MOBILE APP DESIGN
Empowering Authentic Friendships through Digital Solution
Amigo is a friendship app designed to help adults overcome the challenges of forming meaningful connections by matching users through shared interests, values, and experiences. Focused on inclusivity and user-centric design, the app fosters lasting, platonic relationships and combats social disconnection in an increasingly isolating world.
Background
Amigo was inspired by the growing challenges adults face in forming meaningful connections, particularly in new cultural environments. By addressing barriers to friendship formation and prioritizing inclusivity, the app seeks to redefine platonic relationships and foster lasting, authentic bonds.
Adults often struggle to build meaningful friendships due to limited solutions that foster genuine, platonic connections, leading to feelings of isolation.
Challenges in a New Environment
Relocating to a new place often disrupts existing social networks, leaving individuals struggling to form new friendships.
Social Anxiety and Introversion
For introverts and those with social anxiety, initiating conversations and forming connections can feel overwhelming, creating barriers to building friendships.
Difficulty Forming Adult Friendships
Busy lifestyles and fewer organic social opportunities make it harder for adults to establish and maintain meaningful relationships.
Lack of Dedicated Platforms for Platonic Bonds
Existing apps often cater to romantic or professional relationships, neglecting the unique needs of those seeking genuine, platonic connections.
Concerns About Safety and Authenticity
Users hesitate to engage due to fears of interacting with unverified profiles or encountering misuse of the platform for unintended purposes.
Struggles in Connecting with Like-Minded Individuals
Challenges in finding and bonding with like-minded people were a common barrier, particularly for introverts, immigrants, and individuals navigating social anxiety.
Prioritizing Platonic Connections
Unlike other apps focused on romantic or professional connections, Amigo is dedicated to fostering genuine, platonic friendships by providing features specifically designed for this purpose.
Conversation Support
Incorporating AI-powered ice-breakers and tools to ease social anxiety and facilitate engaging conversations to ensure a comfortable environment to build connections.
Ensuring User Safety and Authenticity
With robust user verification and privacy features, Amigo guarantees a secure platform where users can connect confidently, knowing their profiles are authentic and protected from misuse.
Personalized Matching Algorithm
Amigo’s matching algorithm prioritizes shared interests and experiences, Including detailed profiles, helping users find and bond with others who share similar passions, making it easier to form meaningful, long-lasting friendships.
Diverse User Features
Offering features like group activity planning and small gathering options to make in-person interactions comfortable and natural., games, and event options also to cater to various user preferences and enrich the overall experience.
My Design Process
For Amigo, I followed a human-centered design approach using Agile methodology. This allowed for flexibility and iterative improvements throughout the process, incorporating feedback from A/B testing during the design phase to refine solutions.
Goals & Objectives
This research aimed to uncover the motivations behind seeking friendship solutions, analyze successful strategies employed by existing platforms, and explore historical barriers to forming meaningful connections. By understanding user needs, preferences, and past challenges, the goal was to design a comprehensive, user-centric solution that addresses pain points and fosters genuine, lasting friendships.
Based on the goals & objective above, I curated survey questions filled with both qualitative & quantitative questions to gain a deeper understanding of user needs and pain points,
Affinity Mapping
Using the survey, I created an affinity map to uncover patterns and group related themes, helping to identify the research insights below:
Research showed that the primary user demographic for the app is young adults specifically those aged 18 to 34 years.
From Research, recent immigrants, introverts and people who struggle with social anxiety are our main target audience. While these groups are the app’s primary focus, Extroverts will also find value in the platform. Specific features cater to the needs of these groups to ensure a diverse and inclusive space for all users.
Research showed that respondents typically have 1-2 friends and would like to expand their social circle to include 3-5 close friends..
Research identified that respondents revealed challenges in making friends in the past. For many, the main issue was connecting with like-minded individuals and navigating social anxiety.
The feature that prioritizes matching users based on similar interests is strongly preferred by respondents, demonstrating a high demand for this function on the platform.
Research showed a strong interest in using friendship apps, though users were cautious about potential misuse for romance. To address this, our app highlights its focus on platonic connections through clear communication, strict community guidelines, profile verification, and features that foster safe, authentic interactions.
