UX Research Case Study: Tinder Dating App

8 min readSep 16, 2022

Introduction

Hello Everyone! My name is Nazwa Fajrani. Currently, I am participating in the UI/UX design Bootcamp held by dibimbing.id. I did this research with teammates, Ana Fitriyani and M Sandi Aulia Gani. This article would be my first portfolio as a UX Researcher. So, here we go!

Overview

In this case study, we conduct research on a dating app, named Tinder. Tinder is an online dating and geosocial networking application. In Tinder, users “swipe right” to like or “swipe left” to dislike other users’ profiles, which include their photo, a short bio, and a list of their interests. Tinder uses a “double opt-in” system where both users must like each other before they can exchange messages (Wikipedia, 2022).

We want to increase from non-premium users to become premium plan subscribers on Tinder App. So we conduct research on their behavior when using the feature, pain points, and their needs. We did a survey and in-depth interview with the existing subscriber of Tinder, there are 4 main problems we found:

users feel discomfort due to identity fraud on the Tinder application, so it is necessary to provide a profile verification system for security.
there is no filtering menu (category), so sometimes you find random people and miscommunication occurs during chat because of differences in things. Users feel that having a chat partner with one frequency will feel more fun and will not cause miscommunication. Filters/sub-categories save users time in searching for partners that match the ideal type.
there is no reply to the chat feature in chat so that sometimes conversations don’t connect and miscommunication.
there is no undo swipe feature so you can return to the previous match. Users sometimes don’t realize that they are unliking matches even though they feel they are suitable, so they need this feature to undo swipe.

After all, we decided to solve the issues, such as:

provides a profile verification system for security.
provides filters/added sub-categories/filtering Tinder users to make them more connected when communicating.
provides a chat reply feature & send photos in chat so you can communicate better.
provides an undo swipe feature so you can return to the previous game.

The Process : Research Plan

Background

In Indonesia in 2021 as many as 57.6% of respondents use the Tinder dating application to find a partner (Katadata, 2022). However, only 10.7 million Tinder users have subscribed out of a total of 75 million active users in 2022.

My team and I want to understand the behavior, pain point, and needs or expcectation of the users while using Tinder app by conducting a survey and in-depth interviews with existing subscribers to get insight into what features need to be improved so that they switch to the premium plan.

Research Objective & Hypothesis

The research objective in this research is how to increase the desire of non-premium users to become premium plan subscribers? with several hypotheses that the authors include as follows:

Users use Tinder to find a match or friend, and can enjoy unlimited likes & rewind features, get access to any location, and are ad-free.
Users are more comfortable communicating virtually, don’t have time to find new friends/partners face to face.
The application is more secure with the creation of a profile verification system.
Adding features that users need such as features that show premium users.

Hypothesis

Users use Tinder to find a match or friend, and can enjoy unlimited likes & rewind features, get access to any location, and are ad-free.
Users are more comfortable communicating virtually, don’t have time to find new friends/partners face to face
The application is more secure with the creation of a profile verification system.
Adding features that users need such as features that show premium users.

Research Plan: https://bit.ly/3CROkJE

Conduct Research: https://bit.ly/TinderResearchResultKel8

Methodology

Survey
Filtering users who use the Tinder application, both those who have never subscribed to premium and those who have, to proceed to in-depth interviews. Survey using Google Forms.
In depth Interview
To find out more about the motivation, strengths, and behavior of users using the Tinder Premium plan application, to understand the opportunities for crime, and to understand the level of user satisfaction, as well as to validate hypotheses.

