Todayy– Helping People Meet Genuinely
UX/UI Design | Mobile App | 2024-2025
A social connection app that encourages spontaneous, authentic meetups — without the pressure of likes or swipes.
Project Overview
Startup Project: A small, mission-driven team aiming to rethink how people make real-life social connections without pressure or performance.
Goal: To conduct research on how people form new social connections and design a mobile app that helps users find and meet others based on availability, interests, and real-time vibe, without relying on dating mechanics.
My Role
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UX Research
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UX Design
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UI Design
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Product Thinking
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Visual Storytelling
Tools
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Figma
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Miro
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Notion
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Google Forms
Discover
Market Research
Competitive Analysis
In the early stages, we conducted an in-depth review of existing social, dating, and friendship apps to understand what features people are used to, what emotional needs these apps fulfill, and where they fall short.
Key Questions:
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Why do people feel dissatisfied with dating apps or traditional social platforms?
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What features do they expect in a friendship-building app?
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What makes them feel safe and seen?
🔍 What most apps lacked:
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Time-based or availability-focused matching
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Ways to express real-life vibe and interests visually
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A pressure-free environment
📌 What users are used to seeing:
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Swipe-based interaction (like/dislike)
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In-app chats that often lead nowhere
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Profile pictures with little personality context
Market Positioning Insight
Our goal wasn’t to be another dating app or yet another social platform. We saw a “blue ocean” opportunity:
An app designed around shared availability and spontaneous interests — not attraction or social metrics.
It needed to feel:
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Casual — Like texting a friend
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Expressive — Through interests, vibes, and real-world action
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Nonjudgmental — No likes, scores, or matches
User Research
User Interviews
We followed up with real-life interviews across 10+ participants to get nuanced insights into emotional and behavioral patterns around meeting new people.
🎯 Focus Areas:
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What makes someone feel open to meeting new people?
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Why do people ghost or avoid chatting on apps?
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What feels natural when meeting someone new?
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How do they decide who to meet and when?
🔍 Core Insights:
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People don’t want to perform their personalities — they want to show their vibe
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Availability is everything — many said they would meet someone today if it felt easy and clear
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People prefer filtering out what they don’t want, rather than constantly swiping to find what they do want
Define
Making sense of the mess:
What users really want when meeting new people
Affinity Mapping + Value Proposition
After synthesizing all of our survey and interview data, we used an affinity map to cluster key themes and user quotes. This helped us make sense of recurring emotional needs, behaviors, and frustrations people had when trying to meet others.
Key Themes
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People want spontaneity, but don’t want to feel desperate
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Visual storytelling (photos, playlists, places) feels more authentic than bios or chat
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Users want emotional safety — clear boundaries, no pressure, no “game”
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Traditional dating app mechanics (likes, swipes, matches) feel transactional and performative
User Persona + Journey Map
To visualize our findings, we created a persona — “Open-Minded Anna” — a friendly 25-year-old who moved to a new city and is looking for meaningful but casual social interactions.
Anna’s Needs:
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A non-cringey way to show off her personality without overthinking
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A chance to meet someone today for a walk, coffee, or museum trip
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A way to filter out red flags or incompatibilities without judging others
Develop
Solution Ideation
How Might We...
Turning user pain points into design opportunities
Based on our research, we turned the emotional and behavioral patterns we discovered into How Might We... questions to guide ideation:
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How might we help users express their personality without relying on text-heavy bios?
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How might we lower the pressure of online interactions and make them feel more natural?
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How might we help people meet spontaneously without seeming flaky or weird?
MoSCoW Prioritization
We used the MoSCoW method to clarify which features would be essential to our MVP, which could wait, and which would be nice-to-haves.
Must-Haves:
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🖼️ A profile made up of 9 interest-based visual prompts (moods, playlists, places, etc.)