Users prefer starting meaningful conversations online before transitioning to in-person interactions, emphasizing the importance of both virtual and real-life connections.
To ensure the solution addressed the root of the problem, I employed the 5 Whys technique and the WH method to come up with Amigo's "Problem Statement". This approach allowed me to dig deeper into the survey insights and research data, unraveling the underlying causes behind users’ struggles to form meaningful connections. By asking the right questions and exploring why and how these issues exist, I was able to craft a clear and focused problem statement.
Problem Statement
Introverts, immigrants, and those navigating social anxiety often face challenges in forming genuine friendships due to personality traits and communication barriers that aren’t fully acknowledged on most social platforms. This gap in understanding leads to a lack of spaces designed for authentic, platonic connections. Amigo bridges this gap by offering an inclusive platform tailored to introverts’ unique needs, while also being accessible to anyone seeking meaningful friendships through a personalized matching algorithm and supportive design.
Using insights from primary and secondary research, I developed user personas to represent Amigo's target groups. These data-driven personas capture key demographics, goals, and pain points, ensuring the design solutions were user-centered.
Based on the user personas, I created user stories to capture the specific needs and expectations of each target group. These user stories helped guide the design process by ensuring features and functionality were aligned with user goals and pain points.
I analyzed four key competitors to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for Amigo. This helped refine Amigo's unique features and ensure it offers a valuable, differentiated experience for users. For example, where other apps lacked privacy features or felt impersonal, Amigo emphasized security and authenticity.
Here are the Similarities & Differences from the Competitive Analysis:
Here are the Key Learnings & Opportunities from the Competitive Analysis:
With a clear understanding through research and insights gathered from the competitive analysis, I conducted an evaluation of Amigo’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This analysis highlighted where Amigo excels and where there’s room for growth, shaping the next steps for enhancing the app’s user experience and aligning it with the needs of the target audience.
Amigo's UVP; Your Haven for Meaningful Connections. We provide a supportive space for individuals to forge authentic friendships.
While brainstorming potential solutions for Amigo, many ideas came to mind. However, to ensure the design remained focused and aligned with user needs, it was crucial for me to prioritize features.
I used a combination of methods, including user feedback, surveys, personas, competitive analysis, and the KANO and MoSCoW frameworks, to shape Amigo’s MVP and finalize feature prioritization.
Prioritized Features
Interest-based Matching: Matches users based on shared factors to foster meaningful friendships.
AI Ice-breakers: Helps users with social anxiety by providing conversation starters, and analyzes input for better matching.
Privacy & Safety: User verification (e.g., ID checks) ensures secure, authentic connections.
Text Communication: Encourages online chats before in-person meetups for familiarity and comfort.
Profile Creation: Users showcase interests, hobbies, and playlists to improve match accuracy.
Games: Interactive games help users bond over shared interests.
Accessibility: Features like voice recording for a more inclusive experience.
Events: Facilitates participation in group activities to foster connections.
Small Group Meet-ups: Allows users to opt for intimate gatherings (2-5 people) for more comfortable interactions.
To ensure Amigo’s features were easy to navigate and access, I designed a clear and scalable Information Architecture. By aligning content with user needs, I streamlined the user journey, making it intuitive from onboarding through to connecting with others.
Card Sorting
To refine Amigo’s information architecture, I conducted open and closed card sorting. Open sorting revealed how users naturally categorize information, while closed sorting validated predefined categories, ensuring an intuitive structure aligned with user expectations.
Sitemap
I created a site map to visually map out Amigo’s main sections, ensuring that key features were easy to access and navigate. This helped with organizing the content flow and allowing for smooth user interactions across the app.
User Flows
I also developed User Flows to map the key actions users take within the app, from creating a profile to connecting with others. These flows were critical in eliminating friction and creating a seamless experience throughout the app.
To visualize Amigo's layout and functionality, I created Low Fidelity Wireframes for key screens, prioritizing user flow and simplicity. These allowed me to test ideas quickly, ensuring that the structure and interactions aligned with the user needs before moving on to higher-fidelity designs.
