Table of Contents
<aside> 📋 Visual Design, UX Writing, Strategy
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**Project Website | Project Plan**
Dear Data is a dating app. Or rather, it's a fake dating app meant to serve as a critique of online privacy and digital connections.
How might a dating app that exposes and uses our invisible data in a visible manner service us? Just how well do we know our "digital" selves? How well do they match up against who we are in reality?
The idea of a "digital" representation of the self has always interested me. From how our Facebook profiles are set up to how Instagram feeds are curated, to live in the digital world is to leave behind intimate digital footprints.
The other day I was rummage around my Google preferences and found a tab on personalized ads. That's when I was introduced to just who I am in the eyes of Google.
Browser history data is too powerful. Somehow, Google is able to document my game tastes, purchases, target demographic and even income???
I mean, Interests in "Apparel" and "Indie Music" is one thing, but to list me as an "18-24 years old" "Lower Middle Class" "Female" who works at a "Very Large Company: 10,000+ Employees"?That's beyond terrifying.
Looking at this weird breakdown of my interests, I wondered how many people knew about this, and if this is done across other social media apps. Very similar data can be found on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, which shows targeted posts and ads based on "interests" these apps dictate you have.
Inspired by Amazon Dating and the projects showcased at Stupid Hackathon, I thought:
Why don't I design the worse dating app ever with this ultra specific information I found about myself online?
I decided that pitching an all new dating app would be the best medium for this "critique". Online dating has becoming something of a common place, especially with the ongoing pandemic, so I figured this might have the elements necessary to go viral.
Ultimately, the goal is to bring to the forefront issues of privacy, anonymity, and human connection in the age of the digital. To spark conversation and outrage over how our information is handled.
Iteration 1: with serifs and vintage inspired colors, I wanted to allude to the past and the idea of writing letters with the "Dear x" name.
Iteration 2: to make it feel more like a dating app, I updated the brand with a bolder color scheme (the clichéd red = love).
The final iteration of the branding was a pretty drastic change from the start, but I really want to embrace the "tech" look, with a symmetrical logotype and a darker color scheme.
