DISRUPTING THE DATING SCENEA Case Study

BACKGROUND• 40 million Americans today use online dating

• 5% of all Americans currently married or in a

long-term relationship met their partner

online

• Among couples together for 10 years or

less, 11% met online

twineiOS, Android

twine canvas

iOS

2

But the digital world of dating inevitably comes with real-world problems that singles need to navigate.

Dozens of dating apps compete for users, but the vast majority have a photo-centric approach that emphasize physical

appearance. In 2013, Spoonjuice, a repeat client, asked Sourcebits to build a new dating app that would innovate the

space. It all started with a simple question…

3

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

Spoonjuice asked Sourcebits:

How can a dating app help people meet better matches?

Our answers – twine & twine canvas

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

CLIENT

REQUIREMENTS

Both apps feature ICE, a

proprietary feature which provides

conversation ideas based on a

match’s interests.

★ Create a unique personality-first experience to

connect interesting strangers.

★ Help people overcome the hurdle of starting new

conversations.

★ Generate global interest at launch and beyond to

drive downloads.

★ Create a second app with more visual content

that allows users to self-select interesting

matches.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

★Create a unique personality-first experience to connect interesting strangers.

★Help people overcome the hurdle of starting new conversations.

★Generate global interest at launch and beyond to drive downloads.

★Create a second app with more visual content that allows users to self-select matches.

“ For people who might be turned off by the superficialness of the Tinder app, there’s Twine Canvas, a dating app for iOS that connects users with people based on their interests. ”

CLIENT

REQUIREMENTS

SOURCEBITS SOLUTIONSStrategy

We flipped the old “meat market”

model on its head to focus on

personality first and improving in-

app conversations.

Design

We designed both app interfaces

to be visually rich and fun, with an

intense focus on delightful user

experiences.

Development

Our agile development process

and close collaboration with

design allowed for rapid

prototyping and iteration.

Launch Marketing

From user acquisition and web

design to media outreach and

email marketing, we covered the

launch spectrum.

Analytics

We built a rich data analysis

platform for user behaviors and

marketing acquisition. Data has

driven the product roadmap.

Monetization

Based on user feedback and

competitive analysis, Sourcebits

identified an in-app purchase

opportunity for twine.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

A TALE OF TWO TWINESSpoonjuice launched twine (the first

intellectual flirting app) for iOS and

Android in July 2013.

The App Store featured twine at

launch in the “What’s New” category. A

flurry of media attention and user

acquisition efforts resulted in 200,000+

downloads. Users reported having

more interesting conversations and

meeting cool people. Spoonjuice then

decided to expand its matchmaking

portfolio.

After Sourcebits conducted

extensive user testing and

analyzed app data, Spoonjuice

asked us to build another dating

app in less than 3 months.

The goal: focus still on personality,

but create a more engaging,

interactive and visual experience -

like Instagram. Spoonjuice

launched twine canvas (express

yourself to meet interesting people)

for iOS in January 2014.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

How twine works

★ Sign in through Facebook.

★ Set gender, age and location filters.

★ Twine algorithm connects local matches based on similar interests.

★ People see a blurry profile image along with interests while chatting.

★ Users stay anonymous until they choose to reveal their pictures.

Key features

★ No profile creation necessary, just sign into Facebook.

★ Matching algorithm based on interests and proximity.

★ Icebreaker provides conversation starters based on interests.

★ In-app purchase to get more than 3 matches within a set time period.

★ Available on iOS and Android.

twine

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

This image inspired the color palette update for Twine in April 2014. By clashing a hot yellow with a cold blue, it turns the blue warm.

The home screen has just 5 elements, with a clear information hierarchy and super-simple user experience.

In addition to clicking on the profile button, a swipe from the home screen reveals the profile screen for easy editing.

The chat button turns yellow when a user has new matches or messages.

The “Find New Twine” button doubles as a progress bar. Similar to energy/life meters in gaming, the button starts completely filled with blue and depletes with each match made during a session. This lends a subtle playfulness and urgency to the experience - get a good match before the bar runs out.

Twine’s logo features prominently on the home screen to enforce branding. It also serves as a “portal” to meet matches. When loading, it turns into a radar detector, then briefly spins to pull the user in to reveal a match. By placing it like a sun rising on the color horizon line of the background, it feels like a source of energy.

DESIGNING

TWINE

DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

★ Chat requires many pieces: push notifications, real-time chat, tracking delivery and tracking read. We built Twine’s chat with the XMPP Chat solution from Process One.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

★ ICE, a patent-pending solution developed by Sourcebits, analyzes profile interests to generate real-language conversation starters.

★ To ensure privacy, Twine encrypts all images and private user information. Sourcebits used OAuth and SSL to protect network transmissions.

★ Sourcebits developed, tested and optimized a unique matching algorithm - the primary feature of Twine.

★ Every element of the app has been tested and optimized for speed and fidelity to enhance the user experience.

Engineering Challenges & Wins

How twine canvas works

★ Swipe to browse the gallery of personality canvases.

★ Sign in with Facebook to like interesting canvases.

★ Express yourself by creating a 5-image canvas reflecting interests.

★When two people like each other’s canvases, the app reveals names and profile photos to connect them.

★ Start chatting with people you find mutually interesting and attractive.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

twine canvasKey features

★ Simple photo collage creation to express personality.

★ Left-right swiping to browse through “cards” in the gallery; swipe down to like, swipe up to hide.

★ Social sharing of personality canvases, including a Twitter card.

★ Easy invitations to join across social network accounts.

★ Supports iOS6 and iOS7.