I created a style guide to ensure consistency and reflect Amigo’s values of inclusivity and authenticity. It outlines typography, grid, colours, icons, and UI components, maintaining clarity and harmony across the design.
Here are they in a slideshow/carousel:
Here are the UI COMPONENTS (Design System):
Creating the high-fidelity mockups was a challenging but rewarding step. While I’m confident in UI, translating abstract ideas into polished visuals required creativity and iteration. Through these mockups, I brought Amigo’s vision to life, making the app feel tangible and user-ready.
Onboarding Screens
The onboarding screens were designed to give users a quick preview of what Amigo is all about. I started with illustrations but felt that using real images might feel more genuine and relatable. To make sure this matched what users wanted, I ran a quick A/B test, and it turned out images did the job better than illustrations. So, I went with that!
Homepage
The profile browsing screens were designed to provide users with essential details at a glance, while maintaining a clean, engaging layout. Every interaction, from swiping to exploring detailed profiles, aims to create a seamless and enjoyable experience for discovering potential connections.
Other Screens
The profile browsing screens were designed to provide users with essential details at a glance, while maintaining a clean, engaging layout. Every interaction, from swiping to exploring detailed profiles, aims to create a seamless and enjoyable experience for discovering potential connections.
Here are the UI COMPONENTS:
Here, the outcomes and achievements of the project are highlighted, including user feedback, adoption rates, and industry recognition.
Increased Efficiency
Users report significant time savings and improved productivity through optimized scheduling recommendations.
Positive User Feedback
High user satisfaction ratings and positive reviews highlight the app's intuitive interface and powerful AI capabilities.
Growing User Base
The app quickly gained traction among individuals and businesses worldwide, with a steady increase in user adoption and engagement.
With the high-fidelity mockups in place, it was time to ensure that Amigo’s design would resonate with users and function seamlessly. I conducted usability testing to validate the design choices, assess user interactions, and uncover potential pain points. The goal was to refine Amigo's user experience based on real feedback and ensure the app effectively meets the needs of its users.
Using the Prototype
Here, the outcomes and achievements of the project are highlighted, including user feedback, adoption rates, and industry recognition.
Increased Efficiency
Users report significant time savings and improved productivity through optimized scheduling recommendations.
Positive User Feedback
High user satisfaction ratings and positive reviews highlight the app's intuitive interface and powerful AI capabilities.
Growing User Base
The app quickly gained traction among individuals and businesses worldwide, with a steady increase in user adoption and engagement.
Here, the outcomes and achievements of the project are highlighted, including user feedback, adoption rates, and industry recognition.
Through this journey, Amigo evolved into a platform that doesn’t just connect people but fosters meaningful relationships. Its thoughtful features, user-friendly design, and inclusivity make it a haven for anyone seeking authentic friendships, regardless of their background or personality type.
Amigo stands out in a crowded market by addressing the nuances of social connection. It’s not just an app; it’s a movement—a space where introverts, immigrants, extroverts, and everyone in between can find their tribe and thrive.
While the app isn't live Here are metrics & KPIs to be measured: Amigo stands out in a crowded market by addressing the nuances of social connection. It’s not just an app; it’s a movement—a space where introverts, immigrants, extroverts, and everyone in between can find their tribe and thrive.
Increased Efficiency
Users report significant time savings and improved productivity through optimized scheduling recommendations.
Positive User Feedback
High user satisfaction ratings and positive reviews highlight the app's intuitive interface and powerful AI capabilities.
Growing User Base
The app quickly gained traction among individuals and businesses worldwide, with a steady increase in user adoption and engagement.
While the app isn't live, these are the metrics and KPIs I would measure to track its impact and success:
User Acquisition:
Monthly sign-ups and growth (organic vs. paid).
CPA(Cost Per Acquisition) and user demographics for optimized targeting.
User Engagement:
Active user rate (daily/weekly/monthly).
Average session duration and feature usage (games, meetups, events).
Retention & Revenue:
Retention after 1, 7, and 30 days.
Churn and upgrade rates from free to premium plans.
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), and in-app purchases.
User Satisfaction:
Ratings, reviews, and NPS.
Support resolution speed.
Growth Strategies:
Referral rates and community engagement in features like events and games.