Third Wheel
By Connor Steffens UX Design and Research
Executive Summary
Third Wheel is the brainchild of Billy and Megan Mzenga. Billy, while working at the University of St. Thomas’s entrepreneurship school, came up with the idea. He found that his friends had difficulty finding a date at their age because most of their peers were married couples. This caused his friends to find modern dating helpless. This is when he had the idea to have the friends do all of the heavy lifting in the dating process while the singles just sit back and relax. In this case study, I will bring you through the problem, user group, research, solution, and next steps. I hope you enjoy it!
Goals
Find compatible partners efficiently and effectively.
Reduce the stress and frustration associated with online dating.
Increase the likelihood of forming meaningful relationships.
Enhance trust and security in the dating process through social network involvement.
Methods
Competitive Audit
Love Letter/Breakup Letter
Journey Map
Conceptual Interviews
Site Map
Usability testing
High-fidelity Prototyping
Everyone hates dating apps
Rejection
Rejection on dating apps can feel particularly harsh, as it often happens quickly and without explanation, leaving you to wonder what went wrong
Endless swiping
Endless swiping on dating apps can become a mindless routine, blurring the line between genuine interest and passing time, while the repetition amplifies feelings of inadequacy are amplifyed when connections fail.
On the wrong page
People often seek different things, with many looking for casual relationships. This variety of intentions can lead to mismatched expectations, making it challenging to find someone on the same page
Users
Singles
The singles will interact with the app much less than the crew by design. Their main interaction would be having the final say in the match-making process and chatting with matches. They would be…
Age 30 and up
Looking for a serious relationship
Unsatisfied with current dating apps
Crew
The crew will be the main user group interacting with the app. They will be the ones finding and vetting the matches along with assisting the single by helping build their profile and giving advice. They would be…
Age 30 and up
Married or in a long-term relationship
Looking to help a close friend find love
Research
There are MANY other dating apps out there (even one for gluten-free singles). There also was a now-failed app (shipped) that had a similar concept
I found that…
Analyzed many dating apps UI’s and established apps onboarding process because this was a design goal from our client
4/5 User interviewed had negative view of dating apps with one user calling them a “necessary evil”
This research helped us design a journey map, click for a more detailed view ( or go to the Figma file below
With there being two different views for this app, it made designing the Site map particularly difficult.
If you are interested we went into further detail in the linked report below
Solution
Group Chat with crew to incorporate social engagement
Main Features
Comprehensive dating profiles with a crew deliberation page to find serious relationships
AI feature to increase interaction on and off the app to build genuine connections
Click below to see the full Figma file that includes the prototype, Journey map, components, and design system
Interest tags to drive meaningful responses
A limited number of swipes per day to combat endless swiping
Click below to see all of the annotated wireframes
Presentation
Coming soon!!!
Next Steps
Some of the of the next steps for Third Wheel would first be gamification. This was a big goal for the client. and well, we did create one game in the app (puzzle prize), but we would like to find a way to incorporate more games into the app.
Also, I’d like to do more research on the rating system specifically. We started with a one-to-ten scale but decided against it due to negative connotations. and settled on a 1–7 scale. But I would like to do some research to see which rating system they would prefer, e.g., yes, no, 1-10 or 1-7, red, yellow, green, etc.