Evaluating Snack's user experience via field research and rapid user testing
Discipline
User Research, Product Thinking
Team
Amy Liao
Krista McDiarmid
Nathan Tanciangco
Role
UX Researcher
Timeline
March - April 2022
Overview
Snack is an iOS dating app for 18-25-year-olds, focusing on short video content with the slogan “not your parents' dating app.”
For a senior Design Evaluation course, my team and I collaborated with Snack to assess its user experience through research, usability reviews, and design recommendations.
As a "video-first" dating service, users upload videos to their profiles, and matches occur when both parties "like" each other's videos, unlocking messaging.
Working with my team, I applied usability methods like field research and rapid user testing to identify reasons for low user engagement on Snack.
Research Goals
Our initial goal was to explore why users might leave the app for conversations and how to keep them engaged and creating content. We opted for a field study to observe long-term usage, as the app’s algorithm requires time to adapt to user preferences.
However, mid-test interviews showed that participants had limited positive experiences due to mismatched expectations, leaving us with little data to answer our original question. This led us to shift our focus to understanding why users lack engagement when interacting with or creating content on the app.
User feedback from participants' interviews
Research Process
To understand the client's objectives, audience, and constraints, we engaged with them via Zoom. These discussions produced insightful information that helped us move our project forward.
I reviewed several online dating platforms such as Tinder, Bumble, and Facebook Dating to evaluate their features, user flows, and layouts.
01
Field Study
For the 2-weeks field study, my team and I used a mixture of surveys and virtual semi-structured interviews to collect data. They were separated into screener surveys, diary entries, pre-test interviews, mid-test interviews, and post-test interviews.
Responses from the screener survey conducted before the start of the field study.
Results of the Screener Survey:
Ideal participants were the target demographic of the Snack app, being adult Gen-Z’s who were aware of using social media and uploading their content
These participants were single and also had previous experience in other dating apps, with an active drive of using dating apps to connect with others
We had three females and two males among our five participants, with three identifying as heterosexual and two as bisexual
We believed that having participants across the sexual spectrum allowed us to understand the diversity of experiences of real users
Notes taken by me during the pre-test interviews.
Learnings:
The pre-test interviews were virtual, semi-structured, and had open-ended questions to allow us to get richer data on the participant's history on dating apps and what their expectations would be for Snack.
Based on the responses, all participants had prior experience of using other dating apps which helped with our research's reliability and validity.
Various diary entry prompts of participants during the 2-weeks study period.
Learnings:
The diary entry prompts of the participants helped us dive deeper into the issues that relate to the Snack app's user experience and its video content. Overall, the selected participants mostly used the app for entertainment, out of curiosity, and were not emotionally invested.
Notes taken by me during the mid-test interviews.
Learnings:
The mid-test interviews helped us gauge the user’s experience with the app after one week of using it. This was semi-structured, similar to the pre-test interview, and I asked open-ended questions. We wanted to understand what the participants did in their process of creating content and talking to other users on the app and gather any significant concerns they had so far.
Notes taken by me during the post-test interviews.
Learnings:
The post-test interviews were aimed to collect qualitative data on the participants' overall experience and final thoughts on the app. I referred back to the previous interviews to see if the participants' expectations at the beginning were met. Based on the responses, the participants mostly did not face any problems with the app's UI but were mostly concerned about the content and felt no connection with the people posting on the app.
02
User Testing
For the rapid user testing, I created a Google form with 16 questions that would take about ten minutes to complete.
The form was sent to a similar demographic of testers and their goal was to go through the Snack app and answer the questions in the form based on their first impressions of the application.
Responses from the rapid user testing survey.
Data Analysis
My team and I used the Affinity Diagramming method to analyze our large sum of qualitative data. I wrote down each idea from the participants’ diary entries as well as their middle and final interviews.
We then clustered the related ideas into different groups and assigned each a thematic label. We identified the root issue for each thematic group from the ideas that were mentioned. Each issue was written down in a separate area. I was able to connect that several groups had the same root issue through this process.
Affinity Diagramming for rapid user testing and field study.
RESULTS+RECOMMENDATIONS
01. Issue:
Branding + Marketing
Users were generally unclear about the app's purpose and whom they might meet on it, largely due to a lack of clear definition regarding Snack's target audience.
Recommendation
Redefine the target audience and their goals. For example, Gen-Z users enjoy concerts but seek long-term relationships.
When users have a clear understanding of the app's purpose before using it, they are less likely to experience unmet expectations, which can otherwise lead to a negative perception of the app.
02. Issue:
Random Content
Participants found the content too random or low effort, leading to a lack of engagement and quickly losing interest in Snack.
Recommendation
Develop content guidelines to suggest what users should post, encouraging higher-quality content creation.
Introduce separate search functions for profiles and hashtags. Differentiating between profile hashtags and content hashtags would allow users to search specifically for profiles or videos that interest them.
03. Issue:
Lack of onboarding
Participants were unaware of Snack's content creation feature and only uploaded content from their gallery, and were unclear about the 'liking' system during their first week.
Recommendation
Add an onboarding phase when setting up the user’s account.
Reflection
This 4-week-long project motivated me to explore and learn new things in the field of UX. I learned different UX research methods that I can apply to other projects and while designing something of my own.
The project helped me step out of my comfort zone such as interviewing participants, keeping them engaged, and describing the impact of their responses to the client. Overall, I am grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the Snack team and give design recommendations that may help increase app users once implemented!