Our core feature that sets Facets different from other dating apps is having a multi-faceted profile. The user fills out information and prompts to create one page for their profile. When they invite their friends to the app to contribute to their profile, their friends would fill out prompts and upload pictures on their end that would save as a separate page on the user's profile. This way, a person can have multiple pages (can be swiped left and right to view) that showcase different sides and perspectives of their personality, making their presentation more authentic and community-based.
Properly establishing yourself on Facets is a crucial component in finding a match. We set up the account creation process to be guided with a progress bar letting the user know what step they are on and what they can expect next. The account creation flow is broken up into two major sections: the first section with vital information like name, birthday, gender identity, pronouns, what gender and age range the user is interested in, living location, and employment situation. The second section is centered on Facets-related content where the user answers three prompts to feature on the profile, uploads pictures, and is able to invite friends to help fill a page of prompts about them for their profile. The guided approach stresses the importance of the questions and paces the user to be thoughtful about what they input.
Since we were a small team wearing many hats, I helped the designers and developers program some of the components and features of the app to have updated styles on the front-end side. The final product well reflects our final prototype–creating an account, beveled edges on profile cards, the ability to scroll vertically on profiles and horizontally to flip through different facets, and the ability to refresh the page to see a new set of people.
The final product is something we're proud of– 6 months of perfecting a gem-themed app for people to make true connections. Through this project I've learned of the great value that is understanding your user. Surveying people of our target audience and learning what are motivators for finding a relationship in the online dating scene really helped us shape our features and build our product. Working on Facets also encouraged me to seek out jobs to work on where help is needed when I don't have as many tasks on my plate. Since we had short deadlines, I helped where I saw help was needed–with the design team to brainstorm UI elements, with development and front-end programming, and with content management to ensure everything was ready to go for both the designers and development side to integrate.
