Sway
Sway is a dating app that leverages direct messaging between users instead of swipe and match
2026
Year
UX, UI, Product Design, Build
Project Type
UX research, UI design, Development
My Role/Responsibilities
Overview
The future of intentional dating
Sway is designed for people who value genuine connection and meaningful relationships. It brings people together through curated social events, real-life experiences, and open conversations that feel natural from the start. Built around authenticity and intentional dating, Sway makes it easy to meet like-minded people, without needing to match first.
Problem
Modern dating has made meeting people feel increasingly disconnected and transactional. Endless swiping, superficial interactions, and algorithm driven matching often create fatigue instead of genuine connection. Many people are looking for a more intentional and natural way to meet others, one that brings conversations and real life experiences back to the center of dating.
Solution
Sway creates a more intentional way to meet people by combining real life social experiences with open and authentic communication. Through curated events and community driven interactions, people can connect naturally in environments designed to encourage meaningful relationships. By removing the pressure of traditional matching, Sway makes starting conversations simple, genuine, and human.
Process
Discover
Dating research essentials
Initial research focused on better understanding user's needs related to getting in contact with people easily and finding physical dating event as well as understanding other core features.
FOCUS AREAS
01
What products exists with focus on serious dating as a niche?
02
How do users interact with existing products?
03
How do users find existing dating events?
04
Which other features are essential in the dating app space?
User Interviews
A series of second-hand interviews was studied as they identifies pain points, frustrations, needs, and desires with the existing products - all something that can be used to determine how Sway could improve this experience.
"Consumer tastes have changed quite a bit over the past five years, especially among female users, who no longer appreciated Tinder's fast, game-like swiping mechanics."
Spencer Rascoff
Match Group
CEO
"Women are tired of swiping and are leaving Tinder. Tinder is losing millions of users, and it's especially women who are tired of swiping."
Lotte Thorsen
Politiken
Journalist
"Several research articles show that many Europeans feel exhausted from using dating apps. A phenomenon called dating fatigue."
Marie Amtoft Maillet
TV2
Journalist
Competitive & Comparative Analysis
Competitive analysis was conducted to identify competitor's strength and weaknesses to inform Sway's features and information structure
Define
Carving out a niche in a saturated market
After analyzing several interviews, all the information were synthesized to identify themes, opportunities, and features that Sway could focus and improve upon.
Features
Competitive analysis was conducted to identify competitor's strength and weaknesses to inform Sway's features and information structure
Ideate
More than just a match
To kick off the design process, quick sketches helped me get ideas on paper to establish which elements were necessary for each screen.
User Flow
The primary user flow is the process of searching, chatting and sign up for events.
Site Map
Design
From insights to design
Using the feedback and insights gained from research, analysis and sketching, a high-fidelity design was created for initial development, skipping low-fidelity like wireframes.
Hi-Fi Design
This was the first initial design, but during testing where I developed the actual app, the design was iterated many times before landing on the final design. Besides the research, I often use V0 by Vercel to come up with design ideas.
Version 1
Test
Test fast, fail fast, learn faster
To create a more realistic testing environment, I developed the actual app using Expo, which is based on React Native, combined with VSCode, Claude Code, Supabase and Github to mention a few.
Development
In the following section, I have chosen to highlight some key features that makes this app useful. In addition, I have included a high-level view of the admin panel to control the app.
Signup with OTP, because we want real users
During research and testing, it was clear that one-time passwords are the easiest and most popular way of verifying users compared to email links. Furthermore, I opted for a simple 5-screen signup process.
Area based search instead of radius only
I have opted for an area based search option based on the 5 major regions and 11 subregions in Denmark, all matching the order from Danmarks Statistik. It is a familiar pattern that is not restricted to a radius from current location as known from apps such as Tinder or Badoo.
Direct messaging, no match required
Unlike the majority of dating apps, where a match a required before people can messaging each other, Sway allows you to send a direct message, allowing you to skip the entire swiping stage. Here I used Stream Chat SDK instead of developing the functionality from scratch.
Local dating events, the new dating trend
My research has shown that there is a surge of new companies in Denmark holding physical dating events. Former swipers seem to leaning toward this, so I decided to make it easy for them to find them all in one place. They can see who will participate before they go to the event and they can also see who went to a past event.
Block and/or report, because safety matters
When a user is blocked by another user, they are completely invisible from each other. There is no unblock feature and this is intentional. As a serious dating app, I opted for the reasoning that when a user blocks a person, they mean it. And of course, users can report behaviour that is against the policies.
Photo upload, with admin approval
In order ensure compliance with the type of photos that are allowed on the app, I integrated an admin approval step. This means that a photo is only visible to other users when the admin has approved the uploaded photo. In the beginning I had ChatGPT moderation enabled do this automatically, but I found it to allow photos I would have normally rejected.
Push notifications, a prerequisite for dating apps
I opted to build the app with a single type of push notification in mind - new messages. Of course I could implement different ones as well, but I chose to keep it simple. As the app is built for both Android and iOS, I used Firebase to integrate the solution.
Admin panel, connecting database with userfriendly UI
I decided to use Refine to make a userfriendly interface to connect with Supabase database. It is also powered by Vercel. A nice feature is that the admin is able to open on the phone as a normal website, allowing to approve or reject uploaded photos on the go. For support tickets, I opted for Zoho Desk integration instead of admin panel.
How It Works
The tech stack I have used consist of a variety of different services. To visualize how they work together, I have constructed it into one simple view.
Implement
Getting the app in stores
I went through the entire process of many apple reviews and even a live review interview with Apple, before I got the app approved for the App Store. For Google Play, the app went through the mandatory 14 days testing period before production release.