Friendful App
iOS Mobile App Design for Making Friendships in Adulthood
An app that helps adults make new meaningful, deep friendships.
Friendful is a mobile friend finder app that helps you to find local friends in your area and develop deeper relationships through the app utilizing a question prompt feature that allows you to share vulnerably from the safety of your screen in order to develop more meaningful relationships.
This project was a part of my UX Academy certification course.
MY ROLE
User Research, UX/UI Design, Branding, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Iterations
TIMELINE
1.5 months
TOOLS
Figma, Miro, Google Forms, Photoshop
THE CHALLENGE
Moving to a new place without friends can be lonely and emotionally stressful. It can be difficult to meet new people after a move. I recently moved to a new city and am in the process of trying to make new meaningful friendships and build community in my own home. Having moved numerous times in the past decade along with many of my peers, I am always struck by the difficulty that is making friends as an adult in a new place. Discussions with my far away friends shed light on the fact that many of us are experiencing the challenge that is making friends as in adulthood. These conversations and my own experience allowed me to really empathize with my users.
THE SOLUTION
I designed a mobile application that enables users to not only meet and connect with new people locally based on shared interests, but enables users to connect more deeply with one another to develop real meaningful friendships. Friendful allows users to view potential connections in their area, choose to connect or choose not to connect with local users based on user profiles, and then connect through meaningful conversation via question prompts that encourage users to communicate openly, honestly, and authentically about themselves.
Empathize
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
I began by conducting exploratory research to better understand the prevalence and the depth of this problem, and to identify the target audience. After identifying the target audience as adults between the ages of 20-39 who move the most and struggle to make new friends.
FINDINGS
45% of adults say it’s difficult to make new friends
Challenges to make friends include shyness, commitments to family, breaking into new social circles, not having hobbies and moving to a new city.
Building blocks for making friends organically are continuous unplanned interaction and shared vulnerability. As adults we have less access to environments where those scenarios occur.
We have a tendency to think we are more rejected than we actually are
Research shows that making a casual friend takes 50 hours of interaction, while making a close friend takes 200 hours
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
After gaining a better understanding of who our users are and why it’s difficult to make friends in adulthood, I reviewed existing digital friend finder platforms to gauge what types of resources exist and tried to identify gaps in the market. My secondary research identified the top market competitors as the BumbleBFF and Meetup friend finder platforms. I conducted an analysis of platform strengths and weaknesses in order to identify what works for similar platforms and to learn from their mistakes prior to designing my solution to reveal some potential opportunities.
POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Improve authentic connection
Steer communication away from surface level conversation and avoid ‘fizzle out’
A NEW FOCUS
The results of the secondary research and review of similar platforms led my research away from the challenges of those who had recently moved to the challenges of making friends as adults in general as I learned that this a more widespread social problem as opposed to one experienced just by recent movers.
The pandemic of loneliness and human desire for connection fascinated me and I revised my goal to understanding the core challenges adults have in making new friends without an existing social support system to identify gaps in existing services. I opened my audience up to include any adult in the target age range who had desired making new friends but found it to be challenging in spite of existing friend finder app resources. I wanted to know what was missing from the resources that existed in order to solve this problem for users.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Building upon what I had learned during my exploratory research, I developed an interview discussion guide to learn more about my user’s core needs, goals, motivations and pain points.
I interviewed 5 users between the ages of 23-39 who were concerned with the difficulty of making new friends in their area about their experience with trying to develop new friendships and their experience using friend finder platform resources.
KEY INSIGHTS
After conducting user interviews, I used affinity mapping to synthesize my data and identify patterns around user needs, goals, motivations and pain points. This synthesis revealed the following key insights:
Users want to meet friends they can be vulnerable and share a deep connection with
Users need to feel supported, safe, and comfortable to make friends
Users cited fear of rejection as a deterrent from making friends.
