iOS dating app — The Factory

In 2014 I worked at The Factory on a dating app called “Woo”. Wilson Miner had done the initial branding and visual work. I designed the in-app chat and the majority of the app flows.

A screenshot of the Woo website, and another of the Woo app on the Apple App Store
Figure 1. Woo on the web, and in the App Store

Woo’s take on dating was that it’s more fun when you have friends there to help. So to use the app to find a date you had to persuade at least one friend to sign up, spend time reading profiles on your behalf, and curate a pool of potential matches for you to consider.

That idea separated Woo from its competitors, but it also introduced a lot of product, design, and engineering complexity. We had people on the site who were looking for a date, people who were helping their friend(s) look for a date, and people who were doing both. Figures 2 and 3 show some of the documentation that I made to expose that complexity.

A complicated grid showing possible states a Woo user could be in
Figure 2. How actions taken in the app might move a user between one of 12 states
A complicated grid showing different types on content different users might encounter using the Woo app
Figure 3. A matrix of screens vs user states, showing possible content for each screen and how the user might have navigated there

This product complexity also extended to the invitation flows. Figure 4 shows the three kinds of invitations that could have been sent, and the pathways to acceptance or rejection for each one.

Screenshots of different designs of typing indicators being used in a chat app
Figure 4. Three possible invitation flows

In addition to working on product logic and flows, I also designed the 1-to-1 and group chat feature.

Screenshot of the Woo group chat feature
Figure 5. Example fragments of the in-app chat

With all the design work done, I provided engineering with detailed specs for everything we’d made (Figure 6).

Samples of the design specs for the Woo app
Figure 6. Example spec prepared for engineering