Overview

Branding, Product Design, UI & App Dev

Picnic takes a fresh approach to dating apps, designed to make meeting like-minded people feel more natural, engaging and enjoyable. I shaped the experience from end to end, leading the branding, UX and UI design, as well as the front-end app development itself.

Objectives

More than a profile

Create a richer dating experience where personality, interests and lifestyle can shine through, giving people more meaningful ways to discover each other and connect beyond appearances.

More natural connections

Move beyond the binary match-or-dismiss model, creating more natural opportunities to interact, start conversations and build connections without an immediate judgement.

A more balanced experience

Create a fairer, more balanced experience for everyone, reducing the dynamics that can make dating apps feel one-sided and bringing interactions closer to how people meet naturally offline.

Key insights

Misaligned incentives

Most dating apps rely on subscriptions and prolonged engagement. Picnic needed to break that cycle with an experience designed to be fair, efficient and genuinely focused on helping people connect.

Standing out is essential

In a crowded and highly established market, another familiar dating experience wouldn't be enough. Picnic needed a distinctive proposition, identity and experience that felt genuinely new.

Dating app fatigue

Ghosting, endless swiping, repetitive small talk and few meaningful connections have left many people fatigued by dating apps. Picnic needed to make the experience fun and rewarding again.

01

A more engaging experience

Playful interactions and a more dynamic approach to discovery helped make using the app feel engaging and enjoyable, rather than purely transactional.

02

Beyond first impressions

The Feed was designed to go beyond profiles and present lifestyle, personality and interests, giving people more to discover and engage with than just selfies alone.

03

More natural relationship building

New ways to interact gave connections room to develop naturally, without relying on forced introductions or repetitive small talk.

04

No more endless swiping

Replacing the monotonous swipe-to-dismiss mechanic allowed people to explore profiles more freely, without forcing an immediate decision on every person they encountered.

Picnic