MOBILE APP

From matching to meaning: Developing an insights-driven companion for modern dating

ROLE

Product Design

UX Research

Visual Design

Prototyping

COMPANY

LovePulse

stakeholder

Solo Project

DEVICE

Mobile

Overview

LovePulse is a product concept exploration in the dating and emotional wellness space that reimagines how people engage with their romantic lives. By focusing on reflection and emotional insight, it aims to bring more intention and clarity to the modern dating experience.

Problem

Dating… it's messy, exciting, exhausting, and sometimes downright confusing. When attempts don’t lead to fulfilling relationships, people are left feeling discouraged, emotionally drained, and wondering what they're doing wrong.

Solution

Design a tool that creates meaning from the dating process. LovePulse is a data-driven journaling app that helps singles reflect on their experiences, feel seen, uncover patterns, and make more intentional dating decisions.

Impact

80%

80% of participants rated the app as useful in their dating journey

Boosted user motivation to continue dating by encouraging reflection, leading to more intentional dating decisions

Delighted users with creative use of AI insights that felt both actionable and supportive

Here's how I got there

EMPATHIZE

Modern daters crave tools and feedback to become more efficient in their dating process

After speaking with five individuals at varying stages of their dating lives, from those causally dating to happily partnered after heartbreak, I gained a deeper understanding of the emotional complexities, needs, and motivations that shape modern relationships.

Despite their unique stories, common threads emerged: 

Dating motivation declines over time

as repeated, unsuccessful efforts lead to frustration.

Experience clarifies preferences

as daters learn more about their wants/needs.

Feedback is lacking or non-existant

as daters struggle to optimize first impressions

Ultimately, people craved tools or feedback to become more efficient daters (Efficient = finding a romantic connection in fewer dates with less heartbreak.)

Over time, they naturally became more skilled at perfecting their profiles, knowing what they wanted, and recognizing their unique dating patterns, but the process of discovering these trends often came with unnecessary heartbreak and frustration. 

Survey confirmed this experience is widespread

The survey results further supported the understanding that singles who are actively dating are looking for a serious relationship and are frustrated with how long and emotionally taxing the process is with little to no feedback.

Top Goals:

Life Partner/Marriage (69%)

Long Term Relationship (63%)

Explore Connections (31%)

Top Frustrations:

Wishing to find their person faster (47%)

Knowing what they are doing right or wrong (63%)

Feeling that dating is emotionally taxing (31%)

Dating in the era of… spreadsheets?

Internet research revealed some turned to data analysis to support their dating process

Spreadsheet Dating

"I decided to devise a dating spreadsheet of my own with two primary purposes. First, to hopefully better gauge if someone would be a suitable partner for me, and second, to guard against my own tendency of making bad romantic decisions." — Chin Lu

"I decided to devise a dating spreadsheet of my own with two primary purposes. First, to hopefully better gauge if someone would be a suitable partner for me, and second, to guard against my own tendency of making bad romantic decisions."
— Chin Lu

Chin Lu’s popular article “My secret to dating in San Francisco is a spreadsheethighlighted how she used a spreadsheet to reflect on her dating choices, spot patterns, and find her ideal partner more quickly.

Data Hacking

Amy Webb’s TED Talk, “How I Hacked Online Dating,” which later became a book, described how she used data analysis to navigate her dating life more strategically and more efficiently find her partner.

Dating Wrapped

Viral TikTok trend, “Dating Wrapped,” where people showcase their annual dating stats like a Spotify Wrapped recap, revealed a growing fascination with using data to observe the dating experience.

These aren't the only examples. Chin also noted that many others have publicly shared they used spreadsheets for various purposes:

DEFINE

Bottom line: dating sucks… so how might we fix it?

It was time to narrow down my problem. I knew I wanted to explore ways to help people who are actively dating find a long term relationship more efficiently.

USER PROBLEM

Dating is discouraging

Dating is often overwhelming, emotionally draining, and inefficient, leaving individuals feeling discouraged and unsure of how to improve.

USER PROBLEM

Dating is discouraging

Dating is often overwhelming, emotionally draining, and inefficient, leaving individuals feeling discouraged and unsure of how to improve.

