Tinder - A new age of dating
Simply put, Tinder is made simple. The old dating sites like eHarmony use formulas and algorithms to put you through a compatibility test with other users, however Tinder is not like this at all. Yes or No is all there is to it. A picture of someone appears and you choose if they are for you, or they are not. Once chosen you move on to the next person. However, if two people have said Yes to each other they become a Match and are sent to their folder so they can begin chatting to each other.
This simple design makes it much more like a game in your pocket rather then a dating app, and mimics flirting that you would find in a bar.
There is over 2 billion users on Tinder, which does seem like too many people to sort through, so the app uses the GPS signal on the phone to only match people who are near (can be set from 1km to 100miles) which is also helpful if planning on finding someone to meet with.
When Tinder began in America in Fall (Spring for Australia) 2012 (on the app store), the target audience was college students, with 90 percent of its users being between the ages of 18 to 24. But Tinder was a rapid grower, and thus became used by different audiences, with now only 50% of users being in college, and the rest of users consists of other ages (age is also shown for users which can have an impact on if they like or dislike that viewed person). As Tinder was growing the App moved to the Android market in Summer (our winter) 2013.
To use Tinder you must firstly download the app(of course!) and then sign in with Facebook. This link with Facebook makes it easier to pick photo's but benefits in other areas also. It uses your friend database to show mutual friends of whom your suggested and also shows your shared interests from the pages you have liked on Facebook.
Tinder's take on usability is simple but also is its design. There are only 5 different page types you will be on.
These are:
Profile - Shows how your profile looks and by clicking on the edit button, (cleverly shown with a crayon logo) it lets you add/delete/arrange photo's and add 'about you' comments.
Home - The base of the app which shows you a picture of your suggested match, with their name, age , mutual friend number, shared interest number, and number of photo's. Below are 3 buttons, X for No, <3 (Heart) for Yes, and i for Information. By clicking on the photo or the i it takes you to the persons profile allowing picture scrolling viewing 'about me' and detailing what friends and interests you have in common.
Messages - Shows your successful matches in a list with their picture. By clicking on one person it allows you to start chatting to them. If you have spoken to them before it will show you the conversation, but if you haven't it will show you the date you matched with them. Along with not speaking yet it the app will give you a little saying of some sort to entice you to talk like "have some manners...say something!" or "They're staring at the same thing...write the first message" which I find is quite a fun touch.
Settings -Allows you to select a few options to change what results your getting. These include Notification Vibrate/Sound on/off, Gender Selection of yourself and what Gender you wish to see, the GPS distance limiter, and Age limiter. The GPS and Age limiters are done with a bar slide which is quite easy to use.
There are a few other buttons found on the app which are, delete account (removes your tinder account), contact us (Report an Issue, Make a suggestion or Partner with Tinder) and Invite (Shares Tinder through your phones technologies/apps)
Menu - Lets you navigate around Tinder, the buttons include Profile, Home, Messages, Settings and Invite
Along with Tinder's simple design the swiping element is used in a few ways and is defiantly a great feature. On the home page Liking or disliking can be done by swiping left (dislike) and right (like) which can give you a better feel of usability. Also swiping at the top of the screen in the menu bar, swiping left will take you to the messages and swiping right will take you to the menu where you can select
As Tinder has changed the online dating game, it has become a powerhouse with emotions. When someone is bored, they use Tinder, when their in need of validation, they use Tinder, and even when their feeling down, Tinder will be there to uplift them. This says that people are using Tinder completely as a tool, even if they are not interested in hooking up with someone, they still have the interest in seeing people and how they present themselves on Tinder.
