Service Design
Bubble Carpooling Service: Dating Service Design From Dating Cafe to Social Hotspots on Wheels
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Background
Online dating has long been a popular way to meet new people, but transitioning from online interaction to an in-person meeting can present challenges and safety concerns. Typically, first meetings take place in public spaces, yet these can still feel forced or uncomfortable. To address this, we asked: How can we facilitate a smoother and more natural transition from online to offline dating in a safe, public setting?
Solution
Bubble is a social carpooling service that seamlessly integrates the transition from online to in-person interaction within the context of daily commutes. Originally conceived as a platform to arrange dates in public spaces using digital technology, Bubble evolved to utilize the organic setting of shared car rides. This shift from fixed meeting spots to the dynamic environment of commuting aligns with the natural rhythms of people's daily lives. By embedding social interactions in shared rides, Bubble not only offers a more relaxed and practical setting for first meetings but also ensures safety and fosters organic relationship development through rider preferences and driver oversight.
👩🏫 Role
👥 Team
⏱️ Timeline
Feb-May 2024
Jennie Lin (Me)
Nehal Sharma
Service designer
Key Takeaways
Flexibility in Concept Development: Understanding when to let go of rigid ideas is crucial. Our shift from a traditional dating platform to integrating dating into daily commutes allowed us to innovate and better meet user needs, demonstrating how adaptability can lead to more creative solutions.
Embracing Unconventional Thinking: During the ideation phase, thinking outside the box is vital. Our evolution from designated meeting spots to the organic setting of carpooling exemplifies how innovative thinking can redefine problem-solving and lead to more effective solutions.
Streamlining Service Offerings and Servicescapes: In refining a concept, it's important to clearly define and focus on essential elements while removing what is unnecessary. For Bubble, focusing on the natural interaction of car rides rather than contrived meeting points clarified our service scope and enhanced user experience.
Process
🖊️ Sprint 2
Co-creation workshop for general iteration insights
Iterate (100% CHANGE) for 2nd concept
🎨 Sprint 3
Enactment for refined iteration insights
Iterate and finalise the concept
Debrief
Set up principles
Research & Sketch out 1st concept
✏️ Sprint 1
Start of the Project: From Brief to the First Dating Cafe Concept
Setting up the primary principles of safety and healthy connections
When the project stared, we chose to work on the dating app brief. There are two primary focuses on the brief- one is to leverage public space as a meeting place, and the other is to incorporate technology into the service. From our personal experience and understanding of dating services, we decided to focus on the first date experience when people have matched with each other online and transitioned to offline dating for the first time. We want to curate healthy connections for people who are using dating apps for a romantic relationship.
The brief framed our initial user research with two main categories of questions below. The research included surveys and interviews. In the interviews, Nehal mainly took the role of interviewer and I joined as a session moderator.
Category 1. Decision-making of the first date transition
Category 2. Experience of their first date and what can be improved
We gained several insights from the user research during this phase, which were mainly:
Insight 1. Safety is the primary concern for whether to transition to online
Insight 2. Gender affects weighing the safety in decision making
Insight 3. Budget influences the activities of their first in-person date most
Insight 4. Scheduling a date is hard and can cause further dissatisfaction
How might we connect people from online to offline dating in a safe and natural way in public space?
User research helped us settle down two fundamental principles to stick around throughout the project and a core problem statement: How might we connect people from online to offline dating in a safe and natural way?
Principle 1. Safety - connect people with no stress
Principle 2: Natual connections - let people transition and communicate in real life in a natural way
The start of our first concept: a dating cafe
Based on the user research insights and our personal experience & experimental viewpoints, we came up with the first concept: a dating cafe. The cafe was designed to be a designated place for people who use the dating app from our service to meet up, especially for those who are having their first transitioned dates. The user flow can be seen below:
Sketch of 1st Concept - Dating Cafe
Key Change: Dipping out of the Cafe Scene and Exploring Other Opportunities
Supposedly, the cafe concept could address problems that we identified from the first user research and match the brief requirements →
☕ & 🦺
The cafe environment and staff within can minimise the safety concern.
