Daisy
End-to-End Mobile App
A Friend Making App Just For Women …
Anonymous matching
Looks shouldn’t matter when making friends—so we removed the pictures! You’ll match with other women based on their character traits, like their sense of humor, interests, and experiences. Profile pictures will be revealed after you match with someone!
Answer prompts to make a match
See someone who has the potential to be your next bestie? Try to match with them by answering their prompt in a funny, sincere, or clever way—whatever feels right to you. If they choose your answer, it’s meant to be!
Matches get VIP access
Once you match with someone, that means you and your match can see each others’ full profiles (with pictures!), message each other, and complete challenges together!
Grow your friendship by completing challenges together!
Build the habit of connecting with your matches, to forge a stronger friendship. In Achievements, you can complete challenges together like making a home-cooked meal, watching a sunset, or go on a coffee date—as you complete more challenges, you’ll grow a friendship plant and build a trove of bonding memories.
Overview
Product
Daisy is a friendship-making app designed for women who desire to meet new people and form meaningful, platonic friendships with women in their local area.
Problem
Having a community of friends to rely on is vital to one’s mental health. But as we get older, making friends become increasingly difficult—as people are going through big life changes like moving to new places and getting married. More and more people experience social anxiety—fortified by the isolation experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Opportunities
We are living in a digital age where people are more used to making connections online and keeping in touch with their friends via social media. There is an opportunity to make the process of making friends easier and enjoyable through a social app.
UX Researcher, UX/UI Designer
Role
Figma, Calendly, Tactiq, Google Meet, Loom
Tools
8 weeks
Duration
Skip to Section
Research
Making friends as an adult shouldn’t be difficult; there are people yearning to make new connections and meaningful friendships, but they often come up empty-handed. I sought to get to the bottom of the issue: why is it so hard to make friends as an adult, especially for women who are seeking to create close female friends?
Defining the Goal
We need to understand how women form new female friendships so we can make the process of making friends easier, enjoyable, and fruitful.
Methods
User Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Immersive Research
User Interviews
Research
Overview
I was eager to speak to women to better understand the experiences (and frustrations) with making and maintaining friendships. Because the struggle of making friends is so universal, I kept my net pretty open: I was looking for any adult-age woman who was willing to talk about the topic of friendships.
Participants
I interviewed six women, ranging from 23–35 years old.
I asked the participants to self-identify whether they felt like their personality type leaned more introverted or extroverted.
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Interview Takeaways
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5 out of 6 women said that making female friends is generally easier because of their shared female experience.
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It’s usually more difficult for women to develop platonic friendships with men; they often have to worry about romantic complications and setting boundaries.
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As women get into their late 20s, it becomes more difficult to meet new people and form tight friendships. It’s also difficult to maintain existing friendships.
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Most women are looking to meet other people who have shared interests and values. All users stated that they look for chemistry/vibes when finding new potential friends.
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Users cited these obstacles in creating/maintaining friendships: social anxiety, poor communication, lack of time or energy, moving to a new place, and a lack of organized spaces to meet new people.
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Generally, women like to meet people one-on-one or in very small groups, so the space is more intimate and they can get to know one another better. They also prefer to meet in-person.
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Things that could help users make friends more easily include: social events for people with shared interests, organized events with activities, and ways to facilitate easy conversation with new people.
View Results
Competitive Anaylsis
Research
Overview
From the user interviews, I gained a better sense of what my target users’ goals, motivations, and pain points were. I turned my attention to current market—I wanted to see the competitors in the field, and better understand how they were attending to users’ needs. What were their approaches? Have they found effective ways to solve the problems inherently found in friend-making?
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Initially a dating app (that encourages women to talk to men first), Bumble branched out and created Bumble BFF, which focuses on friendship-making; this feature is available for all genders, and is housed under the same app.
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This is a friendship app created for and by women and non-binary people. It shared similarities to other dating apps, but it also had unique features like a live group chat and suggestions for social events near you.
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Making new friends shares a lot of similarities to dating. Hinge is marketed as “Designed to be Deleted”—it’s a dating app meant for true romantic connections.
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Meetup isn’t necessarily marketed as a friendship-making app; it’s more of a social events site that allows users to connect with others with similar interests. There are physical and remote events listed on the site.
Takeaways
The apps that focus on friendship-making share a lot of similarities to dating apps.
While there is a similar app to what I want to create, the existing app doesn’t feel modern like current dating apps like Hinge.
Most of the dating apps have similar matching methods (they follow a similar formula), which are based on profile/picture/description browsing.
View Results
Immersive Research
Research
Overview
As a woman in her 30s who experiences social anxiety on the daily, I felt like this was a perfect opportunity to better understand what it was like to make friends using an app. I knew there would be specific challenges meeting people through a digital medium, and I desired to tackle a few of those challenges with my product.
