Based on survey results, addressed the challenge of humor in text-based communication.
Collaborator: Pierre Hirschler
Role: Co-designer, co-researcher
Timeline: 2 weeks
Approach: Before deciding on an area to intervene in, we conducted a survey about humor and texting. While our responders did struggle to express their humor in non-face-to-face interactions, our survey showed that people find humor extremely important in forming friendship. But how do you find people who have a similar sense of humor as you? For this challenge, we have created a dating app that matches people based on sense of humor. Giggle works by asking you to rate little comedic clips based on how funny you find them. Everyday, Giggle will offer around 5 people it thinks you are compatible with. Both people then need to like each for it to be a match. We decided not to use a pseudo-infinite stack of potential matches like Tinder and Bumble, and instead limited the number like, Coffee Meets Bagel. We want people to treat each potential match more seriously than they would in Tinder. Our apps main innovation is its matching system, the humor questionnaire: a rolling opportunity for users to watch and rate comedic videos which are processed by the algorithm and used to connect users with potential interests. Using users' answers in the humor questionnaire, their profiles are filled with the comedians they like, so your potential matches can see what sort of humor you like.
Conclusion: Building a dating app around humor has potential to create strong bonds based on mutual interests and aid with awkward conversation starters. This system also has pitfalls -- for example, the subjectivity of humor. Can you teach an algorithm to identify different kinds of humor profiles in user profiles and match accordingly? We have more ideas that were not implemented in this prototype, among which are a Bumble-like female control of conversations and sponsorship from comedy venues. In addition, this design was voted "most desirable" in the class.