Case Study: Adding pandemic-friendly features to a friendship app
By: Mackenzie Legg
Tags: Design, UX Design, Case Study, Covid 19, Social Network

The year is 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic has changed every aspect of modern life. We have become an isolated society, more dependent on technology now than ever before. Video chatting with our family and friends is the new normal.

Now Imagine relocating to a new city during this time or starting a new job or perhaps, going through a breakup. Starting fresh has always been challenging, but now, impossible.

Enter Bumble BFF, once solely a dating app (Bumble) turned friendship incubator. A location-based social site that matches users based on preferences. It’s a digital way to meet new friends, existing before the pandemic but now, during a time of social isolation, has the potential to be more useful than ever.

My research began with a question:

How has Bumble BFF helped people deal with social isolation during stay at home orders?

To help me understand and answer this question, I conducted preliminary research and discovery on Bumble BFF. I recruited and interviewed participants as a part of a research class in the Maryland Institute College of Arts’ Master of Professional Studies in UX Design program. From this research, I was able to identify key pain points within the user’s experience with the app and making friends during the pandemic. I was able to create a tangible solution in the form of a prototype that I brought back to users to validate. Below are my findings.

Defining the Problem

I defined my user types into two groups:

Power User: They have made multiple connections and friendships through the app and return to build their social circle or maintain connections. They use Bumble BFF as a main source of networking and building their social circle, they have made 1 or more meaningful connections* through the app.

Novice User: They may have just moved to a new location and are trying the app to make new connections/friendships, they have not yet made a meaningful connection* through the app. They may use other social apps as their main source of networking.

*For the purpose of this research, “meaningful connection” was defined as someone the user has met up with more than 1 time.

The problem began with the user’s answer to my question.

While all interviewees reported their app usage has increased since the pandemic began back in March, there was no evidence that they had an increase in new connections through Bumble BFF since then.

Both User Types reported feeling awkward towards talking with their matches about COVID-19 guidelines and overall feeling of disengagement with the app.

Key Learnings from User Research

Problem Statement

How might we make users feel comfortable with making plans with matches around COVID-19 guidelines?

Bumble BFF is built on social interaction with the goal of creating long-lasting friendships. That includes meeting up with people in the same local area. But what happens when it’s not safe to do so? Or if someone is unsure whether the other person would be open for a zoom happy hour or a socially distant walk?

From talking to users, it was made clear that the new world we are living in is a little awkward to navigate, especially with new connections.

What if Bumble BFF was smart enough to provide safe hangout ideas for its users?

This could take some of the awkwardness out of the decision to meet someone for the first time AND ensure that both users are ON THE SAME PAGE.

My idea, why not take the guesswork out of it and include what the user would be comfortable doing right there on their profile? The status field would be something like:

“I am willing to do a zoom hangout”

“I am willing to do a socially distant hangout”

I took a look at the current process flow and designed a sprint map that included the status idea, highlighting the area of opportunity.