Introduction
1.1 Problem Statement
The following report was requested to document the design and implementation of “YUPPTY “dating app. The purpose of this cross browser and mobile app is to allow users sign up to our dating service using google or social media but to give them full control of their profile to even remain anonymous if they wish or just limit the content shown. Although the online dating world has become far more socially acceptable there are a large portion of potential customers still apprehensive to use online dating for varying reasons.
1.2 Project Objectives
This project aims to deliver a dating app platform for Android, Apple and a web app which will provide online dating services. Based on other online dating providers and research carried out online the following services could be included:
- Date Maps: With capability to overlay additional data with what’s on in the local area based on similar interests.
- Directory: Authenticated and access controlled via Firebase.
- News /Events: News and event listings across all campus (including Employability)
- Library: View, reserve, renew, review status (likely to link to new library web system)
- Notifications: Push notifications and alerts
- Timetables: Personalised course and exam timetables
- Promotions: Campus-wide messaging and promotions
- SRS: Personal information including courses and grades
- VLE: Personalised course information, reading lists
Pocket guide: Pocket guide to Exeter University services structured from Student Learning Partnership principles
The final list of services to be delivered, as well as the full range of supported devices, will be prioritised because of market research and work with stakeholders, but will deliver in the first instance the pocket guide, campus maps, directory, news and events and timetables.
The app will need to be able to take account of some local variations in these services according to Campus.
• Note that we will require that the app provider supports integration with Mobile Device Management (MDM) software which provides functionality to remotely wipe the device if necessary, i.e. to remotely remove all personal data downloaded via one of these services from the device. In the event that this proves impossible, no services that rely on the storage of sensitive data on the device will be provided, for example personal data.
2. OVERVIEW
Business Need
This project will provide an enhanced student (and potentially staff) experience which will:
- Meet student expectations of a world class University, particularly in light of the rise in student fees
- Keep pace with our competitor institutions who already provide a student app
- Improve communication by providing an additional mode of communication delivering notifications and up-to-date information through a channel increasingly preferred by most students
- Provide instant access to personalised information such as timetabling, library and course information
- Reduce the load on public PC clusters by students accessing some information by their smartphone, eg. the library catalogue and campus information
- Provide an additional communication medium to support other traditional methods such as My Exeter, website etc
Exeter is committed to putting students at the heart of all we do and to the highest standards of customer and service excellence. In all other spheres of their lives students transact via mobile technology – their university experience should be no different.
Primary deliverables are as follows:
- User Interface
- Wireframes
- Welcome Screen and home screen
- Registration and authorisation
- Firebase database
- Firebase hosting
- Beta Version
- Testing – User testing
- Submission & Publishing
- Maintenance & Support
3. SCOPE
Procurement of a solution which will provide:
Delivery of a single user facing native app and web app with personalised links to university student systems, and with a focus on services that are specifically useful within a mobile context. Initially the app will deliver content, news, maps and personalised timetables, but will be extensible to include (but not be limited to) libraries, Student Information Desk (SID) and SITS and other systems.
- Native app available for smartphone platforms: Apple and Android
- Web app available for Blackberry users and those who do not have a smartphone
All Exeter University campuses (Streatham, St Luke’s and Tremough) with equivalent service (where systems allow) for Cornwall and Exeter students
Initially for current students, but extendible to service the mobile needs of any and all of Exeter’s stakeholders (dependent on ongoing budget) and would be accessible to prospective students
Personalised push notifications for students but this will need to be managed and not be in addition to SMS text messaging
4. DEVELOPMENT PLAN
- Brand Design
- IT architect
- Developer
I will undertake all roles within the project.
4.1 TEAM ASSIGNMENTS
Name of team / Team goals / Team leads & Roles
- Concept – Create solid concept/address potential problems xxx
- Research – Business Plan/Strategy xxx
- Design – Create Branding/Logo xxx
- Development – Coding xxx
- Implementation – Final project development xxx
4.2 TEAM ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Design – Responsible for the research and design of the branding and logo. Research will be required to ensure correct colour schemes and contemporary design is used.
- Research – Responsible for research into projected costs. Will be responsible for researching unfilled niches which we could potentially occupy. Will also look at the most cost-effective development strategies how competitors utilize features and functions to gain momentum within the saturated dating site arena.
- Development – Responsible for the coding and evolution of the initial design into fully functioning web site. Will liaise with design team and management regularly.
- Implementation – Team will be responsible for testing, hosting and launch. Will be responsible for data migration, consistency and quality assurance.
