Adding a feature
to Bumble to enhance privacy
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
Problem
In today's interconnected digital communities, online daters risk having their profiles discovered by colleagues, neighbors, and social connections—blurring the boundaries between dating life and daily interactions. Dating apps often prioritize geographic proximity and mutual connections, inadvertently surfacing profiles within overlapping social and professional circles. This creates the potential for intimate profiles to be visible to one's boss, child's teacher, or other acquaintances. Digital dating platforms collapse social distances, making it challenging to maintain separation between romantic pursuits and everyday social interactions.
Background
Online dating has evolved from a niche activity to the most common method for finding romantic connections. Dating platforms remove uncertainty by connecting people explicitly looking to meet others. We've seen significant evolution from early platforms like OkCupid and Match.com to modern swipe-based apps like Tinder and Hinge. Modern apps prioritize immediacy, location, and appearance over detailed profiles, fundamentally changing how people connect and find dates.
Primary Feature idea : The ‘Doughnut’
We propose creating an adjustable inner radius that excludes matches within a user-defined local area. This would function as a "buffer zone" that preserves privacy within the user's immediate community. The feature would complement existing distance filters that currently only set a maximum radius, giving users more control over who can see their profile.
Expected Benefits
This feature would provide enhanced privacy protection, particularly valued by women users who often have heightened safety concerns. Users would experience increased comfort knowing their dating profile isn't visible to their immediate community. The feature would differentiate Bumble from competitors and potentially increase user engagement from privacy-conscious individuals.
Based on user interviews with 10 participants, I created three personas to inform the feature development.
Storyboarding the ‘Doughnut’ feature
High Fidelity Wireframes
Bumble Feature Prototype