☕ & 🎟️
A cafe can accommodate different activity needs for a first date, from indoor chitchat to public events.
☕ & 💻
IoT can be implemented in the cafe and facilitate users’ communication and safety.
However, when we were iterating this concept through the co-creation workshop, we realised that the cafe concept was too restrictive. The assumptions above were unable to be validated, and actual dating users would have more general needs, which the cafe could not satisfy at once.
We invited 3 designers to participate in the co-creation workshop. I was the moderator, responsible for note taking and recording, and Nehal was the main host of the co-creation workshop.
Right is the co-creation board. It contains the phases of the online to offline dating transition and our participants’ input about pain points and possible service solutions.
There were several limitations for the cafe concept:
Limitation 1. Lack of Natural Interaction
Users have few natural touchpoint/reason to engage with the cafe. There may not be natural interactions for users to “book” their date with the cafe.
Limitation 2. Not Exactly a Public Space
The designated ‘public space’ of the cafe is not exactly a public space. Every possible interaction is limited within the cafe.
Limitation 3. Limited Dating Content
The cafe can actually limit the content of their first dates. While being conservative to prevent unsafe issues within the cafe setting, the concept failed to consider both parties needs and/or some bold dating plans, as dating is always considered personal.
Limitation 4. Unequal Responsibility for Employees
Sole safety responsibilities may burden staff as they are the only moderator within this setting.
We also identified a few more important needs from a higher level for users who are transitioning from online to in-person dates.
Automate the matching process from the beginning to foster natural connections and relationship development.
Consider mutual needs when developing the concept around the content of dating.
Allow the sharing of safety responsibilities among users and service staff.
Zoom in on the ride: Shifting Gears to Journey within the Car
The co-creation workshop highlighted several significant shortcomings and other extra needs in our initial cafe concept. In response, we aimed to refine this concept while also exploring other creative and viable ideas that are more closely aligned with foundational principles and user needs.
Interestingly, our breakthrough came after taking a week-long hiatus from the cafe concept. By deliberately setting aside our initial focus and clearing our minds, we made space for fresh ideas. This mental reset led to the inception of our preliminary carpooling concept.
The blueprint of this concept was created as below, incorporating both the front stage and backstage of this dating carpooling service.
1st Version Social Carpooling Service Flow
1st Version of Social Carpooling Blue Print
At this stage, we gave up 95% of our cafe concept, and expanded on the new “match and carpooling” concept for the following reasons:
Carpooling can be embedded into the daily life scene more naturally, fostering natural and organic connections.
By implementing interest-based recommendation algorithms, users will be able to match with more suitable for them.
Multiple parties can collaborate to ensure safety during the date.
Expanding the Service Offerings and Seeking User-Staff Balance
Improved approaches for users (riders) to satisfy varied social needs and ensure their safety
The feedback from peer design critique for the iterated first Match&Ride service was largely positive, particularly better than the dating cafe regarding users’ experience. The reasoning behind this is more convincing and better aligned with the safety and organic connection principles.
As we moved forward to the next round of iteration, we had three major directions for users’ experience from peers to direct our iterations:
Feedback 1. The new concept covered too many services and was not able to compose a unified service system.
Solution to 1. Pick out a few from scattered sub-concepts under it and tie them up into one holistic and consistent concept.
Feedback 2. If the service is solely focused on dating, there will be circumstances where users are unable to match a dating person.
Solution to 2. Expand the scope of the service from dating to general socialisation.
Feedback 3. Users may have concerns about privacy related to the physical locations when they have to meet others and start a social relationship with them.
Solution to 3. Create a space to protect users’ privacy but still be convenient for their rides.
The second version of the carpooling service concept was revised as the flow chart below (click to read details).
