Usability Issues with Tinder

By: Sunjot Kohli

Introduction

Tinder(https://www.gotinder.com/) is location-based social dating website that allows you to login through Facebook only and facilitates communication between people with mutual interests, thereby, allowing matched users to chat. The app was launched in 2012 and it was registering one billion "swipes" approximately per day.

Tinder uses a person’s Facebook profile to create a user profile on its platform. It takes the photos already uploaded on Facebook and uses those to set up pictures to its profile. Tinder gathers the user’s information from Facebook and analyses the social graph of that user. Then, it gets the potential matches for the user based on common interests, geographic location, and number of mutual friends. It allows the users to anonymously like/ reject another user, thereby, allowing the users who “Liked” each other to chat within the app.

Tinder allows the users to use swiping actions to "Like", "Super Like" or "Reject" the profile of a potential match. It also provides some other features such as "Rewind" (Undo) the last "Swipe", mock-location based search, group-based matching (Tinder Social), etc.

To "Like" a person's profile, one must "Swipe Right", to "Super Like" a person's profile, one must "Swipe Top" and to dislike (or reject) the profile, one must "Swipe Left".

Basically, Tinder provides a chance for the strangers, sharing mutual interests, to meet or communicate with each other.

Despite being the most famous social dating app, it faces a lot of usability issues, just as the other apps do. I am going to present some of the major usability issues that I found in this app, while performing the Usability Evaluation with Users. The participants were asked to perform sequential tasks in sessions that were recorded and analyzed to identify potential areas of improvement in the app. Task scenario subjective measures included:

• Easiness of performing an activity.
• Ability to find the information on the app easily.
• Accuracy of predicting which part of the app contained specific information.

The testing was performed on iPhones and Android smartphones.

Product and technical information

Software version: 6.8.2

Operating system: iOS and Android.

Usability Issues

1.       Unable to check all whom one liked or super-liked.

There’s no way to check all whom a user liked or super-liked. The user gets a lot of potential matches, which he/she may “Like” or “Super Like”, but can’t keep a track of whom he/she did that. There might be an incident when a person might encounter the same person he/she found on Tinder in real life, but keeps on reminiscing where he/she saw that person. The user might have to memorize all those in mind. Tinder doesn’t provide such feature.

Figure 1.1

Recommendation:

Tinder should provide a way to check whom all a user liked or super-liked. This could be done by providing a different section/page/window in the app such as before Profile page (“Human” icon), in between Profile page (“Human” icon) and Potential Matches page (“Fire” [Tinder] icon), between Tinder Social page (“Multiple Humans” icon) and Message/Matches page, or after Message/Matches page as can be seen in the screenshot below. In that page, the user ought to be able to view all the users whom he/she liked or super-liked. It may be that this is not being done for some sort of privacy reason; but currently the user could manually or mentally keep track of such a list, so there should be no privacy issue.

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.3

Figure 1.4

The icon to facilitate the users to check all whom he/she liked and super-liked can be placed at any of the positions specified in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.3 shows an example where that icon is placed after the “Message” icon.

Figure 1.4 displays the list of potential matches that the user “Liked” and “Super-Liked”.

2.       Issues with Tinder Social.

a.       Unable to join multiple groups on Tinder Social.

Tinder doesn’t allow the users to join/be a part of multiple groups on Tinder. This is one of the

major issues related to any social app. The users can join multiple groups on many other social apps, but not on Tinder. A user can’t add another user who is already a part of one group (Figure 2.a.1). While adding people to a group, all the friends, who are available on Tinder Social, can be searched for (Figure 2.a.1). When a user is already in a group, he/she gets the profile screen as can be seen in Figure 2.a.2. Thus, Tinder allows the user to be a part of one group only. What if a user wants to create different groups with different friend circles? How will the user be able to do that? It’s currently not possible in Tinder.

Figure 2.a.1

Figure 2.a.2

b.       Unable to edit (add/remove a person to/from) a group.

