Small Data: Tinder-like apps are the way of the future

Following this "small data" concept I was also working on an app that works with a kind of "binary communication". You guys (and girls) seem quite critical, so I'd be really curious to hear what you guys think of this concept (sorry if this is considered self promotion, it just seemed appropriate to mention it here.) The idea is a messaging app where recipients can only reply Yes or No, and is intended for quick questions when you don't need an excuse (i.e. "Have you sent the file yet?"), the idea is to gear for wearables and provide a swappable tinder like interface for quick questions. http://www.getmoshimoshi.com

There are so many holes in this piece it's amazing. It's especially apparent when it's boiled down by the author:

"There are many reasons why this makes for a better user experience:

1.Cognitively, you can only evaluate one option at a time. Seeing all the options laid out in front of you at once is just noisy and distracting, since you’ll have to consider each one in turn anyway. 2.Making swipe-happy snap judgements allows you to make better choices, faster. See Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking for much more on the adaptive unconscious. 3.You can do it one handed."

There's no reference to cognitive theories dealing with various interface types. I'm doing an independent project this semester with user eye-tracking through a Netflix-like interface. Iris Vessey's theory of Cognitive Fit shows that there are some tasks where the-part-in-relation-to-the-whole is the main consideration. In those cases, a matrix interface is a better fit, leading to better (faster, more accurate) task performance. 2. Malcolm Gladwell as main reference? ...no wonder no cognitive theory was explored. 3. Why stop there, you could also do that with blinks or eye gestures, further isolated into a bubble of laziness.

Photos are everything man.

There are a tonne of average-to-poor looking girls on Tinder who have very good photos of themselves that paint them in a much more flattering light than they really deserve. Take a leaf out of their book.

Tinder is the most superficial distillation of dating out there, your entire judgement of the person is based on a few photos (and often just the first one).

You need 4 photos, show them in this order:

One full body shot of you with a clear image of your face, one of you topless (if you have the body for it), one of you looking cool with your friends, and one of you doing something you like, preferably some sort of adventurous hobby like climbing or diving

PAY TO GET PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS DONE. I can't emphasize this enough, more than anything else this will drastically improve your results.

The 'about me' field is almost irrelevant. Keep it to 3 sentences or less. When you get a match, push for a meetup at a bar (or your house if you feel bold) as soon as possible, preferably within 24 hours. Get their actual phone number within the first five messages. THE GIRL ALREADY LIKES YOU, there is no need to play silly games at this point.

I also use a Tinderbot to automatically like all the girls. I wrote my own version based off the work of somebody who reverse-engineered the API, my repo is here https://github.com/samphilipd/tinderzapper . When I feel like going on some dates, I just run that for a few days, unlike all the unattractive matches and push for meetups with the rest. It's a pure numbers game.

BELIEVE ME there are girls out there who will find you attractive and want to meet up with you, you simply have to sift through the junk to find them.

The above is pretty much exactly what I do. I'm only slightly above-average looking and very below-average height (5ft4). I do workout so I have a somewhat decent body. I've been on countless dates this year and got laid with 10-15 girls just through tinder.

Anyone can get a date on Tinder with professionally taken photos. In fact, most of the girls on there already know the importance of photos and are very skilled at showing photos that present them in the best possible light.

I like the idea, installing the app now. Any plans for Amazon devices?

Missing design targets because you're optimizing on the wrong metrics is a real problem - but for Amazon to be unintentionally making their search so overly complex to keep users bogged down (as you say) it would require them to be optimizing on number of searches, not sales conversions or revenue.

I think even you can admit that sounds just a little absurd.