Users cited a lack of time and energy as a deterrent from making friends
Define & Ideate
USER PERSONA
Utilizing my research insights, I created user persona Denise to empathize with my target audience and generate design ideas. This user persona inspired POV and How Might We questions.
HOW MIGHT WE…
Help adults feel safe to foster deep connections and share vulnerably to develop new meaningful friendships quickly and effectively?
IDEATION
After defining a HMW question, I began to ideate potential solutions. Using quantity and time constraints, I brainstormed a large number of solutions and narrowed them down to the solution I felt best addressed the needs of my users and considered ways to implement a connective feature within a friend finder app. Using existing platforms as a base model, I determined how I would incorporate this new feature.
THE IDEA
WHY IT WORKS
A friend finder app with a question prompt feature used to facilitate sharing vulnerable conversations in a safe, digital space.
Vulnerability has been identified as a foundation for friendship. This feature allows users to dive into deep vulnerable topics from the safety of behind their screen. Sharing vulnerable conversations makes users feel more connected, however fear of rejection can make it difficult speak vulnerably when meeting someone new. Once the foundation of vulnerable communication has been set, users will feel more comfortable and confident to meet in person and continue to share vulnerably with each other.
TASK FLOWS
After determining my design focus, I began creating task flows to visualize the step-by-step process users will follow to complete tasks.
USER FLOWS
Next I created a stacked user flow to visualize and empathize with the user journey in navigating the app from creating a profile for the first time, connecting with potential new friends, and utilizing the question prompt feature to connect more deeply.
THE WIREFRAMES
Next I sketched out possible low-fidelity designs then digitized initial wireframes for core screens included in my flows. These screens were designed to emulate successful aspects of existing friend finder platforms in order to optimize user information architecture, with the addition of the question prompt feature meant to provide users with the opportunity to connect more deeply.
Design
BRANDING & UI
Based on my determined brand values of connection, authenticity, support and fun, I named the app ‘Friendful’ and developed branding UI to match. I wanted the branding to convey a warm and inviting yet safe and comforting tone for users to feel like they can be themselves and share authentically while making meaningful connections.
I began by sketching out logo options on paper. With connection through shared vulnerable conversation at the center of my product, I wanted to incorporate the ideas of meaningful connection through chat in my logo. I played around with overlapping and circular shapes to show the union of friends through the app and played around with placement of the app name. I also tried to use shading and color to convey the idea of depth of friendship which is a goal for the product.
I requested feedback from users in the form of a vote and opted to move forward with digitizing the three circled versions in Figma.
Requesting feedback on the digitized designs, I decided to move forward with option two as it felt most authentic to the brand identity. Applying the brand color palette, I designed the final logo vectors for the brand.
Next, I developed a basic UI kit to utilize for the design of key screens and ensure consistency across the app. The overall tone is simple, modern and fun. Utilizing the wireframes, branding and UI kit, I designed key screens integral to the specified task flow in a high-fidelity prototype.
HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Next I digitized all of the necessary screens for my core flows incorporating cohesive UI based on brand values of connection, authenticity, support, safety and fun. This process revealed several additional screen adds that were needed that I had not previously considered and allowed me to really put myself in the shoes of the user to complete flows easily. Once the screen designs were complete, I used Figma to add interactive flow paths to the prototype to allow users to experience the task flows above.
Experience 1: Complete My Profile
In order to personalize their profile to showcase user interests, personality, and location for connecting with like minded individuals nearby, users were provided with an opportunity to complete their profile.
Experience 2: Connect with a potential friend
Users will be presented with profiles of other users on the app which they can view to determine if they feel they would be a good potential friend connection. Users have the option to choose to connect with the user or pass on the connection with the user. In this flow, users have the opportunity to connect with the presented potential friend.
Experience 3: Chat with new connection
Once users connect, they will be able to chat with the users they connected with in order to foster a connection through meaningful conversation. Users are presented with a prompt allowing them to begin the chat directly after connecting with a user.
