RallyUp

Depaul University HCI 430: Prototyping and Implementation

Problem

RallyUp addresses the challenges faced by young adults who struggle to form new, genuine connections. The decline of third spaces and the increase of digital oversaturation have exacerbated social fatigue and feelings of isolation (Turkle, 2011).

Solution

RallyUp is a mobile app designed to help Gen Z and Millennials foster meaningful, platonic relationships in new cities through shared interests and in-person events. To achieve this, qualitative and quantitative user research was conducted, including surveys, interviews, and usability testing.

Key findings revealed that users are wary of swipe-based designs and crave emotional safety, interest-based connections, and low-pressure interactions. Based on this, our prototype has evolved through iterative feedback, culminating in a high-fidelity version that emphasizes transparency, user control, and community-based discovery.

Overall, RallyUp’s emphasis on safety, personalization, and authenticity position it as a promising alternative to current friend-making platforms.

My role

Sketched initial wireframes for early-stage prototyping to explore the layout and visualize important interactions.
Developed competitive analysis and collaborated on comprehensive literature reviews.
Analyzed results for Mid-Fi prototype usability testing
Collaborated on the Lo-Fi prototype
Conducted user testing
Designed the user journey map

Timeline

12 weeks

Evaluation Process

01.
Competitive Analysis
& Literature review

02.
User Research

03.
Design Ideation

04.
Lo-fi and Mid-fi Prototype & testing

05.
Hi-fi Prototype
& testing

CA&LR

01. Competitive Analysis & Literature Review

Competitive Analysis
Having identified the problem, a competitive analysis was conducted to explore similar friend-making applications.

Geneva:

Focuses on finding groups and clubs that align with your interests.
There are no safety precautions.
Some groups are invite-only.
No verification is set for its users.

Bumble BFF:

Only swiping/messaging
Match-only messaging
Difficult to translate connections to in-person meet-ups
Too similar to dating platforms

Literature Review
Having identified the problem, a competitive analysis was conducted to explore similar friend-making applications.

Key studies identified lack of trust, fear of rejection, and introversion as major barriers to making friends, especially among women (Apostolou & Keramari, 2020).

Turkle’s (2011) critique emphasizes the paradox of digital connections, as users crave meaningful connections but are often left emotionally unfulfilled by superficial interactions.

Other sources discussed verification technologies, such as SybilSort, which improve online safety by flagging suspicious behavior and reducing bot interactions (Nedunchezhian & Mahalingam, 2021). This helped inspire RallyUp’s verification and safety protocols, which include ID verification and in-app reporting features.

Studies on embedding-based friend recommendation systems advocate for matching users based on profile similarities rather than proximity, which aligns with RallyUp’s value-and interest-based matching system (Shi et al., 2023).

Citations

02. User Research

Qualitative Research
Our qualitative research included user interviews, inductive coding, affinity mapping, and a literature review.

Next Step: In-class survey

Following our user interviews, our professor recommended developing a survey that would provide more backing to our project's research findings and feature development.

Our survey included a deeper analysis of users' preferences for various features that we could potentially include in our application.

Participants: 8

Tools:

Figma’s AI-integrated summary tool
Chat GPT
InsightLab
Dovetail
FigJam
Otter.ai

We used AI tools to analyze our results

Qualitative Research
After our user interviews, an in-class user survey was conducted.

Results

The results were combined with our user research results.

Key Themes Identified:

Friendship Barriers: Participants commonly cited social anxiety, fear of rejection, and difficulty finding value-based connections

Safety & Trust: High desire for safety features like ID verification, customizable profile visibility, and the ability to control who could contact them
Values-Based Matching: Participants prioritized shared values and interests, which aligns with research on effective digital friendships
Desired Features: “Vibe check” options (i.e., voice intro, prompts), public/private events, and search filters were frequently requested

Participants: 14

Tools:

Google Survey

RallyUp’s survey included 6 sections, which included Demographics, Friendship, Existing Apps, App Preferences, Feature Preferences, and lastly a Wrap Up section to let users express any final thoughts.

A total of 37 questions were included in the survey.

Similar to our user research, we used artificial intelligence to analyze the data.

Results

Personas & Journey Map

To form a deeper understanding of our users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors, personas were created for our two user groups: Student & Working Professional. A journey map was also created.

Persona-Chris

Persona - Anya

Persona-Chris

1/2

03. Design Ideation & Lo-Fi Prototype

Having gained an understanding of our audience,

we began the design ideation process.

Sketches were completed and afterwards our Lo-Fi prototype.

Techniques: Wireframing and Lo-Fi prototype

Tools: Pencil & Paper and Figma

Lo-fi

03. Mid-Fi Testing

After the completion of our Mid-Fi prototype, a usability testing walkthrough was conducted.

Techniques: Mid-Fidelity Prototyping, think-aloud method, and moderated usability testing,

Tools: Figma, FigJam, and otter.ai

Participants: 6

Mid-fi

Feedback and changes

Feedback:

Flow #1: Onboarding

Users mentioned that they needed more information on how the friend-matching process works.