USER PROBLEM

Dating is discouraging

Dating is often overwhelming, emotionally draining, and inefficient, leaving individuals feeling discouraged and unsure of how to improve.

USER PROBLEM

Dating is discouraging

Dating is often overwhelming, emotionally draining, and inefficient, leaving individuals feeling discouraged and unsure of how to improve.

How might we…

Create tools or activities that help individuals reflect on their personal values, relationship goals, and what they are looking for in a partner?

How might we…

Design experiences that encourage people to explore their emotional and psychological patterns in the context of dating?

How might we…

Use feedback mechanisms to help individuals gain insights into their dating behaviors and preferences?

Goal: Design an app that empowers users to understand their dating patterns and gain self-awareness so they can be more effective in dating by making more conscious dating decisions. 

POV: I'm a user who's been dating for years but still haven't found my person

Our user persona became our North Star and anchor for design decisions. 

Meet Sam! She’s serious about finding a relationship, but dating has left her drained. She’s ready for a more efficient, intentional approach.

How might we… help Sam stay motivated and find meaning amongst the constant stream of dating disappointments?

IDEATE

Exploring data-driven dating

I used a variety of brainstorming methods when thinking of potential solutions. While my ideas ranged from a rejection text generator that notes when a relationship has gone stale to an anonymous date review site, my research inspired me to focus on creating a solution where dating data is used to help users become more efficient and inspired

Inspired by the term Business Insights and my operations background, I'm calling the solution a dating insights app.

People who tracked their dating experiences did so using a wide range of methods and metrics

A second round of user interviews specifically targeted potential users who have tracked their dates lives in some manner.

Methods

Some leaned into self-reflection through journaling, while others took a more analytical approach, tracking data to find patterns.

Motivations

Motivations ranged from identifying trends across failed relationships to finding encouragement in positive patterns, especially after a breakup, or when starting over.

Metrics

People tracked everything from names and attraction levels to values and breakup reasons, either logging in real time or reflecting periodically.

Let's make a "dating insights" app!

With a clearer idea of which direction I’d be going, I created a feature matrix and prioritized based on the goals and needs of my target user. From this, I knew the key features to focus on were:

Users want to make more intentional dating decisions but often don’t take the time to process how each date went.

Date tracking to log dates and evaluate the experience

Users want to evaluate compatibility and sometimes need help recognizing what they are attracted to in a partner. 

Love Interest profiles that capture insights and metadata about each person dated

Users want to better understand themselves and their dating experiences and are motivated by positive patterns

Data insight graphs and descriptions to surface dating trends across tracked data

User flows outlined how users could track dates, view love interests, and explore insights

Throughout the development of this project the user flow went through multiple iterations. The two shown below demonstrate the shift from the original to the final concepts.

Original

Final

Original

Final

Original

Final

Original

Final

PROTOTYPE & TEST

Wireframes transformed ideas from insights to interface

Mid-fidelity wireframes allowed me to design with enough detail to spark meaningful feedback without overloading participants with unnecessary polish.

Reflect on Dates

Users can log individual dates, rate their experiences using default or custom categories, and add notes about their experience.

Review Love Interests

Each Love Interest has a profile where users can view experience scores, insights, and date history.

Explore Insights

Graphical insights and trend descriptions help users understand their overall dating patterns.

Time to test this crazy concept

Because dating insights is a new concept, I decided to start with a concept test. I had four potential users explore the mid-fidelity designs with the goal of validating the overall idea.

Evaluate the perceived usefulness of a "dating insights" app

Evaluate the usability of the app based on satisfaction

Identify potential pain points and areas of confusion

Result: Users liked it but were most excited about the personalized journaling prompts

This concept test validated the idea. Users were excited by the thought of dating insights and some were even surprised an app like this doesn’t already exist. However, while they appreciated the scoring and trend graphs, the journaling prompts stood out most.

Users were intrigued and excited about an app that reveals personal dating patterns (ie dating insights)

Users saw the personalize journaling prompts as potentially the most impactful feature

Users wanted and expected to engage with journaling prompts directly within the app

Users felt tone was too clinical and wanted a softer, friendlier tone with more actionable takeaways

Reframing around reflection

Though originally a secondary feature, user feedback made it clear that personalized journaling prompts were more than a nice-to-have. One user even called this the "gold mine" of the app.