Experience 4: Using ‘Connection Prompt’ questions to foster meaningful conversation
In order to meet the main need of my users of making meaningful friendships in which they feel they can be vulnerable, users will have access to a library of ‘Connection Prompt’ questions which they can select and send to users. The goal of this feature is to stimulate deep conversation which will allow users to share vulnerably and build trust in the low effort and low time-consuming digital space which will lead to stronger friendships.
Test
USABILITY TESTING
Once in the testing phase, I hoped my users would be able to easily navigate and intuitively complete the set tasks.
THE TASKS
TASK 1: Create a profile
TASK 2: Connect with potential new friends and start a chat with your new connection
TASK 3: Utilize the connection prompt feature to select and send a question prompt
TESTING FEEDBACK
I asked 5 participants in the target audience to test my prototype to determine if the flows made sense, the tasks could be completed quickly and easily, and to get feedback on the overall design. I used an affinity map to synthesis feedback and took away the following insights.
PRIORITIZATION
To better gauge what areas to prioritize iteration, I used a Prioritization Grid to place the additional feedback on a scale of frequency and severity to determine best next steps. Taking user feedback into consideration, I iterated on my prototype to improve usability.
High Priority Iterations
Add an additional link to view your profile beyond just clicking on the avatar
Add an indication of progress when in the process of completing the profile beyond just a ‘back’ button
Mid Priority Iterations
Change wording of ‘Complete Profile’ button to ‘Edit Profile’ as this could be confusing for users who have already input profile information
Move ‘Connection Prompt’ button to the bottom of the screen to be closer to the text box and to be more reachable for the user’s thumb
Differentiate the layout of the connection prompt options as they currently look similar to the topic tags
Low Priority Iterations
Put ‘Popular Questions’ category of question prompts at the top of the screen because if these are the most popular options, it’s likely users will want to see them first
Include an option to input your own interests when adding interests to your profile
Iterate
ITERATIONS
Iterations were made in order of priority based on the prioritization analysis above while respecting the project timeline.
Adding another path to view profile
Clicking on the avatar was not an intuitive path to viewing the user’s profile for all participants so I added a second pathway via a link that says ‘View My Profile’ for users to have another option that may be easier to navigate.
Changing verbiage from ‘Complete My Profile’ to ‘Edit My Profile’
Users who had already added information to their profile feared a loss of progress when viewing the verbiage ‘Complete My Profile’. To address this, I changed the word ‘Complete’ to ‘Edit’ to imply that the content can be adjusted even after initial input.
Adding a ‘Save’ button to ‘Edit My Profile’ Screen
In order to address the user’s discomfort around clicking the back icon without an option to ensure progress was saved, I added a ‘Save’ button to the screen and replaced the back icon with a ‘Cancel’ button. This will provide user’s with peace of mind that their inputs are being saved and their progress will not be lost.
Moving the ‘Connection Prompt’ button
For ease of thumb reach and proximity to the text input box, I moved the ‘Connection Prompt’ button to the bottom of the screen to be more easily accessible by users wanting to connect more deeply.
Moving the ‘Popular Questions’ section to the top of the screen
To enable users to more quickly and easily navigate the available connection prompts, I have moved the ‘Popular Questions’ to the top of the page. The questions in this section are the most frequently chosen questions and will be the best starting point for users.
Differentiating sendable question prompts from topic tags
To enable users to quickly differentiate between the sendable prompt messages and the topic tags, I have differentiated the style of each element.
Final Prototype
Conclusion
Project Takeaways
This was my first UX case study and I was excited to have the opportunity to both learn along the way and draw from my previous experience solving problems creatively through an empathetic lens. I learned how important it is to set aside your own biases and truly listen to your users in order to pinpoint the root of the challenges that need solving. I learned to allocate more time than you may believe to be necessary for the elements of the UX Design process which require direct user interaction. I also learned to lean into the iterative process and embrace that the product will always be growing and evolving to meet new user challenges.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my case study, if you have any questions or feedback, I’d love to connect!