The inception
A friend had an idea to create an app that connects people according to interests, location, and most importantly, a desire to connect with people of like minds. When she mentioned it, I got excited immediately and suggested we build it, even if it reaches just the prototype stage. The next thing to do was to define the product and product goals.
Introduction and Overview
Friendly is for connecting and meeting with friends over mutual interests. Users can find friendships and connections over interests. It’s a good way to reconnect with old friends and is also a great way to find new friends, both locally and globally. Users can have conversations online, but the major focus is connecting and building friendships offline and locally. This is because the entire world is slowly going back to normal after the lockdown caused by the COVID-19, and we figured it will make it easier for people to socialise if they could connect online first.
There will be interest filters for users to search according to interest, locations and date, number of people, time. It is best suited to people who are looking to make new connections and meet people. This is NOT a dating app. It is a friendship for adults, starting from 18 and above.
The app is not meant to replace existing social media, it is to complement them and help sift through the noise.
Product Goals
Friendly should be able to help people connect with others, both locally and globally.
Rekindle old connections and friendships, sustain existing ones.
Expose people to new experiences in their area that may be hard for them to find on their own.
Secondary goals
To help businesses find new customers and maintain an existing customer base.
Potentially have a feature for parents to find playdates & carpool for their kids.
Product features
Reading location is very important.
Online conversation rooms.
Interest bars, where you can search for interests, and subsections of interests,
Request for an "interest" bar to be added.
Profile pages, with location areas, links to other social media, interests, etc.
Badges for acquaintances,(shown interest, similar interests but hasn’t attended any conversation, event with you) new friends(after you’ve held a conversation with the person at least 2 times), close friends(at least ten different conversations), best friends (over 25 different conversations).
Suggest friends based on similar interests and location.
User Personas
The user survey revealed interesting answers and gave additional insight into the thought process of users on the subject of making friends online. Many have made a friend or two online, mostly good experiences. The go-to app for doing that seems to be Twitter, where it is easy to see the mentality and ideas of an individual before deciding to be friends with them. Many would also like to make more finds online if there is some sort of guarantee that it would be productive or build a lasting connection. I used the answers from the survey to create three user personas.
What's next? Brainstorming!