Flirtastic! – A fun new way to flirt online.

Flirtastic! is the result of a seven week long interaction design project, sponsored by Adobe. Our group of five was tasked with facilitating a useful service via the design and use of resources both physical and virtual to support interpersonal relationships. Specifically we were to take advantage of Rich Internet Application (RIA) platforms and webcam and video messaging.

This project underwent an extensive research and development process which is only lightly highlighted on this page. For a more in depth view, you may download a PDF of the presentation delivered at several conferences listed at right.

Opportunity Finding

After deciding to approach the singles market, we looked to see what services already exist and performed a comprehensive competitive analysis.

We mapped to the criteria of dimensions of how serious of relationship users of the service were looking for, and how centralized the information and service is. This exposed a clear area for opporunity in the market.

That's people who flirt! We identified this audience as including new arrivals to a new area, young professionals, new college students and recent graduates.

Concept Generation

Following this we underwent an extensive phase of gaining knowledge of the domain, learning exactly how it is that our audience flirts by using surveys, interviews, collections of anecdotes and “fly on the wall” immersion.

Finally we went through concept generation, starting with loose brainstorming and filtering by using rapid story telling and audience feedback. By this process, Flirtastic! was born!

Concept Evaluation

In order to evaluate this interaction-rich service concept, we had to employ a number of methods. Traditionally we would create low fidelity paper prototypes, or visual basic prototypes in order to present the concept to the audience. We felt these methods were not sufficient to communiciate the richness of the service. Over the course of a week we underwent these two methods: Video Sketching and Interactive Prototyping.

Video Sketch

Three of our group mates, Chris, Paul and Catarina, created a story-telling video sketch to communicate the primary use of the service. Click the video below to play. Or visit Vimeo to watch in full HD!

Interaction-Rich Prototype

Three of our group mates including myself, Steve and Catarina created an interactive prototype by using Flex, a tool for creating Rich Internet Applications.

Click the thumbnail at right to launch the prototype to experience Flirtastic for yourself!

Flirtastic! Copyright 2007

Previous Project

thumbnail Bubbletype

November 2007

Recognition

Collaborated With

Special Thanks