- Agency: Chop Dawg
- Client: Aura Dating
- Category: App Design: Dating App
- Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Project Brief: Design a video-first dating app where verified singles meet face to face before exchanging a single message, chat unlocks only when both say yes afterward, and the founders run safety, geography, and growth from a console built for people over engineers.
A dating app builds real chemistry faster when two people can see and hear each other early. Chop Dawg designed Aura Dating as a video-first app where verified singles meet on camera before anyone sends a message.
Onboarding keeps the ask short and the look premium. A teal-to-sky-blue gradient sits behind a frosted glass card, a thin white serif AURA wordmark, and buttons for manual, Apple, and Google sign-up, while profiles stop at four photos, a short bio, age, and city.
Discovery shows one person at a time from a small daily queue. Each photo card carries a glass panel with distance, name, age, and city, and a Preferences screen sets interest, distance, and age range with rounded pills and blue sliders.
A match works as an invitation to get on camera. Two tilted cards meet around a blue heart under the line “It’s a match!”, and an already-liked-you badge tells someone the interest is mutual before they tap.
The call screens treat the first video chat like a first date. A waiting screen places the other person’s photo under frosted glass with clear Join and Cancel Call buttons, then the call fills the screen with a slim glass control bar and a 15-minute timer that gives the conversation a natural shape.
A private two-button decision settles what happens next. Chat opens only when both people say yes, and a pass brings up one confirmation because that person won’t appear again.
Native navigation and one light gradient hold the system together. iOS runs a Liquid Glass tab bar with SF Symbols for Discover, Matches, Live, Messages, and Profile, Android gets a true Material bottom bar, and every screen is set in Satoshi.
A founder console runs safety and growth without an app release. Location checks route sign-ups to active counties like Los Angeles, waitlists hold demand in other cities, reports trigger automated bans, and no video is ever recorded.
Results & Impact
- High-fidelity designs signed off on April 20, matching a deadline set in the project’s first week.
- Production stress test of 10,118 requests with zero failures.
- A 95th-percentile response near 375 milliseconds, far below the three-second target.
- Curated rollout across Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties, with waitlists holding demand in other cities.
- Free, Basic, and Premium subscription tiers live by mid-October 2026.