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📍 A “Hit Me Up” feature where users can post an activity-based prompt (e.g., “coffee walk?”, “museum visit?”) to show they’re available
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⚙️ Basic filters such as location, age, and languages to ensure relevant discovery
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💬 The ability to comment on others’ prompts or pictures and start a chat from that interaction, encouraging low-pressure, context-based conversations
Should-Haves:
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✨ Thematic weekly prompts to spark creativity and help users express what they’re open to
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🔮 Vibe-based filters (e.g., “chill,” “adventurous,” “romantic”) to make matching more emotionally intuitive
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📅 The ability to make more complex or future-oriented meet-up requests, and support for multiple persona-based profiles (e.g., “artist mode” vs “gym buddy mode”)
Could-Haves:
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🎯 Light gamification (e.g., badges or reactions) to make interactions feel playful without creating pressure
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🤖 AI-assisted filtering to help surface people who best match your mood, intent, or availability
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🔗 Auto-matching based on mutual vibes or posted intentions
Final Solution Concept
A lightweight, mood-first social app that helps people meet when they’re feeling open, not just when they’re looking
The Todayy MVP is a mobile experience designed for real-world spontaneity and self-expression. By prioritizing visual prompts over swipes and offering a time-limited way to signal availability, we remove the pressure and awkwardness from meeting new people.
It’s not a dating app. It’s not a planner. It’s a soft space to say, “Hey, I’m around and feeling curious — want to hang out?”
Deliver
From Wireframes to High-Fidelity Prototypes
Lo-Fi Concept Sketches
Before landing on our core concept, we explored a wide range of ideas — from interactive maps to game-like cards.
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🧠 We sketched out many directions, experimenting with playful formats and different interaction models
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📝 Out of all those explorations, the lo-fi concept with an image grid stood out. It felt intuitive, expressive, and flexible, so we decided to move forward with it
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👥 Early user feedback confirmed that this direction had potential, although some screens needed refinement for better clarity
Mid-Fi Wireframes
We moved into Figma to develop mid-fidelity wireframes, testing different ideas around navigation, layout, and the overall look and feel of the app.
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🧪 At this stage, our focus was on usability — how intuitive and easy it was for users to understand the app’s purpose and flow
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📱 We experimented with variations of the menu, content structure, and interaction patterns to find the most natural and user-friendly setup
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💬 User testing helped us identify pain points and iterate quickly based on feedback
Branding & Moodboard
To define the visual direction, I created a moodboard that captured the fun and friendly atmosphere we wanted the app to have
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🎨 I collected references that conveyed warmth, approachability, and playfulness
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🔍 The goal was to identify common visual patterns and use them to inform our own unique color palette and overall visual tone
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💡 This helped us shape a design language that feels inviting, expressive, and aligned with the app’s social and spontaneous nature
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
With previous user feedback and testing, we finalized a visual prototype that captured the inviting and playful tone we envisioned. We began implementing this design in code and were excited to see it come to life.
Unfortunately, due to strategic changes within the team, the project was paused before we could test it with a broader audience. Nevertheless, this prototype reflects our user-centered design process, validated ideas, and the collaborative effort that brought the concept to its final visual stage.
Creating Your Profile & Filters
Users start by crafting a profile based on their interests, values, and vibe — not a bio. Instead of writing long descriptions, they upload 9 expressive photos that reflect who they are.
They also set filters for the kind of people or experiences they’re looking for, like age range. The goal is to help users meet people who feel aligned, not just available.
Exploring Public Profiles & Comments
Users can scroll through other people's real-time availability posts, which include where they are and what they’re open to — from coffee walks to deep convos.
Each public post allows comments, so others can express interest, add questions, or even make a funny remark. This encourages lightweight interaction before matching.
Chatting with a Match
When two users connect, a direct chat opens. Here they can coordinate plans, share locations, or just feel out the vibe.
The chat is minimal and warm — designed to encourage spontaneous connection without pressure. It’s not about constant texting, but about meeting in real life.
