The (Un)Enjoyable User Experience of Online Dating Systems

Abstract

Online dating systems are used by millions of people around the world to pursue love, sex, friendship, and other goals. Several product features of online dating systems contribute to a seemingly enjoyable and rewarding user experience. For example, the “swiping” mechanism commonly found in many of today’s mobile dating apps has been likened to a game (Purvis in Why using Tinder is so satisfying. The Washington Post, 2017). Users swipe right to “like” profiles that they find attractive, and swipe left to reject the others. Receiving a match in these apps (i.e. discovering that an attractive user reciprocated a “like”) can be an exciting and addictive experience, not unlike winning a trivial amount of cash on a casino’s slot machine. Let’s pull the lever just one more time, let’s view just one more profile.