UX/UI Design, Business Strategy
Built Personality-Level Trust in Dating Experiences
Balancing user trust with business growth
Problem
In dating app, shallow profiles and a sense of distrust make it hard to build trust.
Users often experience harassment, fake profiles, and other crimes on dating apps,
making it difficult to trust who someone really is.
Solution
Building Credibility Through Structured Recommendations
Introduced a structured micro-recommendation format (tag selection + one-line comment), reducing effort while still capturing concrete trust signals.
Designed the UX so that multiple short recommendations aggregate into cumulative credibility.
Combined recommendations with relational data (friendship length, alumni status, mutual contacts), making even short comments carry objective weight.
Project Impact
Achieved 40% increase in users, reaching a balanced 1:1 gender ratio.
Lowered entry barriers while maintaining trust effectiveness.
Phase 1
Boost matches by building trust in character
Background
Existing online dating apps are arenas of distrust.
Source : Online Dating Service Usage Survey, Dec. 2020 Korea Consumer Agency
User Interview
Surface-level profile info made it hard to trust their character.
Goal
Identify specific reasons of distrust when relying only on profile information
Method
8 user interviews (semi-structured)
Findings
Instinctive caution toward strangers
Lack of evidence to verify the other person’s authenticity
*Permission to use interviewee photos in this portfolio has been obtained.
“I know they exist, but I’m not sure about their character, so I still can’t trust them.”
“All this info, but I still don’t know who they really are.”
Literature Research
To trust someone’s character, the endorsement of others is essential.
How might we + Success Metrics
Ideation 1 + User’s Feedback
Recommendations from their acquaintance was most trustworthy & fit the need for diverse intros.
Ideation 2 + Comparison
Recommendations that shared personal stories earned the most trust.
Design
Listen to what their friend says
Recommender:
John. T
Male
Charm seen by a friend
Charming personality 😘
Fashion sense 🧥
Harmonious family 👨👩👦
How did you meet?
College Friend
How long have you known each other?
3-5 years
What strengths have you seen?
Jieun is my former coworker! She’s incredibly responsible with her work and always puts others first. Even though dealing with people can be tough, she never shows it and just keeps smiling, and I honestly admire her for that. Jieun has such a bright energy that whenever I’m with her, I feel happier too. And as for her beauty, that goes without saying 😌
Affiliation:
Naver / Planning
Naver
Marketer
Los Angeles
“One thing’s for sure, you’ll never be bored with this friend 🤓”
User Testing Results
User testing were also positive, so we launched it.
Goal
Verify if recommendation notes increase user trust and satisfaction (Happiness)
Measure whether this experience improves revisit rate (Retention)
A/B Test
A (Baseline): Self-introduction only
B (Improved): Self-introduction + friend recommendation note
Metrics
Happiness: User trust satisfaction test (5-point survey on recommendation trust + interviews)
Retention: Profile trust by recommendations (Number of likes received on the same profile)
“Because I was recommended by someone, I felt reassured that at least this person wouldn’t be weird.”
“Since the introduction was written by others, it felt more objective and trustworthy.”
Impact
More than 70% of users in the app have recommendations.
Happiness
Trust satisfaction increased by 60%
Recommendation X
Recommendation 0
60%
4.6
0.8
User trust satisfaction test
Participants: 324 / Scale: 5-point
Retention
Number of matches increased fivefold
Profile trust by recommendations
Recommendation X
Number of likes received 4
Jane
Female
,
Meta
1 / 3
최종학력
석사
/
이화여자대학교
/
경영학과
학력인증 완료
거주지역
서울시 강남구
키(cm)
182
종교
무교
흡연여부
비흡연
음주여부
어느 정도 즐김
MBTI
ESFJ
성격
유머있는 🥸
낙천적인 😇
4차원인 👽
어떤 연애를 하고 싶어?
