Designing an app that encourages young adults to build meaningful friendships through fulfilling hobbies.
User Research
Wireframing
Usability Testing
Brand Design
Prototyping
Figma
Miro
3 months
(Aug 2024 - Oct 2024)
Between job searches, work commitments, and the endless stream of routine tasks we all juggle daily, where do we find the time—or the space—to truly connect with others in this day and age?
A sociocultural term coined to answer this question is “third places”: neutral, unstructured social settings separate from home and the workplace that are designed to foster a sense of belonging. These spaces – such as parks, community centers, or cafes – provide opportunities for people to gather, unwind, and engage meaningfully with one another.
Sadly, accessible third places in the U.S. have been steadily disappearing for decades, driven by factors such as rising living costs, an intensified focus on productivity, and growing trends of privatization. This absence has created a significant barrier for young adults, who already face challenges in maintaining healthy work-life balances. However, by creating new avenues for cultivating a sense of community and purpose, we can restore vital pathways that support the well-being and resilience of young adults.
Young adults are grappling with a lack of purpose in their daily lives – a challenge made worse by the persistent decline of accessible third places, which further hinders their ability to form meaningful connections that could help alleviate this burden.
I designed a friend-finder app centered on learning and sharing hobbies, creating opportunities to foster meaningful in-person connections and strengthen young adults' social and emotional well-being.
During a lull in lively conversation, an old friend of mine sighed and said wistfully:
“I’ve missed this – I have no idea how to make friends since graduating. All I do now is work.”
This statement lit a fire under me, and I decided to conduct additional research on the conditions that are either fueling or hindering socialization in the modern landscape, as well as the current mental health crisis afflicting young adults.
I conducted a literature review and identified two significant stressors contributing to high rates of anxiety and depression in young adults: a lack of purpose or direction, and relationship deficits.
According to the Harvard Graduate College of Education:
• 58% (nearly 3 in 5) of young adults reported feeling they "lacked meaning" in their lives.
• 44% reported feeling like they didn't matter to those around them.
• 34% reported experiencing frequent loneliness.
Alternatively, I also investigated factors that could promote individual purpose and support overall well-being, and uncovered a promising solution: hobbies. According to the Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being Journal, participating in hobbies not only fosters personal growth, but also enhances social connection and emotional resilience.
I surveyed 10 users to gather usability insights regarding socialization habits and past experiences using friend-finder apps.
• Users reported struggling to schedule social interactions, as their free time is often consumed by pressing routine tasks, such as chores and errands, that pile up after the workweek.
• People tend to perceive hobbies as an individual endeavor – something enjoyed during "alone time" to recharge, but not with company present.
• Several users mentioned that, while they don’t outright oppose friend-finder apps, their past experiences led them to see these platforms as unreliable, since the connections they formed often felt fleeting.
• 2/5 users expressed feeling "cut off" from the social spaces they once easily accessed in school, a result of moving back home or adjusting to other constrained living situations.
To get a better grasp of the problem space, I took some time to research some popular socialization platform competitors. I found that while many marketed themselves as friend-finding apps (aside from Hinge), few actually offered tools or incentives to invest in substantive companionship. Most also relied solely on basic biographical information, resulting in a superficial experience that made it challenging to form genuine connections.
My main takeaway was that none of these platforms offer a wholeheartedly platonic environment that makes long-lasting connections feel attainable. Bumble BFF showed promise, but its dating app roots made the experience feel like a “numbers game,” prioritizing quantity of matches over quality. Meetup’s event-based approach was also unique, but it prevents people from breaking the ice before events, which could raise safety concerns, particularly for socially anxious users.
Thus, I saw an opportunity to design a space where users can build emotionally fulfilling friendships grounded in shared compatibility, goals, and intentions, by focusing on meaningful experiences centered around enriching hobbies.
My biggest dilemma was solving the issue of how I could inspire users to see the value of making hobbies the foundation of their connections. I knew I wanted the profile screens to holistically showcase each user's personality, helping them put their best foot forward, but I was initially stumped by how to highlight their hobby interests and goals in a way that would stand out amongst their other qualities.
