CHANCE - FEBRUARY 2022
Designing Privacy First Dating App: 10K Users in 2 Months
My Role
Product Designer
Research, User Flows, Rapid Prototyping, UI & Interaction Design
Team
Me
Anirudh Palaskar (Product Designer)
Rajeet Parekh (Founder)
Shashikant (Dev)
Timeline
7 Months (Intermittent) | Feb 2022 - Apr 2023
Overview
Chance is a bootstrapped startup founded by Rajeet Parekh, entrepreneur behind Stories2Brew and The Happy Place App, and featured in Economic Times India 30 under 30. Having previously collaborated on The Happy Place App's SaaS dashboard, Rajeet reached out on Instagram after seeing my UI design content.
As sole designer, I led the entire design process from concept to launch. This involved conducting user research, collaborating closely with the founder, and translating insights into design decisions that balanced user needs with business goals throughout implementation.
HIGHLIGHTS
Building a dating app where your face matters less than your personality.
THE PROBLEM
The rise and challenges of online dating apps
Understanding the evolving landscape of digital dating
In recent years, online dating has become increasingly popular as a way for people to meet potential partners. While dating apps have made it easier than ever to connect with others, they have also created a number of challenges for users.
Lack of privacy and anonymity
Most dating apps expose users' personal information before meaningful connections are established, creating discomfort and safety concerns, especially in conservative markets like India.
Appearance First Market
The current dating landscape prioritizes superficial attraction over genuine compatibility, failing to serve Gen Z users seeking authentic connections.
Caught between casual swiping and serious matchmaking
Most Indian dating platforms sit at opposite ends of the spectrum, either hyper-casual, looks-focused experiences or rigid, marriage-oriented matchmakers. This leaves a gap for users seeking genuine connections based on personality, not just appearance or family expectations.
OBJECTIVE
Build authentic connections through personality matching while prioritizing user privacy and safety.
RESEARCH
Diving into the problem at hand
Choosing right competitor for Competitive Analysis
To understand what’s working for our competitors and what’s not, we needed to study them closely. We used their apps and read a ton of reviews. But first, we had to define who our actual competitors are in this large market.
Findings from competitive Analysis
Before designing, we needed to understand the competitive landscape. We used competitor apps firsthand and analyzed hundreds of user reviews to identify what's working and what users are craving. Our analysis revealed three key patterns shaping modern dating app design.
Understanding the root cause
To better understand the challenges and pinpoint the root causes, we conducted user interviews. We talked to two groups: current dating app users and those who have used dating apps in the past.
Here are a few questions we asked:
Insights from interviews and online research
Through the user interviews and online research, we gained some crucial insights into the problems that laid the foundation for the subsequent phases of the process.
Why India: The Market Opportunity
Understanding India's demographic and market landscape was crucial to validating Chance's product-market fit. With one of the world's youngest populations and massive untapped potential, India represents a compelling opportunity for dating apps, particularly outside major metropolitan areas where growth is accelerating fastest.
Key pain points in parental decision making
Parents often struggle with emotional and inconsistent decisions when approving apps for their kids. Their choices are influenced by limited context, delayed alerts, and unclear communication tools. These gaps create frustration, conflict, and weakened trust within families.
VISUAL DESIFGN & SOLUTION
Engaging Users with Anonymous Profiles
Keeping users engaged without photos was our biggest hurdle.
We explored custom avatars like Snapchat's Bitmoji or Reddit's system, letting users build their own unique character. It felt right. But with only one developer and tight deadlines, building a full customization system wasn't realistic.
The Reality Check
Photo less profiles meant risking user boredom. Pseudo-anonymous dating was uncharted territory at the time so we had no research to lean on, no proven playbook to follow.
CHALLENGE
How do we keep users browsing and actively engaged?
The Solution
We chose quirky, pre-made avatars with serious variety. Over 200 avatar combinations let users pick something that felt authentically them without the development overhead.
Playful, expressive, and instantly recognizable, these avatars became the personality proxy users needed.
Testing the Idea: Launching v1.0 (MVP)
With our avatar solution in place, we launched the MVP with just the essentials. No bells, no whistles, just enough to test one critical question: Would people actually use a pseudo-anonymous dating app?
Early Validation
We ran targeted marketing campaigns and waited. The response? Better than expected.
Within two months, 1,000 users signed up and started matching. People were genuinely curious about personality-first, photo-less dating. The concept wasn't just theoretically sound. It was working in the wild.
The Feedback Loop
But launching is never the end, it's the beginning. Users came through with honest feedback on both design and functionality. Some flows felt clunky. Certain features needed refinement. Others were missing entirely.
This feedback became our roadmap for v2.0, helping us evolve from a working concept into a polished experience.
Important screens/flows
But launching is never the end, it's the beginning. Users came through with honest feedback on both design and functionality. Some flows felt clunky. Certain features needed refinement. Others were missing entirely.
This feedback became our roadmap for v2.0, helping us evolve from a working concept into a polished experience.
RESULTS
From Iteration to Impact
The Process
Design is rarely linear, but our approach was clear: create, test, iterate, test, finalize, then repeat. Each cycle brought users and stakeholders into the conversation, turning feedback into actionable improvements.
This wasn't just about fixing what was broken. It was about understanding why things weren't working and building solutions that actually resonated.
Measuring What Matters
Every iteration gave us data. Every test revealed patterns. We tracked engagement, usability scores, and user sentiment to measure whether our changes were moving the needle.
The numbers told a story: users were staying longer, engaging more deeply, and reporting higher satisfaction with the experience.
The Outcome
The design improvements didn't just address surface-level issues, they fundamentally transformed how users experienced Chance. Usability increased. Satisfaction soared. The app evolved from a working concept into something users genuinely enjoyed.
What started as a risky bet on anonymous dating became validated through measurable impact.
Listening to Feedback: Key Improvements Ahead
The design improvements didn't just address surface-level issues, they fundamentally transformed how users experienced Chance. Usability increased. Satisfaction soared. The app evolved from a working concept into something users genuinely enjoyed.
What started as a risky bet on anonymous dating became validated through measurable impact.
LEARNINGS
Reflecting, Learning, and Growing Through Every Project
Lessons That Shaped My Process
Each project helped me build confidence, improve collaboration, and make smarter design decisions. These lessons shaped how I approach problem-solving and teamwork in future projects.