4.3 RISKS AND ISSUES MANAGEMENT
4.3.1 POTENTIAL EXCEPTIONS AND PROBLEMS
- Loss of team members
- Costs Rise
- Time constraints
- Iteration runs over time allocated
- Hardware breakdown
4.3.1 APPROPRIATE CORRECTIVE MEASURES
Loss of team members: Condense responsibilities and consolidate roles. Streamline launch site postponing any non-essential functions until after launch
5. DESIGN / BACKGROUND
5.1 PROJECT DEVELOPMENT STEPS
Given the lack of man power on the project, the need for adaptability and the tight deadline, traditional project management would not be effective, and an agile approach was considered far more efficient. I was undertaking the project alone therefore I coded and wrote the project report simultaneously and adapted and evolved each as the project progressed. I focused on the most important features first the features I felt would benefit the site by increasing revenue quickly and growing the market share. I would incorporate lessons learned from each stage and from other modules into the project. I cannot identify any agile methods as I had no team to work with, so I intuitively developed each stage of the process. As for the actual site itself I used a method with would be considered evolutionary prototyping. Again, as I had no team to confer with I simply evolved the design as I went continually refining the design until I was happy.
5.2 BUDGET AND PROJECTED COST
We are starting the project with a budget of £30,000 – £35,000 which we believe will give us an excess of around £5000- £7000 for any unforeseen expenses.
Market Research
We have set a budget of £6000 which having researched some of the best available options, will give us access to some of the below services.
- Experian caters to 100,000 business-to-business clients and specialises in online consumer data. Its entry-level package, which mainly covers web habits, is priced at £8,000.
- Kantar Media provides media-specific intelligence. It charges £5,000 as a price guide.
- AC Nielsen counts Google and Facebook among its clients. The company’s fee for a single-month study (inclusive of raw data, presentation and commentary) is £5,500. A year-to-date trend report costs an additional £3,000.
- Data monitor, a business information specialist, prepares extensive reports for £2,197.
- Synovitis, which covers all kinds of research methods, prices entry-level packages at $15,000.
- Ipsos MORI does online surveys, focus groups and telephone interviews. Rates for an online survey begin at £1,000.
- Vision One Research carries out both quantitative and qualitative research. An online survey will cost £700 and an in-depth interview about £1,500 per day.
- IFF Research is a full-service market research firm. Prices for a survey range anywhere between £100 to £1,200, depending on the questions and response rate.
- The Futures Company has qualitative research packages that cost £700 or higher per day.
Hosting and Domain Name
Projected cost of £18.00 – £150.00 per month
We expect the budget for this to grow towards the higher end of the scale as our online presence grows and business expands. The higher end of the budget is based on research of popular hosting companies GoDaddy, Dream host and Bluehost, with the bigger packages offering dedicated servers which we predict will become essential.
Logo and Branding Design
External Agency Cost: £30 – £2000
This could be done in house
Development Team
£3000 – £15000
We predict a team consisting of at least project manager a UI/UX designer, minimum of two developers, backend developer and a quality assurance engineer. Possibly admin panel designer, 4 iOS or Android developers (per platform).
Testing
We researched several online crowd sourcing usability testing sites and found packages ranging from £40 – £1000 per month to $69 per participant.
5.3 RESEARCH INTO ONLINE DATING
Below I used Datingsitereviews.com to gather information from the past two years. This included all major competitors and statistics about user preferences and behaviours I feel should be taken into consideration when developing this project.
Online Dating Services 2018
- Badoo – Owned by Badoo Trading Limited
- Bumble – Owned by Bumble Trading Inc.
- Coffee Meets Bagel – Owned by Coffee Meets Bagel/SOMA Central
- Chemistry – Owned by Match Group Inc (which is owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC))
- Christian Mingle – Owned by Spark Networks
- eHarmony – Owned by eHarmony Inc. – Includes information about Compatible Partners
- FriendFinder.com – Owned by FriendFinder Networks – Includes information about other FriendFinder dating sites
- Facebook – Owned by Facebook Inc.
- Grindr – Owned by Beijing Kunlun Tech
- Happn – Owned by FTW & Co
- JDate – Owned by Spark Networks
- Match.com – Match Group Inc (which is owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC)) – Also includes general information about Match Group
- OkCupid – Match Group Inc (which is owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC)
- POF.com (Plenty Of Fish) – Owned by Plentyoffish Media Inc. (which is owned by Match Group)
- Tinder – Match Group Inc (which is owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC))
- Zoosk – Owned by Zoosk Inc.
Out of Business 2018
- Date.com – Owned by Avalanche, LLC – Includes information about Matchmaker.com and Amor
- Spark.com – Owned by Spark Networks – Also includes general information about Spark Networks
- Yahoo! Personals – Owned by Yahoo Inc. (partnered now with Match.com)
2018 DATA
General Information
- 46% of dating app users met their current partner online.
- Men are 4% more likely than women to fall in love and get married when meeting through a dating app.
- 52% of online daters admitted that dating apps have made them more judgmental of people’s looks.
- 49 million people from the United States have tried online dating.
Online Scams
- Romance scam victims in the United States and Canada have reported losing nearly $1 billion in the last three years.
- On average there are 25,000 scammers online with victims at any one time.
- A company that screens profiles for dating companies says that 500,000 of the 3.5 million profiles it scans every month are fraudulent.
- It is estimated that there may be more than a million victims of romance scams in the United States.
- According to the FBI the greatest dollar loss of any scam that affects individuals is investment fraud, second is romance fraud.
In a study of dating apps by Ogury it was found:
- Men are twice as active on dating apps than women.
