Live

Live

From ghosting to clarity on the Muzz app

Role

Product Designer

Industry

Marriage/Dating

Duration

3 weeks

— The problem ·
Ghosting is one of the most persistent and emotionally draining behaviours in digital dating. For Muzz, it reinforces unhealthy communication habits which is contradictory to what a marriage requires. Members tend to put off the action of unmatching.

On a casual app, being left on read stings. On a marriage platform, it compounds. Each ignored conversation reinforces the same damaging message: your time and intent don't matter here.

— Research & Discovery ·

The goal was to understand the emotional and behavioural drivers behind ghosting and not just measure it. Here were three clear signals from the data:

  1. Users are increasingly intolerant of ghosting — and want the app to intervene

    Members aren't passive about this problem. There is a growing expectation that Muzz, as a marriage-intent platform, should actively facilitate better behaviour — not leave it to chance.

  2. There's a growing desire for honest, direct communication — even if it's uncomfortable

    Users expressed a preference for a clear no over continued silence. Honest closure is beginning to outweigh the discomfort of rejection, particularly among members with serious intent.

  3. Expectations are shifting: from endless options to curated, meaningful connection

    The dating-app fatigue cycle — swipe, match, ghost, repeat — is no longer acceptable to a growing segment of Muzz's user base. People want fewer, better conversations.


— Framing the challenge ·

— Ideation ·

Three ideas explored

I wireframed and presented three distinct directions before deciding on an approach that best balances emotional comfort, platform goals and the need to prompt an actual decision.
— Design
The feature lives as a dedicated "Clear your queue" mode, triggered when a member has 3+ unresponded chats older than 7 days. Each card shows the person and their name - the user flow below illustrates each eaction.



— The problem ·
Ghosting is one of the most persistent and emotionally draining behaviours in digital dating. For Muzz, it reinforces unhealthy communication habits which is contradictory to what a marriage requires. Members tend to put off the action of unmatching.

On a casual app, being left on read stings. On a marriage platform, it compounds. Each ignored conversation reinforces the same damaging message: your time and intent don't matter here.

— Research & Discovery ·

The goal was to understand the emotional and behavioural drivers behind ghosting and not just measure it. Here were three clear signals from the data:

  1. Users are increasingly intolerant of ghosting — and want the app to intervene

    Members aren't passive about this problem. There is a growing expectation that Muzz, as a marriage-intent platform, should actively facilitate better behaviour — not leave it to chance.

  2. There's a growing desire for honest, direct communication — even if it's uncomfortable

    Users expressed a preference for a clear no over continued silence. Honest closure is beginning to outweigh the discomfort of rejection, particularly among members with serious intent.

  3. Expectations are shifting: from endless options to curated, meaningful connection

    The dating-app fatigue cycle — swipe, match, ghost, repeat — is no longer acceptable to a growing segment of Muzz's user base. People want fewer, better conversations.


— Framing the challenge ·

— Ideation ·

Three ideas explored

I wireframed and presented three distinct directions before deciding on an approach that best balances emotional comfort, platform goals and the need to prompt an actual decision.
— Design
The feature lives as a dedicated "Clear your queue" mode, triggered when a member has 3+ unresponded chats older than 7 days. Each card shows the person and their name - the user flow below illustrates each eaction.



Live prototype

Explore the interactive prototype below.

— Measuring sucsess ·

This was designed as a concept spec. Success metrics were defined upfront to ensure the design was solving the right problem and give any future build phase a clear north star.

Other projects

Shaimaa Osman

Copyright by Shaimaa Osman

Shaimaa Osman

Copyright by Shaimaa Osman

Shaimaa Osman

Copyright by Shaimaa Osman