When Filters Fail: The Single Parent Problem on Dating Apps -
a mini case study
The overlooked user journey: single parents in modern dating apps.
The Product
Hinge promotes itself as the dating app “Designed to be Deleted,” yet its current design creates barriers for single parents. The app reduces parenthood to a simple yes/no question, without accounting for the nuances of family dynamics. This oversimplification limits how parents can represent their lives, often leading to mismatched expectations, unclear conversations, and an overall lack of transparency during the matching process.
The Problem
Hinge promotes itself as the dating app “Designed to be Deleted,” yet its current design creates barriers for single parents. The app reduces parenthood to a simple yes/no question, without accounting for the nuances of family dynamics. This oversimplification limits how parents can represent their lives, often leading to mismatched expectations, unclear conversations, and an overall lack of transparency during the matching process.
Research & Insights
Through my own use of the app and conversations with other parents, I noticed that parenthood is far more nuanced than Hinge currently allows.
Children status: A simple “yes” to having kids could mean one child or five—two very different scenarios with significant impact on compatibility.
Future family planning: “Open to children” is overly broad. A single parent who does not want more children but is open to dating other parents has very different intentions from a childless user who may want children someday.
Blended families: While Hinge currently offers “open to children,” the phrasing is vague. An “open to blended family” option provides more clarity—capturing both single parents who want to date others with kids and childless individuals who are open to dating single parents.
This lack of specificity highlights a gap in how Hinge represents users’ family contexts and ultimately impacts the quality of matches.
Design Opportunity
I redesigned the Family Planning module to address these gaps with two key improvements:
Number of children – Instead of a flat do/don't, users can indicate how many children they have, giving potential matches a more accurate snapshot of their situation.
Open to blended family – Replaces the generic “open to children” option, allowing both single parents and childless users to clarify whether they’re open to dating someone with children.
If taken a step further, these inputs could also power search filters, enabling users to filter matches based on family structure and number of children—further reducing friction and wasted time.
Hi-fi Mockups
Old Hinge Screen
Old Hinge Screen
New Hinge Screen
New Hinge Screen