[MUSIC PLAYING]
YASMINE EVJEN: I'm Yasmine Evjen, the host of "Centered."
And I'm in Paris, France to find out
how Happn is taking the pressure out
of dating by creating a game that helps you find your crush.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DIDIER RAPPAPORT: Happn is an app
that allows to find the people you have crossed paths with.
Our aim is to help the people to connect to each other.
And we believe in the real life, we cross paths every day
with hundreds of thousands of people
and that all those crossings are opportunities to meet.
YASMINE EVJEN: You recently ran a design sprint
where you were trying to solve a challenge.
Could you walk me through that?
What was the challenge?
JULIE PRIEUR: You have both guy and women on the app.
And we noticed looking at the data
that women were interacting less than guy.
So we focused on how women were interacting on mobile apps.
And we found out that they love playing a game.
So gaming was the key to address women interaction.
YASMINE EVJEN: So you were trying
to create a feature that took women
from browsing to engaging.
And you went through all this iteration process
within the design sprint and you came up with CrushTime.
What is CrushTime?
JULIE PRIEUR: CrushTime is a game.
You have four cards--
four profile.
You cross paths with all the profile, but only one like you.
And you have to guess who it is.
When we designed CrushTime, we were
thinking about how women are going to use CrushTime.
And we thought it was a good idea
to imagine them sitting at the cafe with three or four girls
and playing together, trying to discover which is the crush.
YASMINE EVJEN: I think that's a really unique way
of bringing a gaming experience into the app.
JULIE PRIEUR: And the win is the crush
because it's important to win something in the game.
Finding love is a good win, I think.
YASMINE EVJEN: I look forward to chatting
with the rest of the team to hear their thoughts about how
design is a crucial part in the app.
What inspired the game?
Was there an actual physical experience
that kind of inspired this?
DAIJO TOGASHI: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
YASMINE EVJEN: Could you walk me through the experience?
DAIJO TOGASHI: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
YASMINE EVJEN: Yeah, so as I'm looking at this,
I automatically see some cards and there's
kind of a question mark letting you know that there might
be someone behind the card.
And I also like the way that you use animation
to kind of draw the user in to let them know that there's
like something fun that's going to happen on the next screen.
Let's find out who liked us.
Let's see if we can find the hidden crush in every game.
So as soon as it launches, the card flip over
and I am presented with four different people
that I can select.
DAIJO TOGASHI: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
YASMINE EVJEN: Here, I'll tap on.
Oh, I missed.
So if you select someone and they're not a crush,
you get a broken heart and it gives you the option
to try again for one credit or you
can hit Game Over, which then ends the session.
And that's actually one of the things about gamification
is that there is a challenge, there
is this unpredictability that you don't
know who is going to be there.
And so it encourages you to play because you
don't know it's going to be a sure match right away.
Now that I found out what makes CrushTime so successful,
I'm going to go check it out with my producer Liz
and we're actually going to test if Liz can find her crush.
LIZ CABRERA: So in the process of doing research for the show,
I became a user and started using Happn
and also started playing CrushTime.
YASMINE EVJEN: So walk me through that.
What was your experience like?
LIZ CABRERA: It was a really easy experience
to look at four people who might have a crush on me.
And it was a little exciting.
YASMINE EVJEN: Because one of the things
is when you're scrolling through a timeline
and you're kind of trying to look at people that you might
have a crush on, there's kind of this like maybe hesitation
because you're kind of putting yourself out there
in a complete way of like, well, I
have to kind of make that first move.
LIZ CABRERA: When you're playing CrushTime,
there's a 1 in 4 chance where the attraction is
going to be mutual--
YASMINE EVJEN: Yeah, it's going to be mutual.
LIZ CABRERA: --so why not take the risk?
YASMINE EVJEN: All right, so let's play CrushTime.
LIZ CABRERA: I get four options.
In my case, it's a mix of men and women.
So I have to guess which one has a crush on me.
Oh, man.
YASMINE EVJEN: Oh, man.
LIZ CABRERA: OK.
YASMINE EVJEN: So the game over is to finish one of the rounds,
and then it moves you on to another round.
So now, we're in a new round.
All right, let's find out who your crush could be.
LIZ CABRERA: Who my crush is, OK.
YASMINE EVJEN: Ooh, you missed.
LIZ CABRERA: Ooh, lost again.
YASMINE EVJEN: So do you want to try again for one more credit?
LIZ CABRERA: Yeah, I'm going to try again.
Oh, for a credit?
OK, sure.
YASMINE EVJEN: OK, so now, we have a credit.
Who do you narrow it down?
Who is it that you think is your crush?
LIZ CABRERA: Oh, man.
That's hard.
BOTH: Hey, it's a crush!
YASMINE EVJEN: But it kind of brings it back
to the youthfulness of a crush.
It's a little bit more lighthearted.
In UX, the user's destination is the reward.
In a game, the journey is the reward.
You can incorporate gamification into your app experience
by following these four fundamental principles.
One is value proposition.
Is a reward going to be worth the user's time?
Second is retention-- having some form of currency or fuel
that replenishes over time.
This allows your user to take a break
and actually keeps them wanting to come back for more.
The third is reengagement.
You can use push notifications to reengage your users.
Push notifications offers them an incentive
to come back and play.
And the fourth one is unpredictability.
It's a pattern that keeps users on edge
by making the success rate of rewards unpredictable.
By following these gaming fundamentals,
you can actually incorporate gamification
into your app experience, which increases
engagement and creates a better user experience.
As product creators, we have a responsibility
to create things that are focused
on the human experience, things that are centered.
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