Protothon 2021
eDate
Overview
My team and I were awarded 2nd place at the 2021 Protothon hosted by DubsTech. Our goal was to design an experience that would bring long-distance couples together by heart for Valentine’s day. We came up with a solution called eDate - a digital platform that helps long-distance couples plan, schedule, and share engaging virtual dates.
Team
Taylor Hines and Leslie Hoang
Strategies
Research, UX/UI Design, Prototyping
Timeline
24 hours
Tools used
Adobe XD
Problem
There are many people who are in long distance relationships, and they are unable to physically spend time together on Valentine’s Day.
Our goal was to come up with a solution that aids couples in long distance relationships to spend valentine’s day virtually together. We wanted to create a solution that provides a fun and engaging virtual Valentine’s Day experience for long distance couples.
Research
The first thing we wanted to do was better understand the problem space for long distance couples, so we conducted eight interviews, reviewed four secondary articles and created one survey. We wanted to find answers to several questions: How do long distance couples stay connected to their partner? What tools do they use (Facetime, text, zoom, etc)? What do they miss most about being in person with them?
8
Interviews
4
Secondary articles
1
Survey
Persona
We developed a persona based on our user research methods. The research helped us identify and define key user pain points and needs.
Mike is planning a special virtual date with his significant other for Valentine’s Day. He is having trouble….
Finding a variety of fun things to do virtually
Deciding on what to do with his sweetie
Scheduling the date to fit his and his bae’s schedule
How might we help people, like Mike, in long distance relationships plan a virtual date more easily?
User Flow
We created a user flow to help visualize how the user would accomplish the main tasks: plan, schedule, and share dates. Simplicity was the best approach for guiding users, so that they can best plan a date. Thus, we created a seamless flow for users that want to plan the date for someone or plan the date with someone.
Solution
After capturing the problem, we provided a dual path solution for people trying to plan virtual events across long distances. The solution can expand beyond Valentine's Day into normal event / date night planning.
eDate main features
Curated date activities
Personalized quiz results
Schedule and share date
A variety of options
eDate contains endless ideas for fun activity dates, from watching rom-coms, to playing games with your love. eDate gives users personalized ideal package dates or “grab-and-go” options.
Personalized dates
Mike can take the quiz to help determine what possible dates he and his honey can do virtually, derived from curated content to find the best solution for him.
Personalized quiz results
Mike can show his S.O. he’s thinking of them by planning a date for the both of them by selecting, “I am planning the date for someone.”
Or select “I am planning the date with someone” for couples who want to plan together.
By completing the quick quiz, eDate can provide users like Mike ideal activities for their date based on interest and preference.
From the result of the quiz, Mike has the option to schedule the date and send an invite to his bae or browse more ideas below to add another activity to his date.
Scheduling
After picking his desired activities, Mike can choose and schedule the date based on the calendar shown.
Itinerary
The final result of the task is a sharable itinerary of the date for the special day.
Reflection
My first Hackathon enhanced my problem solving, design, and prototyping skills as I had to approach the problem within a short time window. I learned invaluable lessons on communication, time management, and team-work all while having fun! I am grateful that I had the opportunity to present and receive meaningful feedback from professional designers from Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other reputable companies.
Next steps:
Conduct usability tests to evaluate ease of use.
Create a high-fidelity mobile prototype for users that may want to use it on mobile channels.
Explore how this tool could get smarter at recommending dates when it learns more about the user and their partner as well.