While the in-app palette uses a muted green and calm orange, Sourcebits went with a hot pinkish-red icon to create a striking visual that stands out in the App Store and on-screen. By straddling pink and red, it appeals to both men and women.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

DESIGNING TWINE

CANVASCreating a personality canvas might be intimidating for users, so Sourcebits made it very simple and predictable. We built collage editing tools with well-known actions within the iOS ecosystem: 2 fingers to rotate, pinch to shrink/expand, tap and hold to drag and tap to bring images forward/back. Because it speaks to the user’s muscle memory, the intuitive experience doesn’t require a tutorial and people get instant gratification.

The stack shows there’s more to discover. Layers have a vertical orientation to create a sense of “hanging” on a wall - like a gallery.

The gallery is very flat and white to frame the canvases and keep visual focus on user generated content.

Collages use a limit of 5 images to avoid overloading the system and to keep creation simple. The app encourages users to keep their faces out of the collage.

The app automatically adds a subtle shadow to the images, which enhances the visual appeal and depth to the canvases.

DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE★ Valentine’s Day was a big

timing factor for Spoonjuice marketing. To get Twine Canvas into the App Store in time, Sourcebits had just 6 weeks to develop the new iOS app. While cache and chat ported from Twine, everything else was built from scratch.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

★ To ensure users have a seamless experience and don’t get a “loading” message, Twine Canvas calculates how quickly a user is swiping through the gallery images to determine how many canvases should be pre-loaded.

★ The canvas creation tools built upon an existing library of common interactions to provide an intuitive experience. The magic wand tool required building a set of pre-defined canvas layouts based on the number, size and orientation of images.

★ The analytics platform Sourcebits built combines services from Omniata and HasOffers. With 19 user attributes, 72 events and 174 parameters, the app data provides tremendous context and flexibility for user segmentation and detailed product analysis.

Engineering Challenges & Wins

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

AGILE PROCESSOur agile process

allows us to rapidly

make changes, refine

features, adjust the user

experience and modify

the design. Working in

2-week development

sprints, each iteration

brings the product

closer to completion.

LAUNCH STRATEGYBranding & Marketing

When it comes to mobile

marketing, user acquisition is

essential. That’s where we

laser-focused most of our

efforts for twine and twine

canvas, handling all the email

marketing, paid acquisition

planning, web content, social

media, app branding, user

analytics and testing, public

relations, and App Store

Optimization.

Promotional Website

For this project, our team

pulled out the big guns in our

extensive web design arsenal.

We used a combination of

SAS, Compass, CSS

animation, HTML 5 and Ruby

on Rails. Some nifty jQuery

delivers the site’s beautiful

parallax scrolling. We also

ensured image optimization

and a responsive, smooth site

across all devices.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

Click Screen to Visit twine.me

APP STORE OPTIMIZATION

twine#2 app for "flirting" and "flirting app"

Our ASO efforts after launch took twine out of obscurity in

the app stores. On the Google Play Store, twine moved

from not ranking in search results at all to ranking in every

targeted category.

twine canvas#1 for "flirting" and #4 for "dating app"

Thanks to ASO by Sourcebits, twine canvas also went from

#12 for "online dating" to #2. The app launched at 2, 4, and

12 for the keywords “matchmaking”, “flirting, and “online

dating” respectively.

We optimized twine for Google Play and the iOS App Store, and twine

canvas for the iOS App Store. We targeted specific keywords, changing

the app title and updating the app description.  It significantly improved

the app rankings.

How well did our ASO do?

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

PUBLIC RELATIONSSourcebits handled the Public Relations efforts for twine and twine canvas around their launches, generating buzz on social media channels and through ongoing targeted email marketing.

For twine, Sourcebits also organized a launch party in San Francisco attended by 200+ people, with the app download a requirement for entry.

Both apps have been covered in top publications like Mashable, TechCrunch, ReadWrite, GigaOm, MSN Living and TrendHunter. For Valentine’s Day 2014, Apple featured twine canvas on the App Store homepage. In April 2014, Twine Canvas had a media surge with a 5-minute TV segment on Fox News and coverage in BuzzFeed, Metro (UK) and the Daily Mail.

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

“For people who might be turned off by the

superficialness of the Tinder app, there’s Twine Canvas, a

dating app for iOS that connects users with people based

on their interests.” Engagor

© SOURCEBITS 2015. A GLOBO COMPANY.

“Meet Twine, the dating app that doesn’t care how

hot you are.”

GigaOm

“The app highlights the increasing importance of simple

interfaces and visual cues in app design. Although Twine

Canvas challenges the “instant attraction” strategy of rival

dating apps such as Tinder, the app’s interface replicates the

successful swipe-on-the-go format pioneered by Tinder, and the

image-heavy aesthetic of sites such as Instagram and

Pinterest.” Stylus

“Twine Canvas has kept the same “personality first” stance as

Twine, but has a different functionality - now working like a

cross between Tinder and Instagram.”

The Modern Connection

“Not so forward? Check out Twine Canvas, a way to meet

a match via an app, but with the focus on personality and

interests.”

Global Dating Insights

MEDIA QUOTES

San Francisco | 415.288.3697 | 211 Sutter St., 2nd Floor | San Francisco, CA 94108Bangalore | +91.080.4065.0855 | Salarpuria InfoZone | No. 39, 41 & 42 | Electronics City Phase 1 | Electronics City | Bangalore, Karnataka | 560100, India

Looking for a talented team dedicated to your success?

Have an app you want to bring to life or revamp? Sourcebits

is designed to deliver results.

Let’s Talk

Email: info@Sourcebits.com Twitter: @Sourcebits

Let’s Talk

CONTACT SOURCEBITS