Share responsibilities between users (riders) and staff (drivers)
To validate this iterated concept, we conducted an enactment session. We invited two participants to play the role of the driver and the rider respectively. They were asked to enact the whole service and share their experience and thoughts with us.
In this session, Nehal was the coordinator and I participated in the enactment with other participants to facilitate the enactment.
The enactment showed a positive result for the rider side. The participant was very satisfied with this process. Based on the given two key principles, the service was able to meet the goals and can be easily embedded into the daily lives of people with any social needs.
However, there were some weaknesses on the driver’s side. The utmost concern was about the responsibilities of safety management. Although users were asked to complete the safety protocols before their rides, drivers may still feel burdened for taking care of driving and safety at the same time. They will be highly likely to disregard the safety responsibilities as their job was supposed to drive and make money. They lack the incentives to manage the safety issues.
“... I feel like my only task is to drive her to the destination. But if I’m serving this... I expect there is a bonus.”
The third concept was refined based on this enactment. When eliminating sub-concepts for users/riders, we added back stage solutions to ensure the staff’s experience is also pleasing.
We incorporated the earning-related incentive system for drivers to be proactive in managing safety. Whenever they report any issues or maintain a zero-incident record for a period of time, their earnings will be increased as a bonus. Also, the backstage system will turn on CCTV or voice recording during the ride to manage safety along the ride.
Final Concept - Bubble, the Social Carpooling Service ↓
Rider Scene 1: Signs up on the Bubble app & update profile information (By Nehal)
Rider Scene 2: Books a ride on Bubble and automatically matches with the other rider to the same destination (By Nehal)
Rider Scene 3: Gets the booking confirmation and follows the map to the Bubble pick-up point; scans the QR code to enter the pick-up point Bubble and to start the ride (By Nehal)
Rider Scene 4: Starts the ride with their co-rider (By Nehal)
Driver Scene 1: Gets safety training before being qualified as a Bubble driver (By Jennie/Me)
Driver Scene 2: Receives the ride request, accepts it and picks up the riders (By Jennie/Me)
Driver Scene 3: Drives to the destination, monitor the safety issues in car and report (By Jennie/Me)
Driver Scene 4: Leaves review on both riders and gets bonus for verified safety report or zero-incident records (By Jennie/Me)
Wrapping Up: More about Drivers and Lessons on Concept Ideations
Great feasibility and business potential, but need more focus on staff side
Reflecting on the project, the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, both in terms of the innovative concept and its potential for future development. Our social carpooling service effectively utilized the daily commute as a natural setting for fostering connections, aligning well with the principle of natural interaction. Additionally, involving drivers in safety management has proven to be a significant asset.
In exploring the business potential of our concept, it was fascinating to observe that companies like Bumble and Uber are considering similar collaborative approaches to this service, underscoring the viability of our idea in the current market landscape.
However, we encountered some challenges, particularly regarding the requirements for our drivers. Feedback from a peer designer highlighted concerns about the stringent certification process, suggesting it might deter potential drivers: “The certification creates a barrier for drivers to enter and become a part of this service. Maybe think of a lower-bar approach to this.” This feedback is invaluable as we consider ways to streamline the process and make it more accessible, ensuring that our service can grow and adapt effectively.
Embracing Change: How Flexibility in Concept Development Led to Innovation
Reflecting on this project, my insights are primarily drawn from our journey through various concept iterations. Initially, we were anchored to a rigid cafe concept, which constrained our ability to develop and refine specific features effectively. We found ourselves trying to force solutions to fit this pre-defined setting, and although we were dissatisfied with the first concept, admitting its flaws was challenging. It was a pivotal moment when we decided to step back and engage in a co-creation workshop with other designers. This interaction provided compelling reasons to let go of an idea we had heavily invested in. By abandoning our fixed notion, we opened up space for fresher, more innovative ideas, ultimately leading to a more natural and persuasive service concept. Letting go of an entrenched idea is tough, but it can pave the way for greater creative freedom and new opportunities.