Brand voice and style guide:
Kwickadee

Kwickadee's quirky, casual, and considerate voice

Kwickadee (now Hopp) is a dating app with no in-app chat feature. It seeks to get people together to give chemistry a chance.

Five screens highlight the value proposition and unique function of Kwickadee.

My App Store screens, highlighting the value proposition and unique way of getting people together.

Speaking to a jaded user group

To design the brand voice for Kwickadee, I spoke with the founder and researched the language and concepts their of their users: those who want to meet people through online dating (abbreviated to "OLD").

My research showed that we needed to use considerate language (as well as actions), because people felt like OLD apps were wasting their time and energy.

This was also important as users became familiar with Kwickadee's unique lack of in-app chat, and emphasis on going to short coffee dates with their matches.

A snippet from my research insights on users of OLD for Kwickadee.

Insights stating that online dating users hate the in-app chat, feel that most users aren't serious about dating, and feel their chat interactions aren't natural.

Getting users together

Users are unhappy with OLD because they text for days or weeks and then get ghosted. They want to have a chance to meet people.

Kwickadee made meeting up the second action, after matching - this solved some problems, and created others.
The chat feature in a dating app is where logistics for getting together are normally handled.

Because there was no in-app chat or other form of direct contact in Kwickadee, users needed to know what was happening at every step of the process.

This attentiveness needed to be reflected in the tone of the interactions.

A notification stating "Your match is X minutes late [sweating/distressed emoji]. They're doing their best to get there!

A notification reading: "Your maych has arrived! Look for them near the entrance."

These notifications consider how both of the users might feel in the moment, and what they need to know, in the appropriate tone for the moment.

Speaking with a compelling voice

This project transformed Kwickadee's brand voice.
I first updated the App Store content and onboarding, and then added notifications and more. Updates are ongoing.

As a result of this content design project:

the profile completion rate rose from 20% to 85%.
downloads increased (unclear specifics as marketing coincided).

Reflections

Looking back on this project, I wish I could have taken more time to train and familiarize the client with some strategies to help him continue applying the voice and style independently.

It was a short project that I did as a freelancer, so there was a lot left undone that I was itching to do.

I did some content testing, but I wish I could have done more.

I also wish we'd had a deeper conversation about naming, but since I had turned the brief upside-down already, I didn't feel it could be addressed in the timeframe.