This led us to pivot and shift focus toward journaling and more qualitative insights.

“I can see these personalized journaling prompts helping me feel less stuck and more motivated to keep dating, even when I start to feel discouraged. It’s like having a little coach nudging me forward, keeping me from giving up after one bad date.”

“I can see these personalized journaling prompts helping me feel less stuck and more motivated to keep dating, even when I start to feel discouraged. It’s like having a little coach nudging me forward, keeping me from giving up after one bad date.”

“I can see these personalized journaling prompts helping me feel less stuck and more motivated to keep dating, even when I start to feel discouraged. It’s like having a little coach nudging me forward, keeping me from giving up after one bad date.”

“I can see these personalized journaling prompts helping me feel less stuck and more motivated to keep dating, even when I start to feel discouraged. It’s like having a little coach nudging me forward, keeping me from giving up after one bad date.”

Competitors now included AI-powered journaling tools

Initially, there were few direct competitors with just one dating-focused app (Dateforce), a handful of personal tracking tools, and, of course, spreadsheets. But as journaling became central to the experience, AI-powered journaling tools emerged as relevant players.

Rosebud

Interactive AI journal designed alongside mental healthcare professionals to complement traditional therapy at a fraction of the cost.

Untold

Voice journaling + AI reflection that allow users to reframe and see their life from a personally tailored, objective and compassionate third-party perspective.

Stoic

AI journaling app that analyzes entries to uncover patterns and offer personalized prompts to support self-reflection and personal growth.

Mindsera

AI powered journal designed to give personalized mentorship and feedback for improving users’ mindset, cognitive skills, mental health, and fitness.

By observing the features that are prioritized in competitors, I could get a sense that users’ top priorities are personalized AI generated reflections on the user's reflections and conversational, chat-like experiences.

No competitors focus on dating or combine qualitative journaling with quantitative data to provide user insights

Adding reflections into the flow

While users can add a reflection at any time, the ideal flow was designed to prompt reflections after logging a date. This allows users to quickly capture date details, receive initial AI-generated insights, and then seamlessly transition into deeper reflection.

Date Summary

Reflection Chat

Saved Reflection

A second concept test solidified our pivot

Participants rated the app’s usefulness highly, with most expressing genuine excitement about its potential to support self-reflection, growth, and even early-stage relationships. They valued the app’s potential to aid in self-reflection, personal growth, and even supplement therapy or coaching.

Then it was time to develop the app's style + branding

Before I could move onto designing the high-fidelity wireframes, it was time to develop the brand identity and bring the app to life.

And bring the vision to life

With the visual direction established, I built out the high-fidelity screens and connected them in a clickable prototype.

Usability testing revealed some wins

In usability testing, participants quickly saw the value of the app, highlighting its potential to support self-reflection and growth in dating.

80%

Average Trust Score
(Score out of 5)

Boosted user motivation to continue dating by encouraging reflection and intentional dating decisions

Delighted users with creative use of AI insights that felt both actionable and supportive

While some terms, such as "reflect" or "love interest," weren’t immediately intuitive, users adapted quickly. The average time to add a date dropped by more than half on the second try, and perceived difficulty decreased from 1.9 to 1.3, signaling increased familiarity and confidence with use.

Yet more updates were needed

Key iterations included updates to the Date Summary page and Insights graphs.

DATE SuMMARY

Improved visibility of the Dating Summary by using a dark background and light text to highlight the autogenerated content.

Before

After

DATing insights

Reduced scroll fatigue by splitting active vs. ended insights into separate pages and converting vertical graphs to horizontal scroll.

Before

After

FINAL DESIGN

LovePulse: an insights-driven companion for modern dating

User's thoughts

Lessons Learned

Users don't always know what they want.

Beware of scope creep.

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

Users don't always know what they want.

Beware of scope creep.

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

Users don't always know what they want.

Beware of scope creep.

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

Users don't always know what they want.

Beware of scope creep.

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.