disrupting mobile dating apps - a sourcebits case study
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DISRUPTING THE DATING SCENEA Case Study
BACKGROUND• 40 million Americans today use online dating
• 5% of all Americans currently married or in a
long-term relationship met their partner
online
• Among couples together for 10 years or
less, 11% met online
twineiOS, Android
twine canvas
iOS
2
But the digital world of dating inevitably comes with real-world problems that singles need to navigate.
Dozens of dating apps compete for users, but the vast majority have a photo-centric approach that emphasize physical
appearance. In 2013, Spoonjuice, a repeat client, asked Sourcebits to build a new dating app that would innovate the
space. It all started with a simple question…
3
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
Spoonjuice asked Sourcebits:
How can a dating app help people meet better matches?
Our answers – twine & twine canvas
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
CLIENT
REQUIREMENTS
Both apps feature ICE, a
proprietary feature which provides
conversation ideas based on a
match’s interests.
★ Create a unique personality-first experience to
connect interesting strangers.
★ Help people overcome the hurdle of starting new
conversations.
★ Generate global interest at launch and beyond to
drive downloads.
★ Create a second app with more visual content
that allows users to self-select interesting
matches.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
★Create a unique personality-first experience to connect interesting strangers.
★Help people overcome the hurdle of starting new conversations.
★Generate global interest at launch and beyond to drive downloads.
★Create a second app with more visual content that allows users to self-select matches.
“ For people who might be turned off by the superficialness of the Tinder app, there’s Twine Canvas, a dating app for iOS that connects users with people based on their interests. ”
CLIENT
REQUIREMENTS
SOURCEBITS SOLUTIONSStrategy
We flipped the old “meat market”
model on its head to focus on
personality first and improving in-
app conversations.
Design
We designed both app interfaces
to be visually rich and fun, with an
intense focus on delightful user
experiences.
Development
Our agile development process
and close collaboration with
design allowed for rapid
prototyping and iteration.
Launch Marketing
From user acquisition and web
design to media outreach and
email marketing, we covered the
launch spectrum.
Analytics
We built a rich data analysis
platform for user behaviors and
marketing acquisition. Data has
driven the product roadmap.
Monetization
Based on user feedback and
competitive analysis, Sourcebits
identified an in-app purchase
opportunity for twine.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
A TALE OF TWO TWINESSpoonjuice launched twine (the first
intellectual flirting app) for iOS and
Android in July 2013.
The App Store featured twine at
launch in the “What’s New” category. A
flurry of media attention and user
acquisition efforts resulted in 200,000+
downloads. Users reported having
more interesting conversations and
meeting cool people. Spoonjuice then
decided to expand its matchmaking
portfolio.
After Sourcebits conducted
extensive user testing and
analyzed app data, Spoonjuice
asked us to build another dating
app in less than 3 months.
The goal: focus still on personality,
but create a more engaging,
interactive and visual experience -
like Instagram. Spoonjuice
launched twine canvas (express
yourself to meet interesting people)
for iOS in January 2014.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
How twine works
★ Sign in through Facebook.
★ Set gender, age and location filters.
★ Twine algorithm connects local matches based on similar interests.
★ People see a blurry profile image along with interests while chatting.
★ Users stay anonymous until they choose to reveal their pictures.
Key features
★ No profile creation necessary, just sign into Facebook.
★ Matching algorithm based on interests and proximity.
★ Icebreaker provides conversation starters based on interests.
★ In-app purchase to get more than 3 matches within a set time period.
★ Available on iOS and Android.
twine
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
This image inspired the color palette update for Twine in April 2014. By clashing a hot yellow with a cold blue, it turns the blue warm.
The home screen has just 5 elements, with a clear information hierarchy and super-simple user experience.
In addition to clicking on the profile button, a swipe from the home screen reveals the profile screen for easy editing.
The chat button turns yellow when a user has new matches or messages.
The “Find New Twine” button doubles as a progress bar. Similar to energy/life meters in gaming, the button starts completely filled with blue and depletes with each match made during a session. This lends a subtle playfulness and urgency to the experience - get a good match before the bar runs out.
Twine’s logo features prominently on the home screen to enforce branding. It also serves as a “portal” to meet matches. When loading, it turns into a radar detector, then briefly spins to pull the user in to reveal a match. By placing it like a sun rising on the color horizon line of the background, it feels like a source of energy.
DESIGNING
TWINE
DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE
★ Chat requires many pieces: push notifications, real-time chat, tracking delivery and tracking read. We built Twine’s chat with the XMPP Chat solution from Process One.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
★ ICE, a patent-pending solution developed by Sourcebits, analyzes profile interests to generate real-language conversation starters.
★ To ensure privacy, Twine encrypts all images and private user information. Sourcebits used OAuth and SSL to protect network transmissions.
★ Sourcebits developed, tested and optimized a unique matching algorithm - the primary feature of Twine.
★ Every element of the app has been tested and optimized for speed and fidelity to enhance the user experience.
Engineering Challenges & Wins
How twine canvas works
★ Swipe to browse the gallery of personality canvases.
★ Sign in with Facebook to like interesting canvases.
★ Express yourself by creating a 5-image canvas reflecting interests.
★When two people like each other’s canvases, the app reveals names and profile photos to connect them.
★ Start chatting with people you find mutually interesting and attractive.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
twine canvasKey features
★ Simple photo collage creation to express personality.
★ Left-right swiping to browse through “cards” in the gallery; swipe down to like, swipe up to hide.
★ Social sharing of personality canvases, including a Twitter card.
★ Easy invitations to join across social network accounts.