- According to a study most dating apps uninstalls occur within the first day of usage.
- Thursday proved to be the busiest day on dating apps across most countries.
- California has the worst male to female ratio on dating apps (77.8% male to 22.2% female) while Wyoming is the most balanced state (63.5% male, 36.5% female).
United States
With the passage of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) Craigslist has decided to shut down their Personals Section in the United States.
China
12 Chinese dating apps run by 21 firms in China have been shut down amid allegations of fraud for using bots posing as women.
United States
- In order Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, West Virginia, Connecticut, Minnesota, and New Jersey came out on top as the safest states for online dating.
- Only 1.6% of 18-26-year-olds who are on dating apps pay for premium services.
- In 2017 revenue is expected to be over $3 billion for US companies. The annual growth rate from 2012 to 2017 is 5.3%.
- There are 6,747 companies in the dating business who employee 9,592 people in the United States.
- It is estimated that Match Groups market share (includes Match.com, Tinder, OkCupid, POF, etc..) to be 25.7%. In second place is eHarmony with 12%.
United Kingdom
- Half of British singles have never asked someone out on a date face to face, only online.
- 46% of singles had never broken up with someone in person, it was done online or via texting.
- 25% felt dating apps allowed them to feel more comfortable and to be themselves in dating scenarios.
Australia
- Every year Australian singles spend $11.65 billion on dating.
- Australians spend an average of $79 on a first date, with one third of singles going on at least one first date per month, and a further 32% going on two or more first dates per month.
- 18% of Australians have paid for dating services, this works out to $80.7 million each year.
India
New regulations will require dating websites to keep IP address records and require users to upload documents proving their identity.
China
- China revises cybersecurity law which now requires dating services to have users to sign up with their phone numbers, which are linked to citizen’s national ID numbers.
- 26% of singles think it’s a turn-on if you’re not on social media at all.
- Millennials are 70% more likely to think it’s hot if you’re binge-watching the same TV shows.
- The biggest tech turn-offs are constant social media activity (50%) and complaining openly on Facebook (58%).
- 62% of singles said they prefer to eat a heartier dish on a date, while 38% percent said they prefer a lighter meal.
- The average unmarried American spent $1,596 on their dating life in 2016. $1,855 for men and $1,423 for women.
- 35% of online daters say “I love you” within the first three months of being in a relationship, compared to 30% of offline daters.
- People who date online are likely to have more committed relationships than those who do not date online.
6.2 PROTOTYPE
Approximately halfway through the original project time line a difference of opinion meant I was unable to continue working with the team and had to undertake a new project on my own from scratch. The only way the project could be finished on time would be to begin with an existing HTML5 template and expand upon this. I started with a free HTML5 template offered on W3 schools which I felt was in line with my vision for the dating site.
I felt keeping the design to a minimum uncluttered would give the user quick learnability. Having tested the design on several users in person it was clear this worked well as feedback was positive as they felt it was easy to navigate, it was efficient and easy to memorise the layout.
6.3 PROTOTYPE SCREENSHOTS
Home Page
Latest User Area
7. CRITICAL APPRAISAL
This project provided a steep learning curve in the development process. I was part of a team doing a research project and halfway through I found myself having to begin completely afresh and doing a completely different project in the dating site. This gave me valuable insight into the process involved in creating and developing a web app. From the initial concept, researching and constructing a business plan quickly while keeping to the project parameters. My skills with Firebase were greatly improved and I gained a better understanding of hosting and deploying a website and using a comprehensive method of . I gained very valuable knowledge on the costs involved in creating a web site and the actual core team of people needed to undertake such a task. For future reference I learned transferable skills such as research and time management. Even the negative experience of the initial team failing to work well together and having to start over has taught me lessons in practicing patience towards working with younger team members in future. In terms of creating a web site I now know more about usability, learnability, refining designs and using tools such as Gannt charts. I had no real knowledge of agile processes either. I would ideally have liked to have more time on the project as I feel I could have done a much better job on the final product. I would have added more pages and a lot more functionality to the site, however I believe with the time I had under the circumstances the project was acceptable.
8. REFERENCES
- Bronnenberg, B. J., Dubé, J.-P., & Gentzkow, M. (2012). The Evolution of Brand Preferences: Evidence from Consumer Migration. The American Economic Review, 102(6), 2472-2508. Retrieved 7 6, 2018, from http://nber.org/papers/w16267
- Ferriss, T. (n.d.). How to Build an App Empire: Can You Create The Next Instagram? Retrieved 7 6, 2018, from FourHourWorkWeek.com: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2012/04/22/how-to-build-an-app-empire-can-you-create-the-next-instagram/
- How to Start a Startup. (n.d.). Retrieved 7 6, 2018, from Paul Graham: http://paulgraham.com/start.html
- Pol, M. (2015). App icon preferences : the influence of app icon design and involvement on quality and intention to download. Retrieved 7 6, 2018, from http://essay.utwente.nl/67044
- Think Mobiles.com: How to make a dating app Retrieved 01/07/2018. https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/how-make-dating-app/
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