Set meetup preferences

Create an event/explore the events

Event cards with photo, location, date, who is goin

Show events based on interests

Could have

Quick way to see bff’s meetup preferences

Group chat with event attendees

Conversation starters/easy prompts.

Rating/frequency for event preference

Pre-uploaded event images

Won't have

Rating/review for event

Rating/review for host

Paid events

.

Flow diagram

To outline all the necessary functionality I created a flow diagram of the main tasks the user can do. The flow is shown below. Fail state flows were also created, but are not shown due to space constraints.

Low-fidelity wireframes

Once the flow diagram and mood board was established, I started creating the low-fidelity wireframes of the main flows.

Usability test result for Lo-Fi wireframes

I facilitated two rounds of usability testing. Each round had five testers to discover any issues that might arise for the users in the proposed prototype.

5/5

Successfully

schedule an event

3/5

Swipe through

the events

4/5

Set bhive

preferences

5/5

Invite matched

friends to event

Proposed changes

Bhive filters were opening the screen to the new feature, but after usability testing, we decided to add a single screen to set preferences and get users quickly interacting with the app.