The UX of Dating Apps and Websites (2024)
MeasuringU
UX research and software supporting all stages of the user and customer experience.
The current climate for dating apps is changing.
Dating app download rates?are declining?and users are experiencing?dating app fatigue.
While many have found long and fulfilling relationships through online dating, today’s swiping singles are more hopeless and discontented with the experience than when we?last examined this industry in 2019.
To make up for decreased downloads, many dating apps are squeezing current members with a pay-to-play model, where one-time or monthly payments can be made to increase the number of overall matches, the quality of potential matches, and the visibility of one’s profile. There are myriad issues users have with their dating app choices, but they especially do not take kindly to having to pay for what was once a free service.
Given this negative shift in the online dating world, it’s no surprise that innovators in the AI space are asking themselves how they can use cutting-edge technology to combat this issue. In fact, Bumble’s founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, recently revealed that the app will use AI to create a “dating concierge,” allowing user personas to essentially date one another to narrow down the most viable matches for the human user to select from.
Despite dating app attitudes being at an all-time low, they remain wildly popular, with?over 300 million people?using dating apps worldwide, and about 20 million paying for premium features. It seems that despite being a generally unpleasant experience, online dating feels like a necessity for most in the modern era. After all, for many, finding their person could be just one swipe away.
This inelastic demand signals a great opportunity for dating apps to address major pain points users encounter in the digital dating world. To understand the online dating user experience, we used?MUiQ?to conduct a retrospective benchmark on seven of the most popular online dating services in 2024.
We computed?SUPR-Q??SUPR-Qm, and?Net Promoter?scores, investigated reasons for using the services, measured users’ attitudes regarding their experiences, conducted?key driver?analyses, and analyzed reported usability problems. (Full details are in the?downloadable report.)
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Summary and Discussion
In May and June of 2024, we asked 280 users of online dating services in the U.S. to recall their most recent experience and perception of one of the online dating services on their app or website in the past year.
Respondents with website experience completed the eight-item SUPR-Q (which includes the Net Promoter Score) and two-item UX-Lite? standardized questionnaires. Those with mobile app experiences completed a simplified version of the SUPR-Qm and the NPS for mobile. All participants answered questions about their brand attitudes, usage, and prior experiences.
An analysis of the user experience of seven online dating services found:
Users strongly prefer mobile apps over websites for online dating. A total of 93% of our participants reported using the dating service mobile app (39% used a computer). The most reported frequency of app use was several times a week (the most reported frequency of desktop website use was never).
The user experience with dating websites is poor. For the five websites evaluated in this study, the collective SUPR-Q score was at the 9th percentile, scoring worse than 81% of websites in our database. Of these low rankings, Tinder was the poorest performer (3rd percentile), and Match performed the best (18th percentile). Users were not inclined to recommend the websites, with all sites receiving negative NPS scores (Match: ?13%; Tinder: ?52%).
Users reported problems with dishonest users and dating scams. Connecting users with strangers creates opportunities for scammers and catfishers. Across the dating services, 36% of users reported meeting a person who looked different in real life (e.g., 45% of OkCupid users; 42% of Tinder users). A surprising 19% of all dating service users reported that they had been asked for money by a potential match, most frequently on Tinder (37%).
Users are frustrated by poor matching algorithms and premium features. Participants reported that algorithms often fell short across the board, with only 11% indicating that their app is good at matching them with people, from 6% for Plenty of Fish to 14% for Match, OkCupid, and Facebook Dating). Participants on all dating service sites except Facebook Dating felt frustrated by the cost of premium features, especially when these features facilitate the matching process.
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MeasuringU's UX Measurement Boot Camp 2024
Event Date: September 10 - October 3, 2024
Tuesdays & Thursdays, Sessions start at 9am (Pacific Time)
Registration is now open for our Online UX Boot Camp.
Jeff Sauro, PhD & Jim Lewis, PhD will host our annual bootcamp of intensive instruction into UX Methods and Metrics online this fall.
Topics include:
Participants will receive a User Experience Research Certificate and 2.5 Continuing Education Credits from the University of Denver.
Classes will be held every Tuesday & Thursday starting at 9am PT. Jeff Sauro PhD & Jim Lewis PhD, will be the instructors. The courses will be a mix of lecture material and practice learning and applying the methods (adapted for online delivery).
Sign up for MeasuringU's Boot Camp today!
UX Benchmarking in MUiQ
The MeasuringU Intelligent Questioning Platform (MUiQ) is an unmoderated UX testing platform geared towards benchmarking the user experience. It has built-in templates that make it easy to set up complex, competitive benchmarks and an analysis dashboard that compares standardized metrics across each condition so your team can quickly gather insights from the research.?
MUiQ supports the following study types:
With the results being presented in an easy to understand analysis dashboard, MUiQ provides all of the tools you need to collect meaningful UX insights.
Reach out today to learn more about MUiQ.