Expand Social
End-to-end design for an app to help adults meet new people and develop long-lasting, meaningful friendships
Role
UX/UI Designer
Timeline
100 hours over 5 weeks - June 2025
Making friends as an adult is HARD
As we get older, making new friends isn’t as simple as walking up to another kid on the playground and declaring the two of you friends. Adult friendships take consistent effort over a considerable period of time.
In fact, studies found that it takes spending around 50 hours together to form an acquaintanceship, around 90 hours to develop a friendship, and over 200 hours to become close friends. With all of the things the average adult has on their plate, it’s understandable why 45% of adults say they find it challenging to make new friends .
Close friends are crucial to our health and quality of life
Building friendships may be challenging, but it’s not something people are willing to let fall by the wayside. 61% of adults rank having close friends as extremely important to living a fulfilling life and 40% of people are not as close to their friends as they’d like to be.
“A review of 38 studies found that adult friendships, especially high-quality ones that provide social support and companionship, significantly predict well-being and can protect against mental health issues such as depression and anxiety…People with no friends or poor-quality friendships are twice as likely to die prematurely…a risk factor even greater than the effects of smoking 20 cigarettes per day”
So, how might we help people to make new connections and develop them into meaningful, supportive friendships?
We needed to understand the full picture of what adults are facing when trying to make new friends
Research Objectives:
Understand the main challenges people face when trying to make friends as an adult
Determine what someone would want to know about a new person in order to decide if they would make a good connection
Understand where and how adults tend to meet new people
Digging into potential users’ thoughts, desires, and challenges
Interviews were conducted with 5 people of varying genders aged 25-40 who all identified themselves as having a hard time making friends as an adult.
All 5 participants mentioned finding it difficult to approach people in person in order to initiate a platonic relationship
4/5 participants specifically noted challenges with following up and initiating additional activities and hangouts in order to further the friendships
All 5 participants noted that they wish they had more ways to meet people with similar interests and in similar stages of life
3/5 participants have tried friendship apps and none of them found success - they all thought the apps were a bit awkward and superficial
Interview Results
“I'm pretty introverted, so finding ways to put myself in situations where I can make friends is challenging for me.”
“I'm good at being friendly, but obviously friendship is more than just, you know, a message or two here or there”
“I’ve noticed a lot of friendships stem from work, but my whole office is completely remote so for me that’s not an option”
Patterns emerged around what people are looking for and what their biggest challenges are
Affinity mapping helped paint a picture of the similarities amongst the interviewee’s experiences
Introversion, fear of rejection, and social awkwardness are common roadblocks to developing new friendships
People are looking for friends who share their values, interests, and lifestyle
Understanding what apps already exist in this space and why they aren’t meeting needs
Bumble for Friends
To create healthy and equitable relationships through kind connections—and that doesn’t only mean dating. Platonic relationships deserve just as much celebration and recognition as romantic ones.
Strengths
Very strong brand recognition
Tons of users means a very large pool to make matches from, particularly in big cities
Swipe system is very familiar to users who have used dating apps
Plans feature allows people to make and join local plans with other users on the app
Weaknesses
App layout puts a heavy focus on a person’s physical appearance
In smaller cities or rural areas it may be challenging to get matches
With matches there is nothing within the app that pushes for in person meeting
Meetup
To help people grow and achieve their goals through real-life, human connections.
Strengths
Over 52 million members, 300k groups, and 100k weekly events worldwide
Anyone can start a group and organize events
There are groups and events to fit most anything someone might be looking for
Weaknesses
The focus on group meetings might not be a good fit for people looking for individual connection
The sheer number of possible groups and events available can quickly become overwhelming
Yubo
To empower a new generation to find out about the world and themselves
Strengths
Age verification helps increase security by grouping users specifically by age
Very large pool of users globally
Going live allows for connecting with other users in real time
Weaknesses
Since the app is open to such young users, the UI and features can feel childish or immature to many adults. It also appears to be marketed mostly to younger age groups
The global aspect of the app is not conducive to making in-person friends locally
Reviews report a noticeable presence of inappropriate content and cyber-bullying
Timeleft
We create opportunities for the magic of chance encounters. The conversations you would have missed, the people you wouldn’t have met. Safe moments to interact with people around you so that you can be more involved with the world you live in.
Strengths
Users take a sort of personality test when setting up their account, so dinner participants are matched with like-minded people
Meeting with a small group may be less intimidating than either a one on one or very large group
Weaknesses
Only available in specific cities
The dinners only happen one day per week
No way to connect with individuals before attending a dinner
I conducted a survey to gather additional quantitative and qualitative data to gain a better understanding of the experiences people have had with existing friend-finding apps. I surveyed 10 participants and asked for their feedback on 15 of the most popular apps designed to help people make new friends
The results showed a very low overall success-rate amongst all apps (there were only 3 reported instances across all apps where someone made any sort of connection)
This aligns very well with the anecdotal information I gathered from my interviews.
Existing apps are awkward and and often feel too much like dating apps
In order to help solve their problems, we needed to determine who the user is and what their goals are
Our primary persona is young, creative, and hardworking but is lacking their desired community
User and business goals align in the desire to foster community and increase quality of life
Solutions were designed focusing on the friendship-building features users would most appreciate
Turning new connections into lasting friendships was a higher priority than simply meeting new people
My initial hypothesis was that users would be most interested in a way to meet new people and make new connections. The concept of encouraging and facilitating users making plans with their connections was originally thought of as a bonus feature.
