Designing a product/service to facilitate meaningful connections

* This won UC Berkeley’s nomination for outstanding design work and was published in Berkeley Arts & Design Issue 03

Context

Background

As society has become increasingly dependent on technology, dating has also become more gamified, consequently becoming too fast-paced, superficial, and unauthentic. Dating websites and mobile apps have become more focused on the quantity of matches rather than the quality of a match. The resulting effect has been vague and impersonal dating profiles that appeal to a wider audience rather than a specific person.

After our immersive research, our projects design focus became centered around improving the first contact between two individuals and encouraging an environment where people are given the opportunity to truly get to know one another.

Our end project is a physical interaction device that individuals will have to preorder and periodically fill throughout the week prior to meeting with their partner to share and discuss items and topics that they were instructed to put in or interact with the box with.

If you would like to know more about this project, feel free to reach out to me at
priyankasaiprasad@gmail.com

Problem

How might we facilitate the first connection between two people & help them break the ice?

Goals

The primary goal of this project was to help alleviate the stress that comes along with facilitating the first connection between two people.

• Creating a natural in-depth way for people to get to know each other, either in the context of new potential partners or existing relationships

• Slow down the fast paced and gamified nature of online dating and encourage a more intimate structure or environment

UX Research

We created an exploratory engagement that allowed our interviewees to interact with a series of modules each dealing with themes of Past, Present, and Future in their relationships, in various ways such as sketching, writing, and mood icons.

Cultural probe design

Our group deployed cultural probes to individuals who have been in multiple long-term, serious relationships. Through this participant group, we hoped to gain insights on what types of things people valued in successful relationships and what type of things contribute to unhealthy ones.

Research synthesis & insights

Design Opportunities

Bonafide

what is bonafide?

Bonafide is a way for two people to explore each other’s personalities and share intimate details about their lives.

User flow

Bonafide is designed to be fun and intuitive, yet effective in revealing the most necessary parts of a person before starting or in the early stages of a relationship. When using Bonafide we envision that the user first knows or meets someone they want to know better. They then go on to the website and choose a box set that best describes their relationship and then they wait for delivery. The user has a choice of box sets that have differing degrees of revealing and personal questions. The users then complete the activities over the duration of a week, and then meet up on their own time to share their answers and activities.

What you’ll get

Once you have placed an order, the boxes will be shipped to the addresses of each participant. After receiving the box, each individual will find seven stacks of cards with activities for them to complete. The boxes and cards are a physical kit, as we felt that there was something more intimate and revealing in handwritten notes. The tasks are divided into seven topics that can be completed over the course of a week.

Personas

Reflection

After exploring the varying personas and user journeys main takeaways we found were that relationships are hard to curate, but rather most times occur spontaneously. A game such as bonafide that motivates individuals to facilitate deeper and more meaningful conversations serves as useful to getting to know a person on a deeper level and forgo all of the surface level ‘bs’ that is often presented during an initial meeting. Through receiving each-other’s boxes and taking the time to go through individualized possessions and the meaning they have to each individual it encourages more hearty and sometimes heavier subjects to be shared up front. One surprising takeaway however was that Bonafide not only works for relationships but also for friendships as well and simply serves to provide a deeper connection between two individuals, it does not promise nor does it necessarily facilitate love. Love and close friendships cannot be forced, but the processes to achieving either can be made easier (cue Bonafide). Nonetheless, without effort from both sides of the relationship/friendship the full Bonafide experience cannot be achieved. Participating individuals must take the time and effort to thoroughly complete their individual daily challenges and actively engage with the prompt cards & box.

What I would do differently next time

I would seek to integrate bonafide in a digital space and provide it as an option that would sync into digital dating apps and provide users with the option to choose this interactive game option prior to their first date. Or potentially drawing upon the notion of getting to know more about a person it would be interesting to allow individuals on dating apps such as tinder to provide one or two pictures of meaningful artifacts to them and also allow the user to incorporate a short blurb/video like a youtube video link in their tinder bio where they answer some of the deeper prompt cue cards, to cut to more meaningful matters.

Thank you for visiting! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to: priyankasaiprasad@berkeley.edu

Here are a few photos of my wonderful teammates: (Daniel Chang, Sarah Malone, Ji Soo Kim, Ivy Nguyen) and the Bonafide publication: