Personal UX Concept
Hinge Safety Feature — Case Study
This personal concept project explores rethinking how people search for jobs online. The goal was to design a calm, human-centered experience that prioritizes clarity, personalization, and ease of use.
The following case study outlines the process from research and ideation to wireframes, prototypes, and reflection.
The Challenge
Design Question: What if our dating app was able to keep people safe without actually holding their hand.
Going out with a stranger can be scary. Because dating is already stressful enough, we wanted to ease the minds of our users by creating a safety feature that kept users safe when "meeting offline".
Research & Insights
As someone who regularly uses dating apps, I realized that there are no safety features in place keeping users safe.
I conducted some informal interviews with users and this is what I discovered:
- In 2017, there were 150 cases of sexual assault relating to online dating applications.
- 15 of the 50 people I interviewed claimed to have felt unsafe during a date organized on a dating application.
- 31% of respondents agreed that they would take advantage of safety features if they were made available.
Persona
Taylor, 27 — wants a role matching skills and values without endless scrolling.
“I spend hours searching and still feel unsure if I’m applying to the right roles.”
Top Pain Points
- Endless scrolling with low relevance
- Overwhelming filters and cluttered layouts
- No real personalization
- Tedious, repetitive applications
Ideation
Brainstormed features to make the experience smarter and more human:
Smart Match: AI-assisted matching from skills, interests, and experience.
Simplified Filters: Contextual filters that adapt to behavior.
Personal Dashboard: Track saved jobs, applications, and progress.
Quick Apply: Pre-filled forms from profile and resume.
Early ideation directions and clustering.
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Early ideation directions and clustering.
Information Architecture
Simplified navigation consolidates the experience into three anchors:
Home / Discover — tailored job feed
Applications — saved and submitted tracking
Profile — skills and preference editing
Wireframes
Focused on clarity and momentum across the core flow: login → search → filter → job details → apply.
Prototype (high-fidelity)
After completing my low-fidelity wireframes, I moved onto creating a fully-functional prototype of the application.