I chose two apps that were friendship-focused: Bumble (BFF) and Hey! VINA. I used both apps for a couple of days, trying to match and connect with other women in my local area.
Takeaways
I felt weird swiping left/right on people, based on the photos that they put up on their profile. I definitely felt like I was judging people by the types of photos they posted, how they looked, what they wore, etc. I kept telling myself, what does it matter what they look like? But I felt myself influenced anyway.
When setting up my profile for Bumble BFF, I really loved the prompts that helped me think of interesting things to include about myself on my profile. I loved the customizability that it allowed me to have, to showcase my personality.
Once I matched with someone, it was really hard for me to keep the conversation going, especially since I didn’t really have any incentive an d I felt really anxious making small talk to a complete stranger (note: I have trust issues).
Empathizing with the User
User Persona
From my research—particularly influenced by the women I met in my user interviews—I created a user persona to help me better visualize and understand the person I was designing for.
User Journey Map
Since the act of making friends is such an emotional roller coaster, especially for socially anxious individuals, I created a user journey map to better empathize with my users.
Ideate
After spending so much time researching and empathizing with our target users, it was time to put all that information I gathered together. I defined an overarching goal for this end-to-end mobile app and outlined supplementary questions to consider, as I worked on brainstorming solutions.
Defining the Goal
I’d like to explore ways to help women develop friendships with other women because finding new friends to connect with gets more difficult as women get older and as they deal with life’s various challenges.
Methods
Creative Constraints
Analogous Inspiration
Brainstorming with Creative Constraints
Ideate
Overview
In the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to create a product that was fresh, new, and effective. To get myself in the space where my creative mind could explore freely, I opted to use some guiding creative prompts to think outside the box.
I moved through 12 creative prompts, attempting to provide anywhere from 4–6 ideas per prompt.
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Brainstorming Takeaways
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Users will work together to achieve milestones in their relationship to earn points and rewards, or to push them through the next level
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Create fun icebreaker prompts or activities to ease people into conversation
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Have women match anonymously, based on answers or description
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Users have to complete activities together to gain points, in order to take care of a virtual pet or garden
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Have women do regular check-ins, to make sure they are up-to-date with what’s going on and feel seen
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Create challenges for women to complete together (like talk on the phone for 20 min, meet at the park, eat a meal together, etc.)
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Figure out alternative ways to match people that isn’t the standard tinder/hinge approach
View Results
Prototype
Fueled with re-affirming research and a handful of intriguing ideas, it finally came time to give some shape and form to this project to see where all that work could take me.
From my research, I broke down friendship-making into three phases that I specifically wanted to focus on with this mobile app: the discovery phase and the growth phase.
Discovery Phase
I also call this the “before” phase—this is when the user is meeting new people, in search of someone who seems to check all their boxes. Once they find that special someone they click with, then they “match” or connect with them.
(If you were at a party, this would be like exchanging numbers or social handles with someone!)
Growth Phase
At this point, the user has matched with someone that they have hit it off with, and are looking to foster and develop this new relationship. It takes time, energy, and communication—and needs to be reciprocated by both parties to actually come out successful.
(This would look like texting or calling each other, setting up hangouts, introducing you to friends and family, etc.)
The Discovery Phase
Prototype
The majority of the women I spoke to mentioned that they just look for a certain energy or vibe when looking for new friends. Most of the women also mentioned that they looked for people who shared similar interests or values. From my own experience using Bumble BFF and Hey! VINA, it felt wrong to decide whether or not I wanted to be someone’s friend based on their profile photos and outward appearances.
To address this problem, I was intrigued by the idea to create a blind match—having users match with others based on character traits versus photos.
The Matching Process
Prototype
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![Low-Fi Sketches]()
Step 1 - Host a Prompt
I came up with this idea to match users based on a call and response. Users would be able to host a prompt (which they could either create or choose from a generated list).
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Step 2 - Users Respond to Prompts
To attempt to match with a person, you must answer their prompt and wait to see if they select you as a “winner.” You can choose to answer the prompt however you please—creatively, logically, humorously, etc. The way you answer will let the user get to know you a bit more.
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Step 3 - Pick a Winning Answer
When enough people have submitted answers to their prompt, the user can look through the prompts and select a winner to match with. (This concept was inspired by the game Cards Against Humanity.)
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Step 4 - Match with Users to Reveal Full Profile
Once two users match with each other, they unlock access to each others’ full profiles, which includes their photos, extra character blocks, and more!Now that the users are matched, they also are able to communicate and interact with each other, via the Matches/Chat section and Achievements section.
The Growth Phase
Prototype
After users match with someone, they enter the Growth Phase of their relationship, which requires a lot of effort to foster and maintain. This is the part that either makes or breaks a friendship—it requires an investment of time and energy from both parties. I created two main sections in the Daisy app to do this in: Messages and Achievements.
