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CATALYSTGROUP
A Usability Study of Online Dating
and
February 2010
ONLINE DATING – USABILITY STUDY REPORT
This report summarizes conversations held with a
total of 16 people (8 eHarmony and 8 Match.com
users). The comments, quotes, and opinions in this
document reflect only the views of these users and
not those of eHarmony or Match.com who were
not themselves involved with this research in any
way.
The intention of this report is to highlight broad
themes and provide insights as to how these sites
are used by the users we spoke to. The
observations in this report reflect the views of these
users which, while accurate for this population, may
not be representative of the overall population.
To protect the privacy of the users whose profiles
have been used in this report, we substituted the
main pictures with those from a photo library in
most cases, and in other cases we blurred the
pictures. All names and locations have been
blurred.
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Statement of Limitations
ONLINE DATING – USABILITY STUDY REPORT
Introduction
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ONLINE DATING – USABILITY STUDY REPORT
What was this project about?
With Valentine’s day approaching we wanted to see what users
thought of two of the most popular and heavily promoted online
dating services: Match.com and eHarmony.
Ultimately we were interested in answering the following questions:
How effective are computers at helping users find love?
Given that the sites use different approaches to online dating, was
one service considered superior to the other? If so, why?
How do users identify potential matches?
How do users assess the relationship potential of their matches?
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Introduction | Objectives and methodology
What did we do?
We recruited 16 users in four groups: 4 men and 4 women who use
each site. All users were between 30 and 40 years old
All users had to be active (i.e. they were paying members of either