After a brainstorming session in my sketchbook, I landed on exhibiting each user’s hobbies using a series of skill bars, inspired by the ones often seen in popular RPG and MMO video games. My thinking was that it would deliver a simple, playful visual representation of each user’s current proficiency in their chosen hobbies, while also conveying their intention to “level up” their skills through new experiences.
I also wanted to include an accompanying feature that would allow users to select hobbies they were interested in learning, something I’d hoped would also encourage participation from users who may not be presently invested in any hobbies.
Once I knew which features I wanted to prioritize, I began piecing together the information architecture by organizing them into a site map.
After thinking about how I wanted the users to interact with the app, I decided to prioritize two main flows -- “liking” a potential friend in your profile feed, and creating a Hangout event.
Here are some selected sketches where I experimented with how to incorporate the hobby badges into profile screens, as well as how the Hangouts feature could be displayed intuitively. I also opted to make the "liking" mechanism a tap instead of a swipe, unlike most traditional friend-finder apps, to encourage more intentional interactions when users review profiles.
I then cleaned up the main user flow screens to better organize the visual elements.
To set this tone, I decided on cream and a deep teal blue, rounded out by a coffee brown to evoke a refreshing, easy-going feel. The result is a style guide with a calm, grounded warmth that feels inviting, while distinctly emphasizing a platonic, friendly tone.
“Tomo” originates from “tomodachi” (友達), the Japanese word “friend” spelled in romaji. I also chose a puzzle piece for the logo as a playful nod to traditional hobbies, but also as a way to tie the brand back to the idea of building connections.
I focused on prototyping the two key flows for usability testing, but also developed additional features later on to create a more immersive app experience.
Through a series of 1:1 moderated usability tests with five users over Discord, I aimed to identify areas where users might feel unclear or uncertain.
I measured success by analyzing the task completion rate, the net promotor score (NPS), and the system usability scale (SUS) score.
Participants were asked to complete two task flows:
1) ”Say hi” to a user in the People feed
2) Create a new Hangout event
I measured success through the task success rates of each task flow, reported ease of navigation, and net promotor score (NPS). Here are the results:
Task success rate
Net promotor score
SUS Score
Confusion
The majority of users expressed enthusiasm for the app concept and reported they would recommend it to friends. Additionally, all five users successfully completed both task flows, describing the experience as user-friendly and intuitive to navigate.
However, while users had no issues creating and sending out Hangout invitations, a recurring question arose about where to view updates or make changes to events after they’re sent. Additionally, some users noted that while the calendar was helpful for visualizing availability, it was inconvenient to have to toggle between dates to figure out what events were scheduled when.
Users wanted a better way to visualize upcoming events that they were attending or hosting.
I added a button under the Profile section that directs users to a screen where they can toggle between two tabs: one to view all their their Hangout invites and RSVPs, and the other to see all the events they are hosting.
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Through usability testing, I realized that providing tools for connection doesn't guarantee users will always follow through or stay invested. Given more time, I would focus on researching what factors better motivate users to engage in relationship-building to craft a design solution that doesn’t just lean on AI algorithms and user effort to improve success rates.
In the initial development stages of the main flows, I was eager to incorporate a wide range of features inspired by my user research. However, after reevaluating the constraints of my timeline, I realized delivering a well-executed, focused experience would ultimately have a greater impact, rather than attempting to implement everything and risking diluting the overall quality of the project.
While I knew that UX design inherently draws on perceptual and behavioral psychology, putting it into practice was really eye-opening! Something as inconspicuous as prompting users to tap instead of swipe, or encouraging them to initiate conversations with something more thoughtful than a “Like” can subtly, but powerfully inspire users to act with greater intention and effort, improving their chances of making a meaningful connection. In my future projects, I’m excited to continue exploring design strategies that create naturally rewarding experiences for users.
UX Design
