BumbleXR; Shortlisted finalist of the Immersive Insiders XR Hackathon

In 2024 Immersive Insiders hosted a global XR hackathon in collaboration with tech giants Meta, IDEO and ShapesXR. The virtual event saw over 2000 participants.

I was part of a team of three, that decided to work on translating a Mobile App to XR. We wanted to work with a dating app, and selected Bumble for their unique prompts and prioritisation of women's safety.

I led the design of the immersive component and played a role in the research. I also created a prototype of the concept using the drawing software, OpenBrush.

Walkthrough of final product

The problem with dating apps

Mobile dating apps have revolutionised how people connect, giving users access to a larger pool of potential matches and make it easier to approach them.

However, users express 'dating app fatigue' caused largely by a lack of trust and an inability to gauge compatibility through online profiles

Solving this with Immersive Design

Our product, BumbleXR, seeks to address existing pain points with dating apps through immersive technology. Our VR experience allows users to:

Create more holistic profiles to represent themselves, making it easier to gauge compatibility virtually.
Engage in interactive immersive experiences with potential matches, helping ease social anxiety around early interactions.

Testing the success of our solution

As part of our early research methodology we conducted a series of interviews with dating app users. After detailing out our solution, we reached out to these people again. We used two immersive prototypes (one a sketch on Openbrush and one on ShapesXR) to explain our concept and functionality.

Users expressed interest in the features that allowed them to engage with matches through games before meeting in person. Three out of four users expressed interest in the idea of not being able to speak to matches until one had completed some form of immersive activity.

View our submission on Devpost