📍 Fika | Vietnam 🇻🇳
Designing AI-based connections in Gen-Z modern dating
Product Design | Design System
June 2020 - March 2021
Project Overview
Outcome
In 2020, two Swedish founders introduced Swedish coffee culture to Vietnam, aiming to enrich the dating experience. Fika, which means a coffee break in Swedish, inspired the founders to combine dating with this cherished tradition in Vietnam. Upon joining the newly-founded startup as the sole Product Designer, I took on the monumental task of conceptualising and executing the Fika mobile app entirely from scratch on my own. Juggling multiple responsibilities, I designed the fundamental features while also establishing distinctive brand identities for Fika within a tight 2-month timeframe.
Timeline:
From conception to official launch of the B2C (dating) app: 5 months
Further feature development and a new B2B product conception: 5 months
My role:
Lead end-to-end design process: discovery, research, design, testing and development support through launch
The team:
Bang Luong Nguyen & Christ Pham: Full-Stack developers
Jack Nguyen & Albus Ha: Back-End developers
Thai Nguyen: Front-End developer
Uyen Nguyen & Ngan Nguyen: Junior Digital Designers
Throughout my 10 months at Fika, I successfully delivered:
A B2C Dating app with diverse features using AI
An extensive brand identities that are friendly-looking and trendy for Vietnamese Gen-Z
An interactive prototype of a B2B product targeted towards café & restaurant owners
Process
Approaching the Vietnamese dating scene presents several challenges due to various factors such as differing cultural norms, gender expectations, generational gaps, and the clash between traditional and more progressive mindsets. Despite these obstacles, it is widely acknowledged that Gen-Zers are born natural tech-savvy and have already embraced online dating as a norm in today's society. Creating a dating app for modern dating needs strategic design to connect users effectively in today's fast-paced digital world.
Even though designing from scratch requires an important amount of time and effort, I took on this challenge with enthusiasm. In order to respect a tight deadline of 2 months, I convinced the founders to proceed with a Double Diamond approach:
A first phase of discovery that involves conducting market research of the most well-known international datings apps, and learning the best practices by doing field study and guerilla testing.
A second phase of definition by prioritising a list of fundamental features for the first launch of the Fika app. This is followed by a low-fidelity prototype and a series of user testings.
During the third phase of development, based on the feedback from the user tests, I designed a high-fidelity prototype, that would be again tested. This user test is crucial to fine-tune the final designs before delivering them to developers.
The fourth phase consists of releasing the product, that would be measured according to the key metrics. The user insights serve as learnings for the next iteration rounds or feature release.
During this process, I made sure to regularly meet with stakeholders to align on ideas, requirements and deadlines.
Execution
After a market research, competitor audit and a field study, I had a deeper understanding of the industry’s big picture. Since the majority of the dating app is Tinder-clones (except for Bumble who is a leading rival), the startup founders wanted the Fika app to look more immersive. Thus, the full-screen UI is one of the crucial elements of the app’s foundation.
In addition to the existing challenges related to the full-screen, the CTO also has an ambitious plan for the app: implementing gamification features. This required me to further enhance the design of the Fika app's user interface, making it more expansive, diverse, and vibrant to enable young daters to express their identities and emotions with creativity and freedom.
Usability Testing
Throughout my end-to-end process at Fika, I frequently conducted in-person usability testing in order to learn directly from the target audience. These learnings allow me to gain valuable insights and feedback for the subsequent iterations and feature releases.
Learning & Takeaways
Owning the entire end-to-end product design process is a great learning opportunity for me and that also confirms my passion for Product Design. Understanding user behaviour is key in designing profiles and matching features for a satisfying user experience that drives meaningful connections. The challenges that came with it did not only put my creativity to the test but also my resilience and flexibility. I was able to adapt my creative solutions in a very fast-paced environment and overcome the challenges in order to successfully deliver a full-fleshed product.
Since the Fika app targets the modern and enthusiastic Gen-Z demography in particular, I created the visual identities of the user interface to be more adapted to the Vietnamese audience. To know more about my brand identities design process, please read my Behance case study.
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