There isn’t any existing way to edit a group, i.e., add a new person to an existing group, or remove an existing person from the group. The user must dissolve (delete) the existing group, and then re-create the new group with the desired members. Steps to do so:

I. Leave Group.

Figure 2.b.1

II. Create Your Group.

Figure 2.b.2

       III. Add Friends.

Figure 2.b.3

       IV. You are in a Group.

Figure 2.b.4

Recommendation for 2.a & 2.b:

        A user must be allowed to join different groups. There must be a methodology to handle multiple groups of a user. Suppose, a user wants to have different groups with his/her roommate(s), and with his/her friends in each course or fields, but the user won’t be able to do so. The main aim of “SOCIAL” is that a user can interact with different users regardless of their interests. Though, Tinder matches based on the interests as well, even if there are no common matches within a user group, the interests of all the users can be considered to find potential group matches. Thus, a user must be able to be a member of different groups and get a chance to get “SOCIAL” with multiple groups. The option to manage all the groups can be displayed between any two icons in the header of the page (Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3

        Moreover, the users must be able to add a new member to an existing group or remove an existing member from the group, without having the need to dissolve the group. The users must have an option such as “Edit Group” adjacent to each group they are in, to edit the group by adding/removing group members. Or, at-least the user, who created the group, must have administrative rights to add/remove a person to/from the group, thus providing the ease with which a user can edit the group without having to delete it. Even if a user (creator of group) wants to delete a group, the user must click on “Delete Group” and thus, the group must get deleted. Thus, for the overall ease of all the users (normal as well as administrators), any member of a group must be able to add a new person or remove an existing person (except the administrator) from the group, whereas, the administrator can additionally delete the group. Also, a count of number of groups, a user is a member of, can be displayed alongside the group icon. Example:

Figure 2.4

        In the above screenshot (Figure 2.4), the user is a part of 6 groups (number 6 is displayed adjacent to the “Groups” icon displayed in black foreground color). And, there’s an option for the user to “Edit Group” and “Delete Group”. An administrator (one who created the group) must get both these options, but a normal group member must get only “Edit Group” wherein he/she can add a new person to the group or remove an existing group member (except the administrator). Moreover, whenever the group count exceeds a particular number (here, 4), a scrollbar is displayed at the right side, allowing the user to scroll down to view/edit the subsequent groups he/she is a member of.

c.       Getting the previously “Liked” potential “group matches” in Tinder Social again.

In Tinder Social, when a user (in a group) “Swipes Right”/” Swipes Top” or “Likes”/” Super Likes” the other groups and switches to other page such as the “Profile” page or “Messages/Matches” page, and returns to the “Potential Group Matches” page after a few seconds, he/she encounters the previously “Liked”/” Super Liked” potential groups. It is a serious bug for this kind of application, and must be resolved. The following screenshots explain the problem. The time has been highlighted, indicating that once the same group has been liked at a particular time, it was again visible in the potential “Group Matches” page. Examples:

Figure 2.c.1

Figure 2.c.2

Figure 2.c.3

Figure 2.c.4

Figure 2.c.5

Figure 2.c.6

Figure 2.c.7

Figure 2.c.8

Recommendation:

This issue must be resolved. Once a user of a group “Likes”/ “Rejects” / “Super Likes” another group, it shouldn’t appear again, even after switching between different pages on the app.

3.       Logging-out of the app or Deleting Tinder account.

The “Logout” and “Delete Account” features are related to a user’s profile and must be available in the Profile page. However, both the options were in Settings page, and that too, after scrolling down to the bottom of the page (as can be seen in Figure 3.1, Figure 3.2, and Figure 3.3).

I. Go to Profile and click on "SETTINGS".

Figure 3.1

II. On Settings page, scroll to the bottom.

Figure 3.2

III. You get to see Logout and Delete Account as the last two options.

Figure 3.3

Recommendation:

        The Logout & Delete Account options should come in the Profile or the Edit Profile page. Moreover, it should be easily visible.

        Let’s say, it should be placed close to the profile picture, on the “Profile” page, such that it is easily visible to the users. Example:

Figure 3.4

Conclusion:

        The Tinder app is extremely visually appealing, clean, and uncluttered, and somewhat easy to use, but it lags behind in terms of stability and organization of the content. However, implementing the recommendations and continuing working with many ordinary users will result in a more user-centered application.