Juno App
Juno App is a personal project that I developed as part of my graduate review. As someone who loves astrology and used a dating app before, I wanted to combine both of the things I like to create an app that is fun, inclusive, and unique. Since this app is encouraging people to get to know someone before they swipe, the user can only see each other photo’s once they are matched. Instead of a profile photo, the user will see the potential match’s natal chart. This app caters from people who understand advanced astrology to someone who is interested and curious about the natal chart.
Figma, Illustrator (Logo)
Limited qualitative research. Finding the right icon to explain the different features.
Create a unique astrology-based app that enforces meaningful relationships.
Many people don’t believe in astrology, I don’t blame them. But it surprises me that even those who are skeptical are actually interested in meeting up with people who have a compatible zodiac with them. So why not create something that caters to people who actually wanted to learn?
Tools
Challenges
Goal
Background
Moodboard
The easiest part of the job. Gathering information that has aesthetic values. My goal here is to incorporate esoteric elements without overkilling them. I found the happy medium by using a subdued, natural color with symbols that related to astrology.
User Persona
Creating user persona really helps me to stay on track with the goal I want to have for this project. During my quarantine in 2020, I attended numerous virtual meet ups through creative mornings and ilovecreatives. I have met so many amazing people tho are also into astrology (yay!), I showed them what I have been working on and they helped me shape the questionnaires and give me some advice in astrology as well. This user persona is the amalgamation of all these vibrant people I have met who are adventurous and open to spiritual beliefs.
Research
Questions:
• Have you looked at your previous or current partner’s astrology?
• Which quality is the most important for your ideal partner?
• How do you feel about astrology?
• How do you feel about being matched based on your astrology chart?
• Have you used dating apps before?
• What features are your favorite in online dating?
• What do you use it for if it’s not for dating?
• What is your experience in online dating?
For my UX research, I wrote the questionnaire using google form and post it on an online forum for astrology lovers and dating forums
.Total participants: 112.
Age: 18-40 years old.
Gender: 50/50 male and female.
Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis, my bread & butter during my marketing experience. I am very grateful that my undergrad in fashion marketing studies actually useful for UX research. I was thrilled when my UX mentor (whom I found through the AIGA mentorship program, if you read this, you rock!) suggested that I needed to do competitor analysis for my project. After all, I don’t really have any experience designing a dating app aside from using it.
After analyzing the result of the questionnaire earlier, I have gathered a few popular dating apps that have a similar goal with Juno. It helps me to determine what would make Juno unique. I realized that these dating apps, while very fun to use, also condoning the “hook-up” culture by making it easy for users to swipe without reading their profiles. Except for Hinge. Hinge encourages you to look through the user’s interest, photos, basically the whole profile before you liked them and start a chat. But I was in total dilemma because users love the swiping feature based on my research. It’s convenient and takes off a lot of pressure in finding your potential soulmate. So there’s must be some other way, right?
Hi-Fi Design
On Boarding
Match Feature
In order to encourage people to get to know each other better without relying too much on the superficial aspect, Juno only allows people to see a potential match’s photo after you liked and/or match the profile. Therefore, you can use the time to read the user’s birth chart and compatibility first to see if your personality is actually compatible. Instead of the user’s photo, you will see their natal chart on the card. This app will have a learning curve for the users, so this is actually a good opportunity for beginner astrologers to learn astrology deeper.
If J.P Morgan can say Millionaires don’t use astrology Billionaires do, then why the hell not use it to our advantage? if you can use astrology to make more money, maybe it can help you find your soulmate 😉
Sketches
When I first got the idea to use the natal chart instead of the profile photo for the card, I was faced with a challenge on how to make it look attractive and not just a bland circular shape illustration. I did a few sketches to see how much information I want to put in the card, does it make sense? is it too much? In the end, I ended up putting the basic info such as your sun, rising, and moon sign, with an addition of juno sign (the asteroid placement for your long-term relationship).
Reflection
I’m not gonna lie, this is SO MUCH fun to work with. It all began in summer 2020 where the COVID-19 hits and we were all forced to stay indoors. I was desperate to find new hobbies so the isolation won’t drive me insane. I ended up buying multiple indoor plants, redecorating my apartment, and Marie-Kondo ing my clothes every few weeks until I discovered the world of astrology. This time, I dig deeper and did my due diligence (bought a few books and hire a professional astrologer). It really helps me to get to know myself and the people I love. As it rooted a lot in psychology, I found understanding different types of people is not only fun but also very useful in UX research. I think being able to create a unity between two people (or more) is a satisfying feeling. Maybe one day I can realize my childhood dream to become a match-maker through UX design, who knows. Anydoodles, this project is a love letter for all the things I found fascinating and I hope you enjoyed the case study.