About
Cuffed is a dating app designed to transform the way people connect by emphasizing personality and conversation over superficial physical attraction. By adopting a "blind dating" model, Cuffed goes against the current swipe-culture that is mainly driven by photos. The goal is to foster authentic connections by encouraging users to focus on personality and compatibility, and reducing the quick judgment based on looks. Cuffed is a platform which strives to help people find authentic, heart-felt, and long-lasting matches.
The functionality of Cuffed is simple: Users are matched based on shared interests and values, and their photos are not shared. Matched users get to know each other via text chat only, forcing them focus solely on their connection and compatibility. Once the matches build a connection, they can decide to go on a date. The first date itself is the true moment of reveal. The two people see each other for the first time, face-to-face, with the comfort of already knowing that they share a strong emotional connection.
My design process was as follows:
- First, I did some mind mapping to plan out my design process and to jot down things I knew about dating.
- I did some research through reliable sources online to learn more about the reality of dating and dating apps.
- I went through other dating apps to see what worked and what didn't.
- I hand-drew sketches, showed them to a few peers and got feedback. I kept iterating on the hand-drawings, applying the feedback that I recieved.
- I then designed a lo-fi wireframe on Figma.
- I converted my lo-fi wireframe into a hi-fi version with color, content, and interactivity. Through user interviews, I received feedback and kept refining the design as needed.
Images of my design process are to the right.