나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어
친구가 스스로에 대해 알려줬어
Affiliation verified
Naver / Brand Marketing Team / Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do
Self-Introduction
Education
Master’s degree / Ewha Womans University / Business Administration
Location
Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Heigt(cm)
165
Smoking
Non-smoker
Drinking
Enjoys occasionally
Heigt(cm)
165
Religion
None
Personality
Humorous, Positive, Calm
Self-Introduction
I’m humorous but also thoughtful and deep. I enjoy playing golf and skateboarding.
vs
Recommendation 0
Number of likes received 22
Jane
Female
,
Meta
1 / 3
최종학력
석사
/
이화여자대학교
/
경영학과
학력인증 완료
거주지역
서울시 강남구
키(cm)
182
종교
무교
흡연여부
비흡연
음주여부
어느 정도 즐김
MBTI
ESFJ
성격
유머있는 🥸
낙천적인 😇
4차원인 👽
어떤 연애를 하고 싶어?
나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어나는 이런 연애를 하고 싶어
친구가 스스로에 대해 알려줬어
Hear from the friend
Thomas. S
Male
What your friend likes about her
Great fashion sense 🧥
Loving family👩👦
How do you know each other?
College Friend
How long have you known each other?
3-5years
Why are you recommending her?
Jieun was my former colleague!
She’s incredibly responsible and always puts others before herself.
Even when things get tough or people stress her out, she never shows it — she just keeps smiling, and I truly admire that about her.
Jieun has such a bright, positive energy that it makes everyone around her feel happier too!
추천인 소속:
네이버/기획
Affiliation verified
Naver / Brand Marketing Team / Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do
“One thing’s for sure, you’ll never be bored when we hang out 🤓”
*Total: 197 participants
“Having recommendations made me feel
I could trust the person.”
Phase 2
But after launch, new sign-ups started to decline.
Unexpectedly
New sign-ups dropped 3.2 times after adding testimonials.
Problem Analysis
Having to write long testimonials became a barrier, so people didn’t join.
S
Felt like immigration check.
Took too long and I gave up on signing up.
Trade-off
Shorter testimonials bring more sign-ups but less trust.
Testimonial length
↑
Testimonial length
↓
Trust
↑
Trust
↓
New sign-ups
↓
New sign-ups
↑
How Might We?
... reduce length of a referral while maintaining trust to
increase new users and satisfy current users?
Adoption : Number of new sign-ups
I decided to maintain trust not through “length,”
but through the “highlighting various aspects of users”
Length
highlighting various aspects of users
Ideation
Selecting tags and writing one line reference
Diligent👨💻
Humorous🤣
Responsible🫡
+
He always finished projects early
Users leave trust cues with a short tag
+ one-line comment.
+
Writing Load ↓
+
Participation ↑
Stacked short comments from multiple people build cumulative trust.
Sarah T.
Female
If there’s one guarantee, it’s that you won’t be bored hanging out with this friend 🤓
Facebook Product Manager / Known for 3 years
John H.
Prefer not to say
Fun, easygoing, and full of energy.
Definitely worth meeting
Self-employed / Known for 3 years
Always brings good vibes.
You’ll have a great time with them.
Lawyer / Known for 3 years
James R.
Male
Implemented a structure that displayed a list of short one-line recommendations left by friends.
+
Trust ↑
+
Variety ↑
Iteration
1.Structured Micro-Recommendation
+
Iteration #1
The horizontal scrolling feels unnatural
Final Design
Reducing depth is beneficial from a business perspective.
Look up my friend’s name.
9:41
Yuna Kim
Cez Krol
Yerim Kim
John Feng
Lydia Yang
연락처 업데이트
Invite your friends!
What do you like about her?
👊 Positive
🍵 Calm
🐹 Cute
😜 Humorous
🤓 Compete
💰 Capable
👏🏻 Inspiring
💪🏻 Fit
🍭 Kind
⚖ Good character
🏊🏻 Self-disciplined
✨ Attractive
😘 Playful
🙇🏻♀️ Polite
+ Manual entry
Invite
+
Iteration #2
A full page feels overwhelming for users
My Amazing Friend
😘
What do you like about her?
