Amore brings a social media aspect to a dating app, providing a platform to create deeper online connections. 

This project aimed to create a storytelling platform for people isolated due to COVID-19 restrictions. Our team observed that many of our peers turned to dating apps to make new connections during this period of isolation. However, the challenges posed by the pandemic often made in-person meetings difficult, if not impossible. Thus, Amore was created to facilitate deeper online connections. Combining elements of both a dating and a social media app, Amore allows users to better acquaint themselves with their matches in a virtual setting.

Project

UX Design

Goals

♥ Create a storytelling platform

♥ Connect people isolated because of covid restrictions

♥ Help users make more meaningful connections

To start, my group used some whiteboard exercises to help us brainstorm. First, we came up with a few different potential goals for our project. We then asked ourselves who the primary user should be for each goal. We then made some assumptions about those users to help us identify a specific problem for our app to solve. We identified problems and solutions for each scenario. Using this exercise, we narrowed down our focus to dating during a pandemic since it was something we noticed our peers struggling with during these unprecedented times.

In order to dive deeper into our topic, we did another whiteboard activity incorporating online sources this time. We came up with sub-topics that our app should address, did secondary research, and narrowed down some focuses.

Due to the scope of the project and the situation we were in with covid, we didn’t get the opportunity to interact with any potential users, but we made user personas based on who we think would benefit from our app idea. We based these on real-life experiences and our research helped us understand different perspectives. We gave each persona an occupation, location, description, needs, challenges, and improvements. This really helped us narrow down the problems our app needed to address in order to solve our user’s issues.

We didn't spend much time on paper and quickly went into Adobe XD to start getting an idea of the look of the app. We made a style guide to keep track of the fonts, color palette, icons, and other visual elements. Once we had that, I made a basic newsfeed, profile, and login page to get the general look of the app going. We all made new screens based on those to complete different user flows and to have a basic app prototype. Before finalizing it, we went through and made sure all the visual elements were cohesive throughout the different screens.

Challenge 1

Create a Storytelling Platform

A unique feature of Amore is having the ability to create, listen to, and share podcasts with your network. This gives users a chance to tell their own stories and listen to others' stories. Users are encouraged to make long-form podcasts or voice responses and share their personal stories on certain topics. They can also clip podcasts to share a specific part of a podcast they want their network to hear.

Challenge 2

Connect People Isolated by Covid Restrictions

Amore is different than other apps because it's a social media and a dating app in one. Often, when making a match on a traditional dating app, it can be tricky to transition to either meeting in person or to another social media app to get to know them better. There are a lot of factors that might complicate that transition, so having the social media aspect on the same app helps people keep in touch with more matches on a casual level.

Challenge 3

Help Users Make Meaningful Connections

Another pattern my group noticed with traditional dating apps is easily losing connections with matches. This can be for a lot of reasons, including the paradox of choice, trouble transitioning to the next step, and a lot more depending on the unique situation. With Amore, we hope that users take the time to get to know each other better than you would on traditional social media. To encourage this, we provide unique post formats, prompts relevant to current topics, and a platform to tell others your story.

 
Takeaways

This project was a good opportunity to work on my communication skills throughout a UX design project. We had 4 team members with different backgrounds, so it felt like a realistic and productive work environment. I believe out of the group, two were advertising majors, one was either industrial or interior design, and I was the only graphic design major. Before this project, I was used to working with a lot of other design majors, so it was nice to get the opportunity to utilize all our unique strong points to achieve the best outcome. Because I was the only graphic designer, I got to have a lot of control over the visual design. The advertising majors had more familiarity with user research, and I found it really helpful to learn from their experiences and process. If I were to spend more time on the app, I would further develop a friendship-based side of the app. I think users would benefit from and enjoy the opportunity to make and connect with new platonic friends on the platform. I would also spend more time on the visual design, focusing on adding margins and improving consistency.