Respondent Target & Criteria

Target: Tinder app users, both those who have never subscribed to premium and those who have already
Criteria:
- Demographic: employed, age 21+ (already earning), single
- Behavior: active users of the app in the last 1 month
- Psychographic: finding a mate vs. looking for friends

***Number of Participant: (3 of segment 1, 3 of segment 2)*** *Quantitative data needed is 385 user’s data (if possible) (checked from Sample Size Calculator on qualtrics.com)*

based on the survey results, none of the respondents used the Premium Plan so that the user segmentation was only non-premium users as many as 5 respondents (according to the willingness of respondents to interview)

Respondent Profiles

Research Timeline

Kickoff meeting: group meeting (1 day)
Research planning + Discussion Guideline: make a list of questions for the survey (1 day)
Recruitment (or data collection) — 1 week:
a. survey: using google form (3 days)
b. in depth interview: from the survey results that meet the criteria, an interview is carried out with the agreement of both parties, it can be by meeting in person, via zoom or g-meet, or using other media such as whatsapp (3 days)
Content analysis & reporting (create report): analyze the survey results and in depth interviews (8 days in total)

Research Findings

After all of the respondents were interviewed, the insights obtained were analyzed by a thematic method using Affinity Diagrams Analysis, User Persona, and Customer Journey Map. The thematic method is one of the ways to analyze data generated from qualitative research to identify patterns and find themes through the data that has been collected.

Affinity Diagram

Theme: Behavior

Based on the results of interviews, our respondents stated that they use the Tinder application, including every night, once a month, and three times a month.
Our respondents use Tinder in different situations, including: when they are bored, upset, when they really want to find a mate, and in their spare time when they need friends to hang out with.
The motivation of users on the Tinder application is to find a partner, make as many new friends as possible, and network. Users who don’t have a partner use Tinder to find a partner, while those who already have a partner tend to use Tinder to find friends

Main activities for Tinder users include: swipe right or left (like or dislike), chat

Theme: Likes

There are no obstacles encountered in the swipe feature
On Tinder we can enable/disable our location tracking, so users feel more secure. Because if location tracking cannot be disabled, the user feels followed and their privacy is disturbed
In addition, users find it exciting because they can meet new friends who are not unexpected and can match and have one taste

Theme: Pain Points

Feature Aspect

There is no reply feature in chat so the chat experience is less efficient, especially if you send a lot of chats and overlap each other
Can’t send photos but can video call (not comfortable vidcall with new people)
There are no filter features, ex: height, religion, interests, etc.
Tinder can’t filter out people who are real or who have a bad mode (unsafe)
Can’t undo swipe

2. Technology Aspect

Chat often takes a long time to load and even crashes

3. Content Aspect

It’s uncomfortable because the people you meet are too random
There are not many bios and descriptions, so users don’t get an idea whether the people they meet are suitable or not
There is a chat bot in the form of an annoying online shop promotion
Inconvenience due to identity fraud which can lead to fraud etc
Discomfort in the form of sexual crimes

4. Economic Aspect

The premium plan price is expensive and not worth it

Theme: Needs/ Expectation

Users need a profile verification system for security
Users need filters/adding sub-categories/filtering Tinder users to be more connected when communicating
Users need the reply & send photo feature in chat so they can communicate better
Users can use unswipe that is unliked so they can return to the previous match

User Persona

This User Persona is a fictional character that is used to describe the Goals, Behavior, Needs, and Pain Points of the respondents.

Customer Journey Map

The Customer Journey Map helps us to understand the interactions and experiences of respondents when using Tinder.

Recommendations

Based on User needs, we give the recommendation to improve the features as follows.

Actionable Plan

Based on the table above, we prioritize the 2 recommendations in the green table because they are closely related to desirability and viability, and benefit both parties (users and businesses).

from the user side: with improvements to the verification and filtering features, users will feel safe in using the application and its use is more efficient because it saves users time in finding partners that match the ideal type.
from the business side: with the improvement of the two features, it will attract a lot of premium plan subscribers because users feel it is worth it and generate higher profits for the company.

Appendix

Survey Google Form

Total Responden: 23 Responden

Google Form Research mengenai Tinder pada link berikut : https://bit.ly/ResearchTinderApp

Transkrip Wawancara: https://bit.ly/3B8RR59

Survey result: https://bit.ly/3wS5tPB

2. In Depth Interview

Total Responden : 5 responden

Link In Depth Interview result: https://bit.ly/HasilInterviewTinderKel8

Thanks for reading! Feel free to give any comment on this post and hope this case study can be useful for everyone. :)

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