Daily Challenge #7: A login and create account feature for a dating app to help high school students

  • Challenge: Design a login and create account feature for a dating app to help high school students
  • Difficulty level: Easy
  • Time to solve the challenge: 30 minutes
  • My approach: Research on the apps currently existing, review on some of the apps by high schoolers on YouTube, designing features, testing it with two students and applying their feedback.
  • Assumption: This is a big concern. I have designed the screens assuming it’s used by 13-17 years of age. This is a sensitive topic and the biggest concern is safety and trying to find a balance between how much high schoolers want or should share information vs how much they want to or should keep hidden.

Thoughts behind the design – but first market research

Dating apps used by high schoolers
Dating apps used by high schoolers

I did a quick research to see what other apps are out there for high schoolers and watched few YouTube videos to see high schoolers review them and give their feedback.

Two things:

  • Most apps didn’t have age verifications and some were in the process of tightening security measures, but still there were loopholes
  • It was easy for sexual predators to access these sites
Risks with dating apps

Thoughts behind my design

  • I wanted the app to be able to have a legit proof of id for age verification to tighten security measures. Only age 13-17 could join this app.
  • Make it mandatory to link social accounts so we can reduce fake bots, profiles, etc.

Design v1, usability testing and feedback

I had my younger siblings test this out, and some of the feedback was:

  • Screen 1: The word connect is too formal (feels like LinkedIn)
  • Screen 6: Connecting to Facebook/Instagram should be part of screen 2 of top row, along with the rest of the verification. This eliminates one step.
  • Being able to edit a photo id and Date of Birth is simple and so it can still pose a threat to users. A suggestion to combat this was if the app could generate x no. of (fun and unique) tasks for users to do, to prove they’re authentic. And the verification team behind the scenes could verify each user. Only drawback, they would take few hours to verify and approve, and this might make high schoolers lose interest in the app–but this way at least there’s more safety and authenticity. Example: click a selfie with both thumbs up OR send a short video reciting a poem. This way the team can view the user and make out if there are users above or below the age limit.

Design v2

The future

Going forward, few things that need to be considered are:

  • Understanding if we can incorporate parent consent in these apps, and how?
  • To understand from developers if we can have verification of ids in realtime, within seconds and how.
  • The latest industry standards show that Apple had made it mandatory to include a button that shows the option of ‘signing using Apple id’, along with connecting via facebook and other social accounts. That is something that needs to be looked into as well.
  • How we can generate tasks and make it engaging and fun, and if it’s feasible.

© 2022 Deepti Mansukhani