Make it easier to tell a story

A new profile experience that is less superficial, while keeping the "swiping game" enjoyable.

Goal

Make it easier for users to tell a story and build a meaningful relationship.  Better user experience which had no negative impact of the revenues.

Process

Designed Profile experience, starting from initial user research, to prototyping, validation, and implementation.

Overview

Bumble app is unique in that it allows women to make the first move and send the first message when matching with potential partners. The app also includes features such as the ability to switch between different modes (dating, networking, and friend-finding). In Bumble, it's easy to discover new people by swiping left or right on their profiles. However, this experience can be superficial, as profiles don't provide enough information at first glance. In a few seconds, the users check the image and place a vote. The new profile design aims to change this by providing more space for users to express themselves and learn more about others. This will help create a more meaningful and valuable experience for users on Bumble.

Role

Sr. Product Designer

Responsabilities

UX, Research, Prototype, Design System

Team

16 people

Problem

Our research shows that 70% of the 'no' votes placed by women on Bumble are made in an average of 0.9 seconds, indicating that they are basing their decision primarily on the user's profile picture. This means that male users who don't have a good profile picture are less likely to get "yes" votes and matches. However, getting "yes" votes is crucial for the business, as it leads to more matches and more users purchasing premium features.

Women
70% of no votes are placed without scrolling the profile page and checking the other info. They spend an average of 0.9 seconds to place a 'no' vote.

Men
Limited opportunity to stand out with the current design of profiles.
High risk that male users leave the app because the scarcity of visual attractiveness and of good photos. Having a better photo first is not enough to change a woman’s mind about a man.

The profile isn’t telling a story about the human behind it, it doesn’t effectively marry up the physical attributes of a person to their personality.

Process

As Sr. Designer in charge of this project I started to deep dive into the previous experiments and user research that the team have made over the last two years. Getting a good understanding of the user needs, pain points and goals helped me to start thinking about the use cases and mapping out the experience.

Team activities like User journey mapping and Opportunities mapping workshop where crucial in the initial phase of this project. PMs, Content Designers, User Researchers and Devs took part of this activities which helped us to align on our goals and approach, and to develop a solid foundation for our design solutions.

In addition to the atcivities results I conducted a UX audit of the old profile to identify issues and opportunities. From the resulting list, I selected a few promising ideas to prototype. These ideas were chosen based on their potential value and feasibility. 

Discovery

Stakeholder meeting to define the challenge. Cross-functional kick-off
Formulate a plan with the Research Team. Define the design roadmap

Definition

Define problems. Build the user goals. Past experiments & research. Old profile. UX audit. Competitor research. Define Success metrics. HMW questions

Ideation

IA workshop. Ideation workshop. List of ideas. Low fidelity concepts. Size the impact and effort. Define the requirements

Prototypes

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Solution

Make it easier for users to tell a story and build a meaningful relationship. More effective profile with all relevant user info above the fold. In a few seconds the users can build a fuller picture of who the person really is. More engagement and retention. Better user experience which had no negative impact of the revenues. Goal is to reach less revenue impact.

Deliverables

• new content order (IA)
• new profile with non-photo content above the fold
• new AI feature to help user to identify the best photo to use
• A new scalable and adaptive page layout, where new experiments can be implemented without any frictions for devs. (‘Super Compatible’ badges, events)

Outcome

Make it easier for users to tell a story and build a meaningful relationship. More effective profile with all relevant user info above the fold. In a few seconds the users can build a fuller picture of who the person really is. More engagement and retention. Better user experience which had no negative impact of the revenues. Goal is to reach less revenue impact.