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![Messages Tab]()
Messages
I didn’t reinvent the wheel here—I used a similar design that I found in dating apps (Bumble, Hinge, Hey! VINA), since I felt like the design would seem familiar and intuitive to most of my users.Since communication is so vital when making new friends, I also wanted to provide multiple ways users can communicate: phone, text, video call, gifs, etc. That way, users are able to choose the most comfortable method of keeping in touch, and are then more likely to keep the line of communication going.
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![Achievements Wireframes]()
Achievements
I desired to create a way to keep users engaged and connected to their matches. I had three goals in mind for this section. I wanted to:
Alleviate social anxiety that users experience when meeting/talking to new people
Help users build good and consistent communication habits
Strengthen user connections through shared interests, activities, and goals
Achievements (Hi-Fidelity Wireframes)
Testing & Iterating
After weeks of working on the designs for this app, I was finally ready to test my interactive prototype with users, to see if my designs were sound.
Going into testing, I had a handful of objectives that I wanted to evaluate with my users, so I could get a better sense of how I could improve my designs afterward.
Testing Objectives
I wanted to see if:
Users responded well to the concept of the blind match (not being able to see photos of users before matching).
The process of matching made sense (answering/selecting user prompts).
Users saw the usefulness of the Achievements section/challenges, and if they were attracted to this feature of the app.
The navigation and interactions made sense.
The app is something that users would use; if it was joyful/fun for them.
Participants
I conducted usability testing interviews with 5 women, ages 23-32. I observed them as they completed a series of tasks, testing each unique feature of the mobile app.
Method
Usability Testing Interviews
View Results
Making Changes to the Design
Iterating
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Branding
Even though it was just the one user who pointed this out, I completely agreed with her on this point! I was stuck on creating a logo for Daisy, and eventually decided to create a simple logo that you can see on these app start-up screens..
The logo is a flower with a “D” in the center. The logo is playful, friendly, and feminine—a great representation of the app’s function and personality. I’ve also placed this as the symbol of the Discover tab on the navigation bar.
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![Achievements Wireframes]()
Prompt Answers and Selection
I noticed that users were confused by the horizontal scroll cards, which partially hid answers from them. I ended up replacing this with a vertical scroll cards so that users could more easily see and sort through the answers. I also fine-tuned the labels in the instructions, on the cards, and on the submission button to keep things clear for users.
Two users noted that it would be nice to be able to choose more than one match. Initially I was concerned that allowing users to match with more people at once could cause them to undervalue their matches. In the end, I conceded to allow two matches at once, as I thought it would help alleviate user indecision and also maximize their potential of developing friendships with new people.
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Completing Achievement Challenges
Originally users were only able to submit photos as keepsakes to complete challenges with their matches. Based on the user this user suggestion, I added the capability to add a note when completing a challenge, so users can also preserve any thoughts or notes when revisiting finished challenges.
Final Thoughts
Overview
Daisy was a dream project for me. From start to finish, I had so much fun working on this project—from holding intimate conversations with women about their friendships in my research interviews, to brainstorming creative solutions for this social app, and designing feminine, joyous visual branding.
I am so proud of what I was able to achieve with this project, and I loved hearing raving reviews when I tested my prototype with users. This project allow me to flex my creative muscles and problem-solving skills, and it made me fall in love with UX/UI design all over again.
What Went Well
I held incredibly insightful research interviews. The women I met with said they usually don’t have the space to talk about friendships, so I’m glad they were able to talk comfortably with me.
By mapping out the journey of my users, I was able to better empathize with my users—particularly those who experience social anxiety when making new friends.
My creative brainstorming brought a lot of interesting and unique ideas that I could run away with for this project. I feel like designed a one-of-a-kind product that appeals to a niche group.
What Could Have Gone Better
I didn’t spend much time mapping out the task flows or user decision flows for this project. Because this app is complex and has intricate functionalities, I think it would have been helpful to have mapped out the flows before jumping into my designs.
I really love the idea of anonymous matching through a question/response, but I feel like this idea could use more testing, since it’s so wildly different from anything in the social platform market. While the users I tested responded positively to the idea, I think it would helpful to gather more data to back up this unique concept.
Next Steps for this Project
As I mentioned above, I would like to continue testing Daisy, particularly the anonymous prompt/answer matching, to see if users understand the idea, find it easy to use, and find it an attractive way to meet new people.
I would also like to get people (preferably newly acquainted people) to test the Achievements section of Daisy by starting and completing challenges together. I would like to know if it helps or incentivizes users build the habit of socializing with new friends.
I would like to map out the Account/Profile tab, to figure out the customizability of the app and to ensure ways for users to maintain their sense of privacy and security, which I find is crucial for users to feel comfortable engaging in any social app.