Reframing how online connections are built offline
Halou is a side project, created over the course of 1+ month and self-managed from start to finish.
Challenge: to create a concept for a social app, that stirs meaningful conversations, raises the quality of matches, and encourages relationships that are built in the real world.
Solution: a fresh approach to the dating and ‘BFF’ apps, both in terms of brand identity and product experience. Taking a stance against swipe culture, this app limits the number of people available per day and builds on the premise that people will meet in real life. There is more emphasis on interests and personality, versus demographics or physical attributes. User profiles are richer than competitor apps, displaying shared interests, “personality cards”, and unique questions to potential matches.
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Year: 2022
My role / Activities: user research; UX, UI, prototyping; brand identity, copywriting; microsite and collateral materials.
Halou is the social app that wants to help people build meaningful connections. With the promise of quality over quantity and the intention real life hangouts, Halou counteracts swipe culture and the volatility of the digital world. Its audience are active, diverse, young professionals, living in big cities such as London who want to expand their circle. People who appreciate a platform that is honest, thoughtful and real.
Its name is a humorous take on the word “hello” (the wordmark); and the symbol, an abstraction of a smile. The visual language has a modern and edgy look & feel, that creates differentiation by breaking the visual status quo of the mainstream dating / BFF apps. The brand’s voice complements its visual vocabulary, informal and bold.
Users define what they’re looking for: friendship, dating, or both (after all, making good friends isn’t that different from romantic dating). Halou promises quality matches, with less emphasis on physical attributes and demographics; and a criteria that is centered around interests, values and personality—because that’s a better indicator of mutual chemistry. Users can discover people nearby, who care about the same things they do, and are willing to meet up soon.
Halou aims to be intentional and specific: matches happen with a suggested outing beforehand. Users agree to meet in real life, by joining others, or proposing an impromptu get-together as their status. This rule encourages users to only reach out to someone, if they really intend to meet up.
Connections at Halou start with a question. This gives users a deeper sense of who others are before moving forward, via a double opt-in. It encourages interactions that are more conversational, less transactional; and avoids the usual small talk. It’s also a personalised “vetting mechanism” that aims to be less superficial than generic prompts; because what matters to users differs with each person.
I conducted six interviews, with the goal of learning which apps are most used by participants and why, what are their pain points, as well as their attitudes towards online connections in general. Key opportunity areas revolved around: facilitating in-person meetups; better filtering based on user’s preferences; and personalisation. Another interesting aspect was that, for men - in the context of friendship apps - it’s helpful to have an activity associated with a connection, as they’re less likely to feel comfortable swiping / chatting with potential male friends. A unanimous observation is that big cities are not the easiest places to meet new people, outside of your work circle.
Most existing apps have good intentions but lack in execution. Taking “Thursday” as an example, where users match and arrange a date all in one day; there is an unbalance between scarcity and intentionality. With this “demand manipulation” Thursday tries to combat overuse, but the result is superficial connections. The nature of the app encourages fast, last-minute dates, which reinforces the ephemeral fling - users are pushed to act too quickly. On the other hand, Hinge stood out as a good example for its profile detail, and how likes and interactions are designed; more conducive to meaningful matches. However, “chatting indefinitely” and not meeting in-person remains a pain point.
Halou limits the number of potential matches in your feed to eight people per day. It also differentiates “requests” to join, from “likes”. For example, if a user really likes someone, but can’t join the meetup, they can still make a connection; however, likes are limited to three per week. This reinforces the main goal of meeting in real life.
The app displays potential matches in a grid, instead of one profile at a time, so users don’t need to discard anyone right away, in order to progress to the next person. The limited number aims at a “scarcity sweet spot”, where people are intentional and thoughtful, when reviewing profiles and connecting.
Instead of focusing on engagement, Halou focuses on user needs, which are meaningful connections. Success metrics are not time spent in app, or number of sessions; but instead, quality matches, and relationships that are built in the real world (number of / successful meetups; user feedback and NPS).
Chats vanish after the meetup date, or a week later - in the case of a simple “like”. This encourages users to move conversations outside the app. Halou reminds users that chats are about to expire, and asks if they’ve met, to help tailor suggestions.
To enhance their profile, users choose to progressively receive occasional, non-obtrusive questions (with more or less frequency), to capture their preferences and identify better matches. The richer their profiles are, the more refined results become.
As part of the brand identity, I created collateral materials for different channels, such as traditional print and social media templates.