Flow #2: Events

Received high remarks on how easy and engaging it was. Suggestions include a chat feature to message event hosts.

Flow #3: Matching

This flow was the most confusing of all. Most participants struggled to understand how the friend-matching process works. Some users thought this page was for direct messaging, while others interpreted this as already matched users. The term "Vibe and Interests align" was confusing to some.

Changes:

01.

Implementing a percentage based on similar interests. This will help the user best understand how the matching process works. The terms Vibe and Interests Aligned are deleted.

Matching

02.

The question-and-answer feature was removed, allowing users to start messaging by responding to a question created by the user in their profile.

Profile

Screen Shot 2025-07-15 at 9.41.31 PM.png

03.

Adding a chat feature to message event hosts.

Events

03. Hi-Fi Testing

After incorporating insights from the moderated usability evaluation, the final hi-fi prototype was completed.

Ten participants were recruited to complete 3 predefined tasks asynchronously. Both qualitative and quantitative insights and data were gathered, such as completion rate, time on task (average), and user satisfaction.

Techniques: Hi-Fidelity Prototyping, think-aloud method, and moderated usability testing.

Tools: Figma and Useberry

Participants: 10

Hi-fi

Feedback and Recommendations

Feedback:

Flow #1: Onboarding

Users found the onboarding process lengthy and cumbersome.
Highlighted discomfort around sensitive personal questions like religion and politics.
The privacy concern related to uploading IDs before exploring the app was also brought up.

Participants acknowledged the visual design and verification flow. Most of the participants commented that the overall experience was straightforward.

Flow #2: Friends Matching & Messaging

Confusion about how to reply to questions and were looking for a more traditional pattern, like having a “Reply” button instead of just clicking on the question.

Users appreciated the clarity and structure of user profiles; they highlighted chat prompts and matching percentages as engaging visual features.

Flow #3: Event Discovery & RSVP

Users were not sure where to locate events.
Participants were expecting functional search capabilities.

Users liked overall how the event page looked.

Learnings and what I could've done differently

After completing the usability evaluation for RallyUp, there are some aspects that I would have done differently, such as:

Conduct a round of usability testing on our Lo-Fi prototype. Conducting a round of usability testing on our Lo-Fi prototype before developing the Mid-Fi prototype would have provided valuable insights.

Increase the sample size of our target audience. Future testing should include a broader range of participants, particularly those who want to meet new people. This will uncover a wider range of usability issues and a more accurate understanding of user behavior.

Revisiting the overall color scheme and logo. I would ask users questions about their thoughts on the overall design, allowing me to create a cohesive logo and color scheme for our intended audience.

Conduct A/B testing, especially for the onboarding page. I would design a shorter version of the onboarding flow and compare it to the original one to determine which flow better meets users' expectations.

Capstone:
RallyUp

Prototyping and Implementation:
Concert Crew

RallyUp Depaul University HCI 430: Prototyping and Implementation

RallyUp is a mobile app designed to help Gen Z and Millennials foster meaningful, platonic relationships in new cities through shared interests and in-person events. To achieve this, qualitative and quantitative user research was conducted, including surveys, interviews, and usability testing.

Overall, RallyUp’s emphasis on safety, personalization, and authenticity position it as a promising alternative to current friend-making platforms.

​

My role ​

Evaluation Process

Competitive Analysis Having identified the problem, a competitive analysis was conducted to explore similar friend-making applications.

Geneva:

Focuses on finding groups and clubs that align with your interests.

There are no safety precautions.

Bumble BFF:

Only swiping/messaging

Match-only messaging

Difficult to translate connections to in-person meet-ups

Too similar to dating platforms

02. User Research

Qualitative Research Our qualitative research included user interviews, inductive coding, affinity mapping, and a literature review.

03. Design Ideation & Lo-Fi Prototype

03. Mid-Fi Testing

03. Hi-Fi Testing

Learnings and what I could've done differently

After completing the usability evaluation for RallyUp, there are some aspects that I would have done differently, such as:

Conduct a round of usability testing on our Lo-Fi prototype. Conducting a round of usability testing on our Lo-Fi prototype before developing the Mid-Fi prototype would have provided valuable insights.

Increase the sample size of our target audience. Future testing should include a broader range of participants, particularly those who want to meet new people. This will uncover a wider range of usability issues and a more accurate understanding of user behavior.

Revisiting the overall color scheme and logo. I would ask users questions about their thoughts on the overall design, allowing me to create a cohesive logo and color scheme for our intended audience.

​

Conduct A/B testing, especially for the onboarding page. I would design a shorter version of the onboarding flow and compare it to the original one to determine which flow better meets users' expectations.​

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Read more of my case studies and design work

RallyUp

Depaul University HCI 430: Prototyping and Implementation

My role

Competitive Analysis
Having identified the problem, a competitive analysis was conducted to explore similar friend-making applications.

Qualitative Research
Our qualitative research included user interviews, inductive coding, affinity mapping, and a literature review.

Conduct A/B testing, especially for the onboarding page. I would design a shorter version of the onboarding flow and compare it to the original one to determine which flow better meets users' expectations.