What is Pixels n’ Bits

Pixels n’ Bits is a dating app that aims to lighten the stress that can be brought on by dating apps. The app is designed in a way that utilized best practices and some of my own philosophy and experience coming from the Game Industry. I came to my thesis.

The Problem

Looking at Datings Apps and talking to other about them. It began to seem like was a sense of stress and burnt out that comes with using them. So I wanted to create an experience that could help quell that.

The Hypothesis

I posited that a Dating App with an aspect of stress-reducing engagement could be created with a gamified/games experience. Gamification in dating apps does already exist. The way users swipe left or right to match with people is one of the most common. The way we’d look to track success would be to monitor DAU/WAU/MAU and see how/if good levels of engagement are being balanced across the core loop.

Key Things to Note

  • 1 in 10 people will stop using dating apps after ~90 days

  • People regularly split screen while using dating apps

  • People that have used dating apps have likely used more than one and a decent number of those people have more than dating app downloaded on their phone

  • Studies have shown that games can be a helpful stress reliever

Who is this for

After posing out thesis, next we need to determine who this product for and how they’ll use it. In addition, we need to figure out how it might stand up in the market relative to other products that exist in the same space, interviews, and creating personas like these…

Personas can help us determine the kinds of users we might encounter to help us figure out how we might create our app and implement its features. From our personas we look to synthesize what people want to find through using our app.

  • Romantic Relationships

  • Sexual Relationships

  • Just moved to a new area or is visiting

  • Friends (maybe their world feels too small)

  • Other

Prototyping and Testing

Utilizing our interviews and competitive analysis I begin to determine what kind of features to include in the product. Whether they’re things that are considered industry standards or a new feature that potential users desire for our Minimum Viable Product. Creating both low fidelity and high fidelity wireframes allowed for creating an outline and then a vision for what the final product could look like.

Wireframes and User Flows

I created initial wireframes that are designed to reflect some features of the application. Based on interviews, we want users to build profiles, match with other users, chat, and looking at other people’s profiles.

Core Loop and MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

The Core Loop helps keeps users engaged with all aspects of the product. The MVP was then built around the Core Loop. Ideally the MVP for Pixels n’ Bits it would have people:

Creating and building out your profile - Lets other users know more about yourself

Looking at Profiles - Lets you see what other users have to say about themselves.

Messaging - Need to be able to talk with your matches

Game - Gives the users something to do with matches and it also serves as a litmus test to see if this is a feature that users like interacting and engaging with.

Usability Testing

Usability testing helps us determine how we want to build and flesh out our features.

A common problem I had with my initial prototype was that users sometimes thought that other users were close based on proximity so there had to be a redesign or clarification with how ‘matching’ with people worked. Here are the initial screens for trying to connect with people.

Measuring Success

Putting Pixels n’ Bits product through this kind of life cycle shows us how best to create a product, but its success depends on how our design is received on release. As we put out our product these are things to consider and track through updates, bug fixes, etc.

Market Fit and Opportunity

  • Number of single people in the US as of 2022 ~127 million (~40%)

  • Number of single people that use dating apps ~25 million

  • Number of Dating apps worldwide ~1500

  • 69% of mobile game players are between 18-55 with 2.1 billion mobile users worldwide and 193 million in the US

Risks

  • People may not use all features of the app

  • Games could be too gimmicky and a time sink

  • Poor execution could lead to the application being oversaturated with content and give users a feeling over Cognitive Overload

  • Market is flooded with apps already and this app could get drowned out

Key Metrics to track

  • Daily/Weekly/Monthly Active Users

  • Dwell Time (Average Session Length)

  • Average number of sessions per day/week

  • Churn Rate (week to week)

  • Number of account activations that convert to profile completions per week

  • Amount of time to create a profile and session length after creating a profile

Product Roadmap

Product roadmap gives us a sense of feasibility. It doesn’t always have definitive timeline, but the roadmap tends to be constructed in a way where our features are rolled out based on importance and ability to implement based on our stakeholders’ capacities.

Ideally, this is how I envision Pixels n’ Bits will roll out its other features as more people come on board the project. Additional features will be implemented along the axises of engagement, retention, basic functionality, monetization, and accessibility