Case Study for Are You Cheating.com
AreYouCheating.com is a website that anonymously connects people who are romantically involved with the same person. The company has a website but wanted to implement a new design to have a stronger online presence in the marketplace. They also wanted to confirm the type of user who would use the website to better market their services to them.
Areyoucheating.com is a website that can inform a dater if his/her partner is romantically linked to another person. It is also a website to help aid in the fight against AIDS/HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Project Background
The Task
To provide research for a better understanding of users who would use the website and create navigation and web pages to accommodate the identified users.
The Challenge
To identify behaviors, processes and pain points of users and redesign the website to better accommodate users of Are You cheating.com website.
Target User
The users are men and women who believe they are in monogamous relationships.
My Process
I followed a UX design thinking process (see below) to make sure that my design decisions were supported through user research and feedback.
My Process
Phase 1: Empathize
- competitive analysis
- one-on-one interviews
- empathy map
- user persona
Phase 2: Define
- define and agree on project goals
Phase 3: Ideate
- site map
- task and user flow
- wireframes
- branding & ui design (outsourced)
Phase 4: Prototype & Test
- usability testing and iteration if needed
Phase 1
Empathize
First, a competitive analysis was conducted by reviewing websites from Been Verified, People Looker, Spokeo, and Truthfinder. The purpose of this analysis was to reveal any new design patterns or to identify similar ones. However, no new design patterns were revealed.
Ten(10) One-on-One Interviews
Interview Participants were Male and Female Between 40-50 Years Old
Purpose: To the understand motivations, thoughts, emotions and pain points of people who have dealt with infidelity
Next, was a series of one-on-one interviews with men and women between the ages of 40-50. The purpose of these interviews was to gain information regarding relationships and infidelity. Six hours of research was conducted with 10 participants (3 males and 7 females). Using empathy interviewing techniques, I tried to uncover their motivations, thoughts and emotions, and pain points while they were describing their relationships and experiences dealing with monogamous relationships and infidelity.
Interview Script (created by Traci Williams)
Hi, my name is Traci Williams and I am conducting research on relationships and cheating. May I ask you a few questions? Because of the sensitive nature of these questions, feel free to skip any questions you don’t feel comfortable with answering. I truly appreciate your time and honestly.
Before the Cheating
- How did you and your significant other meet?
- How long were you together?
- What did you like about him/her?
- What did they like about you?
- Can you describe your first date?
- What was your favorite thing to do together?
- Did you see yourself having a future with them?
- If so, please describe those future plans.
- If not, what were your reasons for staying with him/her if you didn’t see a future with them?
During the Cheating
- Can you describe the day you found out he/she was cheating on you?
- Was this person just cheating with one person or multiple people?
- Was this person in a relationship(s) with another person or multiple people?
- Did you know the person(s) he/she was cheating on you with? What was the connection?
- Did anyone tell you or did you find out on your own?
- If someone told you, who was it and how did they find out?
- Did they have physical evidence? How did they gather their evidence (computer, photos, emails/text, visually seeing, hearsay)?
- If you found out on your own, what methods did you use?
- Did you believe it at first or no?
- If not, what made you finally believe it? What proof was shown? Why didn’t you believe it at first? How many times did it take for you to believe it? What was the final straw?
- If yes, what made you believe it was true so quickly?
- When you found out, what was the first thing you thought about doing? Did you actually do it?
- How long did it take you to get over this person cheating on you?
- What did you do to ease the pain? (Therapy, counseling?)
After the Cheating
- Looking back, did you see any warning signs that something wasn’t right? If so, what were they?
- Was it ever revealed to you why your ex cheated? Was it something that could have been prevented?
- If a stranger told you about your ex cheating, would you believe him/her? Why or why not?
- If you saw anything online about your ex cheating, would you believe it? Why or why not?
- Are you and your ex still friends today? If so, why? If not, why not?
Empathy Map
After the interviews an empathy map was created. This map sums up the research found and gives a high level overview of the typical users for the site. View larger map.
User Personas Introducing…
The “Don’t Waste My Time” Dater
The “Reluctant Snoop” Dater
The “I’m Just Nosey” Dater
Based off of the research and empathy map, these are three dater personas were identified who will most likely use AreYouCheating.com’s website.
Not Included User Personas
These user personas were identified but they weren’t included going forward in this case study.
Phase 2
Define Project Goals
Business goals were outlined according to the client’s objectives and the user goals were based on the interviews and user personas. The shared goals were then outlined to make sure both sides were accommodated in the design process.
Phase 3
Ideate
Task and User Flow
Based on behavioral patterns, a task flow was developed. From this task flow, a user flow was created for all three personas.
Wireframes
With the architecture in place, I created wireframes in Sketch for each screen of the flow.
Phase 4
Prototype & Testing
Invision Prototype
With InVision, I created a prototype using the wireframes. Once created, usability tests were conducted.
Reflection & What I Learned
This was the first time multiple personas were used which was quite different than my other projects. By using multiple personas it made me realize the various entry points a user would use to utilize a website. All in all a great project to work on.