★ Supports iOS6 and iOS7.
While the in-app palette uses a muted green and calm orange, Sourcebits went with a hot pinkish-red icon to create a striking visual that stands out in the App Store and on-screen. By straddling pink and red, it appeals to both men and women.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
DESIGNING TWINE
CANVASCreating a personality canvas might be intimidating for users, so Sourcebits made it very simple and predictable. We built collage editing tools with well-known actions within the iOS ecosystem: 2 fingers to rotate, pinch to shrink/expand, tap and hold to drag and tap to bring images forward/back. Because it speaks to the user’s muscle memory, the intuitive experience doesn’t require a tutorial and people get instant gratification.
The stack shows there’s more to discover. Layers have a vertical orientation to create a sense of “hanging” on a wall - like a gallery.
The gallery is very flat and white to frame the canvases and keep visual focus on user generated content.
Collages use a limit of 5 images to avoid overloading the system and to keep creation simple. The app encourages users to keep their faces out of the collage.
The app automatically adds a subtle shadow to the images, which enhances the visual appeal and depth to the canvases.
DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE★ Valentine’s Day was a big
timing factor for Spoonjuice marketing. To get Twine Canvas into the App Store in time, Sourcebits had just 6 weeks to develop the new iOS app. While cache and chat ported from Twine, everything else was built from scratch.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
★ To ensure users have a seamless experience and don’t get a “loading” message, Twine Canvas calculates how quickly a user is swiping through the gallery images to determine how many canvases should be pre-loaded.
★ The canvas creation tools built upon an existing library of common interactions to provide an intuitive experience. The magic wand tool required building a set of pre-defined canvas layouts based on the number, size and orientation of images.
★ The analytics platform Sourcebits built combines services from Omniata and HasOffers. With 19 user attributes, 72 events and 174 parameters, the app data provides tremendous context and flexibility for user segmentation and detailed product analysis.
Engineering Challenges & Wins
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
AGILE PROCESSOur agile process
allows us to rapidly
make changes, refine
features, adjust the user
experience and modify
the design. Working in
2-week development
sprints, each iteration
brings the product
closer to completion.
LAUNCH STRATEGYBranding & Marketing
When it comes to mobile
marketing, user acquisition is
essential. That’s where we
laser-focused most of our
efforts for twine and twine
canvas, handling all the email
marketing, paid acquisition
planning, web content, social
media, app branding, user
analytics and testing, public
relations, and App Store
Optimization.
Promotional Website
For this project, our team
pulled out the big guns in our
extensive web design arsenal.
We used a combination of
SAS, Compass, CSS
animation, HTML 5 and Ruby
on Rails. Some nifty jQuery
delivers the site’s beautiful
parallax scrolling. We also
ensured image optimization
and a responsive, smooth site
across all devices.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
Click Screen to Visit twine.me
APP STORE OPTIMIZATION
twine#2 app for "flirting" and "flirting app"
Our ASO efforts after launch took twine out of obscurity in
the app stores. On the Google Play Store, twine moved
from not ranking in search results at all to ranking in every
targeted category.
twine canvas#1 for "flirting" and #4 for "dating app"
Thanks to ASO by Sourcebits, twine canvas also went from
#12 for "online dating" to #2. The app launched at 2, 4, and
12 for the keywords “matchmaking”, “flirting, and “online
dating” respectively.
We optimized twine for Google Play and the iOS App Store, and twine
canvas for the iOS App Store. We targeted specific keywords, changing
the app title and updating the app description. It significantly improved
the app rankings.
How well did our ASO do?
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
PUBLIC RELATIONSSourcebits handled the Public Relations efforts for twine and twine canvas around their launches, generating buzz on social media channels and through ongoing targeted email marketing.
For twine, Sourcebits also organized a launch party in San Francisco attended by 200+ people, with the app download a requirement for entry.
Both apps have been covered in top publications like Mashable, TechCrunch, ReadWrite, GigaOm, MSN Living and TrendHunter. For Valentine’s Day 2014, Apple featured twine canvas on the App Store homepage. In April 2014, Twine Canvas had a media surge with a 5-minute TV segment on Fox News and coverage in BuzzFeed, Metro (UK) and the Daily Mail.
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
“For people who might be turned off by the
superficialness of the Tinder app, there’s Twine Canvas, a
dating app for iOS that connects users with people based
on their interests.” Engagor
© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.
“Meet Twine, the dating app that doesn’t care how
hot you are.”
GigaOm
“The app highlights the increasing importance of simple
interfaces and visual cues in app design. Although Twine
Canvas challenges the “instant attraction” strategy of rival
dating apps such as Tinder, the app’s interface replicates the
successful swipe-on-the-go format pioneered by Tinder, and the
image-heavy aesthetic of sites such as Instagram and
Pinterest.” Stylus
“Twine Canvas has kept the same “personality first” stance as
Twine, but has a different functionality - now working like a
cross between Tinder and Instagram.”
The Modern Connection
“Not so forward? Check out Twine Canvas, a way to meet
a match via an app, but with the focus on personality and
interests.”
Global Dating Insights
MEDIA QUOTES
San Francisco | 415.288.3697 | 211 Sutter St., 2nd Floor | San Francisco, CA 94108Bangalore | +91.080.4065.0855 | Salarpuria InfoZone | No. 39, 41 & 42 | Electronics City Phase 1 | Electronics City | Bangalore, Karnataka | 560100, India
Looking for a talented team dedicated to your success?
Have an app you want to bring to life or revamp? Sourcebits
is designed to deliver results.
Let’s Talk
Email: info@Sourcebits.com Twitter: @Sourcebits
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