My research showed me I had this completely flipped. Yes, people want to make new connections, but the larger, more pressing challenge was figuring out how to take those connections and turn them into the deep friendships they are seeking.
Simplicity and familiarity were at the forefront when designing the information architecture
Wireframes were drafted for necessary screens to demonstrate the most important features and user flows
Meet new people based on their interests instead of their physical appearance
As humans, we have conscious and unconscious biases that may prevent us from seeking friendship with a person who may look different than us. As such we have fully removed physical looks as a consideration when swiping.
Users will make this initial determination based on pictures of hobbies, pets, causes, etc, as well as their listed interests, values and answers to prompts
Safety is a priority and it is important to know who you’re talking to. Once a mutual connection has been established users will have access to each other’s profile pictures. The photos would undergo an industry standard identity verification process.
Multiple ways to add a new connection
In addition to swiping profiles, connections can be made in person.
A user can show another person their QR code which will automatically add them as mutual connections or prompt them to sign up.
Nudges encourage users to make plans and continue developing their friendships
My research showed that people often struggle to reach out to new connections and initiate plans.
Encouraging users to spend quality time together in person is a core feature of Expand Social that sets it apart from other friendship apps.
Once two people are connected, they will be able to send plan requests to each other.
Plan suggestions focus on activities that both parties have denoted as being interested in. This also helps cut back on the fear of rejection.
Responding to plan requests
The second user will be able to respond to a request by either agreeing to hang out and helping to narrow down the details, or declining the request.
If plans are declined, the first user will get a message letting them down gently. If the user accepts the request, then they will be able to narrow down the details or even suggest alternatives and it will send back to the first user to confirm and lock in the plans.
Initial testing identified points that could cause confusion and screens that clogged up the flow
Before moving any further in the design process it was crucial to do some initial testing. This was conducted individually via Zoom, where I walked the 5 participants through the mid-fi screens and got their feedback along the way.
Based on the feedback I received from these tests, these were the next steps and iterations I prioritized:
Build out the rest of the profile page to show a complete picture of the information people will have while swiping
Adjust the flow for the plan request flow to skip over the “see plan suggestions” page as well as the “individual connection page”
Make it clear that the activity selector, date selector, etc are all multi-select
Add a field to allow the user to set the expiration
Add the response options directly on the first screen for user B
Adjusting the response options down to just 2 - either yes I want to hang out we just need to figure out the details or no I don’t want to hang out
Building a brand and designing the UI around friendship, connection, community, growth, and joy
Color Palette
Typography
Logo Design
Sketches and Initial Ideation
Final Logo
Components
Icons
High-Fidelity Mockup
Determining the usability of the features and the overall flow
Usability Testing Objectives:
Evaluate the ease in which users are able to navigate the app
Evaluate task flows to address any instances which cause user confusion or task abandonment
Receive feedback on the icons in the bottom navigation bar and the meanings of the different activity tag styles
Unmoderated usability test results were overall positive and consistent
Unmoderated usability testing was conducted with 12 participants remotely via Maze
Average 81.25% success rate for each task
Task with the lowest success rate was adding an in-person connection. There was only a 50% success rate for this task
Remaining tasks average 92% success
The icons in the bottom navigation bar caused significant confusion. Only 2 people correctly identified all icons
The activity tags were also a source of confusion to 11/12 participants
The anecdotal feedback was very positive, and 83% of testers said they would use this app if it were available
Iterating on the designs in order to eliminate confusion and clean up the overall look and feel
Based on user feedback, iterations to the navigation, menu, and tags were prioritized
The point in the flow that caused the most confusion for the highest number of participants was how to navigate to the in-person add feature. I solved this by building a way to toggle between the two ways to add a new connection and including that at the top of the screens in this section.
Navigation
Before
After
Most participants were unclear about the meanings of a few of the icons in the bottom menu, so I made some changes in order to better align with what they were expecting.
Bottom Menu Icons
Before
After
Testing showed me that not one person was able to ascertain what the different meanings of the tags were. The diamonds were too similar to icons that denote AI, and the colors were too similar. I changed the tag style to have consistent colors and added an icon that clearly means “mutual like”.
Activity Tags
Before
After
Iterations were also made to the main components with the goal of creating a less cluttered, more sophisticated look
Before
After
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After
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After
Final Iteration
Add a new connection
Send a plan request
Reply to a plan request
Future roadmap ideas for this project would enhance plan suggestions and further encourage quality in-person time
Group planning feature
The ability for a user to include their general availability for plans to enhance scheduling capabilities
Partnerships with local businesses and events allowing them to be directly recommended to people for plan suggestions
Suggestions prioritized using an algorithm that takes into account how long its been since two people have connected and how frequently they meet up
My challenges and biggest lessons
Narrowing the scope of this project in order to complete it within the time constraints was the most challenging aspect
This is a problem I am very passionate about, and after conducting my research I felt like I had endless valuable ideas for solutions. Pinpointing the most relevant ideas and choosing features that could be completed within my time constraints was a really impactful exercise.
The importance of conducting user research before designing solutions is a lesson I will carry forward in my design career
After seeing how backwards my original hypothesis was in regards to which features would be most important, it really drove home to me how important it is to go into user research with a completely open mind. If I hadn’t been willing to let go of my initial thoughts in order to follow the path laid out by the research, I would have ended up with a product that, while theoretically still cool, would not actually meet the main needs of the people I was designing for.
More of my recent work
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