Reimagining Online dating for Africa
This article is about how my team and I designed a platform we believe will revolutionize online dating & friendships in Africa. The project follows the thought process of Maslow’s heirarchy of needs.We started by building an MVP and released a beta version to gather feedback & test out some of our hypothesis. In less than 48 hours, the beta app achieved over 1000 registered users. Here’s how we designed the product.
Description
An online platform that makes it easy for Africans to meet new people, and find potential spouses or partners for casual dating. The product should be tailored to fit the Nigerian market and easily scaled to fit the African market.
Deliverables
- User research & Customer Development
- System design & feature list
- Android app (This is because of the large user base and ease of app deployment)
User Personas
Vybe user personas
User Research
Quantitative research:
A simple survey was designed and distributed online to get a better understanding of the online and offline dating scene in Africa. It had a target sample size of 60 and was sent to people between the ages of 18–65. The survey was aimed at finding out how Nigerians feel about online dating, what they like and what they dislike about online dating. While trying to find out what users currently dislike about online dating platforms, the following information was gathered: 
Responses for “What do you NOT like about online dating?”
It should be noted that the most frequently selected options were related to impersonation (58.06%), fear of scam (40.32%) and having a different dating motive from people they meet online (48.39%).
Qualitative research:
Candid user interviews were conducted with a pool of males and females between the ages of 18–50. The pool of interviewees consisted of a good mix of people who had made use of popular social media or online dating platforms and those who had not. The feedback gathered can be summarized as follows:
- People enjoy finding new people online
- People avoid online dating sites because it is seen only as a medium to get casual sex
- People are scared of being scammed on online dating platforms.
Solutions (Feature list)
Based on the feedback from the survey and user interviews, the following solutions/feature list was developed:
- Vybe: This feature gives users a new, fun way of finding people online by shaking their phones. A user is matched with another user who is also shaking their phone within the given time frame. The purpose of this feature is to match users who are both interested in having a conversation at that point in time as opposed to texting someone who is busy or might no longer be on the app. This is where the name of the app comes from…
- Social Login / Sign up: The app allows users sign up and login only through Google, Facebook or Trucaller. This is to act as a sort of first level verification. It is based on a notion that real people usually exist on at least one of these platforms.
- Image recognition:The app makes use of image recognition technology to make sure users upload valid photos of themselves. It helps eliminate the anxiety and danger that comes from chatting with a user that has a cartoon or famous quote as their display photo.
- Number verification: All users are required to verify their phone number using an OTP to complete registration. Although the phone number is not currently used within the app, It serves as a sort of security check/KYC for all new users.
- Trybes: This feature allows users to choose whether they are interested in serious dating, casual dating or just making friends online. This makes it easier to meet people with the same relationship goals as you. However, only casual dating is available for this MVP/beta version. PS: Users can only switch between trybes a limited number of times.
- Report and unmatch user (community support): We get some help from the Vybe community to keep it safe from potential fraudsters. We always encourage users look out for themselves and other users by reporting and unmatching any suspicious user. Users who have been reported a certain number of times are blocked from using Vybe and have to contact the support team.
- Preference settings:This feature gives users control over the people they are matched with. Users can select gender preferences and also age range. They can also choose to hide their profiles from the general public view.
- Swipe cards: This feature allows users to like (swipe right) or not like (swipe left) other users on the app. A match is made when a user likes someone who has previously liked them or vice versa.
- Chat: This features makes it possible for users to chat and share images.
Wireframes & Mockups
Brand assets
Vybe pre launch gif
Vybe Launch Video
Tools
Surveys and Questionnaires — Surveymonkey
Wireframes — Figma
Project Delivery
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.expanse.app.vybe
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/appvybe/id1477176002?ls=1
Team
Eko Adetolani — Product management and back-end development
Osagie Omon — UI design & Android development
Moronke Anifowose — Project management & Android development
Ayodeji Osindele — Branding
PS: Our vision for Vybe is to make online dating in Africa fun and secure. We also have a huge backlog of features for Vybe and we’re relying on user behaviour & data to tell us what to do build next. I’ll post more articles about it as we progress..
