Here is what I shared on 4/22 during our in-class user testing:

https://www.figma.com/proto/6h1CGlZPn3R9d9S9jomXV7/prototype?node-id=1%3A2&scaling=min-zoom&page-id=0%3A1

The overall feedback I got was pretty positive, they seemed to like this uncommon version of group dating. Specific suggestions were:

  1. Somehow make it more personable in the questionnaire, not only questions about activities but about the person themselves and what they look for
  2. Potentially add photos/profiles of who will be attending the activity
  3. Allow for people to invite their friends for added safety
  4. Have activities with maybe a focused thing, like a group effort or partner up, i.e. scavenger hunt
  5. Possibly add preferred duration to the questionnaire
  6. Preference of how guided they want it to be (leaders from the company to guide the date?)

These were all fair suggestions, and I did consider them all when updating my prototype:

  1. As I go further, I do want it to be more personable. In this updated version it hasn’t really changed in that respect other than including gender/sexual preferences. The questionnaire is arguably one of the bigger areas I need to do continued research and interviewing for so there will probably be several iterations of it before reaching a final. It’s tough to figure out that sweet spot of having the right number of questions so people aren’t tired of filling out information but also having the right types so that there can be an indication of what activities the person may want to see as well as the type of person they want to meet. I am also debating removing the question about types of activities the user does not like altogether because there is a huge list of possibilities and it might make more sense to filter matches based on the type of person each user is looking for rather than activities. If someone happens to hate mini golf, they can just ignore that when they see the event list. I also want to figure out the right way to have level of importance indicated. For example someone may be religious or have dietary restrictions but I want to add the ability to indicate if they care about these things in a partner, to allow for more or less openness.
  2. I considered this during initial conception and then decided against it, and after hearing it brought up during testing I still think I am going to leave it out. I want to leave in some mystery about who people are meeting up with. And, it allows people to give others a chance. There are plenty of instances where people get to know someone who initially wasn’t their “type” and then end up feeling a connection, so I won’t include photos with the event.
  3. This idea didn’t initially occur to me, but I really liked it. I thought not only for safety but in general having a friend there could help calm nerves or in general make people more willing to go out, so in the prototype I added a feature to let users invite their friends to sign up and/or join an event with them.
  4. This idea is something that may also come along down the line of polishing, I think for now my focus is still on the functions and wording of the site to have it make sense and be something that people would want to use. The specifics of what types of dates to include seem less on the priority list, but I do like this idea and think it could make for a good bonding experience. I also think having it be something where maybe at some point people switch partners so they get a chance to get to know more than one person would be good.
  5. I’m still debating this suggestion, I can see why it would be good input but similar to the “which activities do you not like” it may be unnecessary because people usually know how long something might last (or an estimate could be added to each details page) and they can avoid it. Because depending on their mood or the day they might want to choose something shorter or longer. There could, however, be an additional “Filter” option on the Events page so that each time they search they can adjust preferences. That way it would be a separate thing from the profile Questionnaire.
  6. My goal with this website was to avoid any sort of guide or requirement for a leader whatsoever, for the sake of simplicity so I’m not sure if this is something I will be including.

Here is a slightly updated version of the prototype:

https://www.figma.com/proto/G9obocFjhJrxkyXkjQU7MO/p2?node-id=1%3A2&scaling=min-zoom&page-id=0%3A1

I added a bit more explanation of the concept to the How it Works page, and added a detailed page for one of the events, to simplify the Calendar page.

After speaking with some people about the penalty, some felt that $30 was a bit high and might make them turn away from trying it or quit if they had to cancel on short notice. $20 felt more like a doable penalty, enough where they wouldn’t want it to happen but it wouldn’t be too bad or keep them away. They also liked the idea of a group date where everyone pays for themselves and there’s no confusion about who has to pay or how much it will end up being. The additional comments I got were related to physical characteristics. It does prompt me to look into how much more specific I should make the questionnaire portion. For instance, the app Hinge allows users to choose which ethnicities they are open to matching with. At first I was surprised to learn about this feature, doesn’t is sound sort of racist? But if we’re being honest, that is something of concern for more people than we care to admit. And after thinking it over, I don’t think it necessarily has to be considered racist, especially if an app as large as Hinge is continuing this, then couldn’t that be something to include? I was also told that weight matters too. A lot of people rely on dating app photos to determine body type, and by creating this blind dating scenario, that removes the ability to know what your dates will look like. So I do need to look into both of these areas and decide how to approach them.

My ongoing struggle is figuring out the right way to find and talk to people, and especially get feedback on the types of questions I should include on the questionnaire, but after constantly trying to think of something I decided using dating apps that exist could be a great way to see if people on there are willing to talk about their experiences and answer questions related to my project.