Zazazu’s founders wanted to build an entirely better dating app for young urban singles. They came to BiTE to transform their inspired concept into a stand-out brand and mobile product.

Building a Unique UI to Amplify a Dating App’s Brand

BiTE built an utterly unique UI for a dating app that reinforced users’ authentic connections with one another. The UI echoed the app’s brand, BE YOU, by putting the users front and center. We wanted the daters to feel a connection with each other, not the app.

Brand Development: Putting Each User at Center Stage

‘BE YOU’ became Zazazu’s slogan – short, simple, and in the zeitgeist of urban singles. We developed the brand and slogan to underscore the real connections that happen when people are their authentic selves. Anyone can make themselves look perfect with the right filters, profile, and posts, but trying to be who we’re not is a waste of time and emotional energy. It leads to anxiety, not love. Zazazu, by contrast, was all about authenticity and finding love – in its name, its logo, its features and functions, and in its design.

“We had a groundbreaking idea but we needed a groundbreaking design to go with it. BiTE’s design team created an elegant, usable interface that made our ideas come to life. We’d love to work with them again.”

Robin Leigh
Director of Communications

Using Color to Give Each User a “Brand” of Their Own

We designed Zazazu’s user interface to sustain users’ interest over time, to stand out from the competition, and to emphasize each user’s individuality and authenticity. As one example, we strategized a unique way to use color in user profiles.

We decided it would enhance the UX if the app’s color scheme adapted each time a user updated a profile photo. However, at the time, there was no easy way to produce the effect we wanted. With a strong belief that this design would significantly enhance the UX, we took the time to build the necessary algorithm to produce the effect we wanted.

In effect, the app gave each user a brand of their own. Our algorithm identified the dominant primary color in a profile image and matched it with a complementary color. The app would then assign those colors to interface icons, the app background, and for all screens relating to that user. The result was an utterly unique UI that reinforced our users’ connections with each other and improved usability.

When to Step Forward, When to Step Back

Our careful decisions about when to use low-branded vs. high-branded screens and vice versa presents another example of how Zazazu’s design enforced its brand identity of encouraging real connections between authentic humans.

The app kept the individual users front and center, and the app itself only stepped forward when it was needed. This required a keen sense of timing and a deep understanding of how to engage users. Our rule of thumb was simple – anything related to a connection between two daters used the daters’ “brand colors” as determined by our algorithm. By contrast, the app attached Zazazu’s brand to system functions like notifications, settings, in-app payments, and on-boarding.

Integrated Design

Behavior Driven Development breaks down silos between design, strategy, and development. At BiTE, each discipline collaborates with the others throughout a project. In the case of Zazazu, the product strategy informed design decisions to create novel algorithmic designs, nuanced notifications, and branding that uniquely engaged users and kept the focus on the app’s most important job – helping two people make an authentic connection with one other.