3 / 3개
👊 Positive
🍵 Calm
🐹 Cute
😜 Humorous
🤓 Compete
💰 Capable
👏🏻 Inspiring
💪🏻 Fit
🍭 Kind
⚖ Good character
🏊🏻 Self-disciplined
✨ Attractive
😘 Playful
🙇🏻♀️ Polite
+ Manual entry
Invite
2.Cumulative Trust
+
Iteration #1
Hard to read
Jane
Female
Meta
1 / 3
9:41
John H.
If there’s one guarantee, it’s that you won’t be bored hanging out with this friend 🤓
Marketer, Google
Sarah T.
Always brings good vibes. You’ll have a great time with them.
Lawyer
James R.
Fun, easygoing, and full of energy. Definitely worth meeting
IT Developer, Startup
Blair W.
Always brings good vibes. You’ll have a great time with them.
Designer, Meta
추천인 : 강*희
한번 사귀면 진짜 잘해주더라. 만나보길 추천드려요. 미래의 형수님~!!
변호사
추천인 : 김*혜
나 진짜 얘한테 감동먹은 적이 너무 많아서 셀수 없어. 완전 따스한 애야.
자영업자
추천인 : 강*희
한번 사귀면 진짜 잘해주더라. 만나보길 추천드려요. 미래의 형수님~!!
추천인 : 김*혜
나 진짜 얘한테 감동먹은 적이 너무 많아서 셀수 없어. 완전 따스한 애야.
자영업자
Final Design
Users : “It feels like the recommender is telling me directly, I like that.”
If there’s one guarantee, it’s that you won’t be bored hanging out with this friend 🤓
Marketer, Google
John H.
Male
Always brings good vibes. You’ll have a great time with them.
Sarah T.
Female
Fun, easygoing, and full of energy. Definitely worth meeting
James R.
Prefer not to say
Always brings good vibes. You’ll have a great time with them.
Blair W.
Female
Lawyer
IT Developer, Startup
Jane
Female
Meta
1 / 3
9:41
+
Iteration #2
Distracting colors
John H.
Male
If there’s one guarantee, it’s that you won’t be bored hanging out with this friend 🤓
Marketer, Google
Sarah T.
Female
Always brings good vibes. You’ll have a great time with them.
Lawyer
James R.
Prefer not to say
Fun, easygoing, and full of energy. Definitely worth meeting
IT Developer, Startup
Jane
Female
Meta
1 / 3
9:41
추천인 : 강*희
한번 사귀면 진짜 잘해주더라. 만나보길 추천드려요. 미래의 형수님~!!
변호사
추천인 : 김*혜
나 진짜 얘한테 감동먹은 적이 너무 많아서 셀수 없어. 완전 따스한 애야.
자영업자
User Testing
Can a short format still be persuasive in building trust?
60%
40%
0%
0%
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree / Strongly disagree
Long texts can sometimes feel hard to read, but when multiple short ones stack up, it actually brings together diverse perspectives and feels easier to digest.
— Male, 32
Is it not burdensome if multiple acquaintances are asked to write recommendations?
20%
80%
0%
0%
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree / Strongly disagree
“When several people each leave a little note, it feels much more natural and convincing than one person’s exaggerated praise.”
— Male, 28
Impact & Result
Adoption : Number of new sign-ups
28% growth in new user sign-ups
Design System
Built the design system from start to finish
-Built a reusable trust component system
-Standardized tags, comments, and affiliation cues
-Ensured consistency & easy scaling across features
Accessibility
Integrated a11y checks to ensure accessible color contrast and readability
What I’ve Learned
Balancing user trust with business growth
In the process of balancing trust and new user growth, I was able to look deeper into the fundamental reasons why people hesitate and feel distrust. I experienced firsthand that trust grows stronger when relationships, context, and collective evidence come together. This taught me that meaningful design is not just about service performance, but about understanding people’s hearts as well.
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