What This Project is About

This was a service design project for my class where our team followed a sprint approach to create a dating experience in NYC parks. Over the course of six weeks, we engaged in three sprints and developed different solutions. Through validation and testing, we landed on our final dating experience. The goal of our project was to encourage people to meet in real life, date in the park, and increase footfall and local business engagement at NYC Parks.

My Team

Sacchit Vartak

Johna Shi

& Me

Duration

6 Weeks (March - April 2023)

MY ROLE

Service Designer

Design Research, Observational Studies, Designing Co-creation workshops & facilitation, Rapid prototyping, StoryBoards, Video editing

Process

We followed a sprint approach where we engaged in three sprints over six weeks. We started by conducting research and analyzing the problem space. We then created and tested different prototypes to identify the most effective solution. Finally, we created a blueprint and storyboard of the final concept and tested it through an enactment session.

Our Motivation

🌃

Promoting

Public Spaces

To encourage people to turn to public spaces

🤝

Facilitating In-Person Connections

Emphasize the importance of face-to-face interaction in forming meaningful relationships

🛠️

Improving

the Experience

Improve the existing prototype and bring the feasibility in implementing the experience

Stakeholders

People Looking to date

Hinge Staff

Local Business

NYC Department of Parks & Recreation

Approach

We Asked Ourselves Two Key Questions

How can we make the experience systematic, so it can be experienced at different public spaces for dating?
How can we create a dating event that is easy to facilitate for the staff and organic for the daters?

To answer these questions, we decided to have different themes for different groups of people with different orientations, interests, and expectations. Each week, we would take over a different park or public space to host the event.

We introduced Hinge Connect

a new take on the speed dating service that helps you make meaningful connections. With Hinge Connect, users can experience a new way of finding love and companionship in the digital age.

What technologies are Involved?

The technology involved in the service included rings associated with QR codes and Near Field Communication chips. After a fist bump, the Hinge app and the ring would connect, and everyone at the event would have a chance to get connected to everyone else. There were also iPads to facilitate a game activity powered by AI.

Illustrating a new service concept and its delivery processes

we combined our previous research from the earlier sprints and used flow maps and service blueprints to provide evidence to support the experience from both employees' and users' perspectives. The service blueprint allowed us to take a holistic view of all the elements needed to deliver a unique experience.

Storyboard to visualize the experience

We created a storyboard to visually depict the dating experience we envisioned. This allowed us to see how the experience would unfold from the user's perspective and identify areas where improvements could be made. By incorporating feedback from user testing, we were able to refine our storyboard and create a compelling narrative that captured the essence of our dating experience.

Wireframes of Key Digital Touch points

Want to see more of our process?

Check out the presentation slides to

Sprint 1

& Sprint 2

Enactment session for testing concept

We refined our hypotheses and tested our concept through an enactment session with participants who represented our target audience. This session was followed by interviews that allowed us to accurately gauge the desirability of our concept.

Reflections

Participants liked the idea of dating in real life and AI generated topics to break the ice.
Participants appreciated the option to not continue the conversation after the event
Participants suggested that the fist bump should occur after the card conversation to minimize the possibility of stalking or unwanted communication
Fist bump action seemed a bit unnatural for participants, possibly due to differences in cultural greetings