Veïns is a social app created in order to create neighborhood connectivity and social well being centered to focus on people feeling excluded from the community or alone.
Context
Impact of social interaction and health risks related to loneliness
Tasked with tackling a public health issue in Barcelona via a design thinking, double-diamond methodology, we began to think about how loneliness in Barcelona can be tackled with an app-based solution. This led us to Veïns, an app that connects neighbors to each other in small groups and encourages in-person interactions in local third-spaces.
Loneliness as a public health challenge has been gaining traction in Barcelona in recent years. Often an ambiguous term, loneliness in the context of public health refers to unwanted social isolation and lack of companionship. This differs from individuals who prefer to spend more time by themselves, and focuses on those who desire more personal connections and suffer from social exclusion. Globally, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of decreased social interaction from social distancing has opened up conversations about the connection between mental health and social interaction. Recently, Barcelona has launched their Municipal Strategy Against Loneliness 2020-2030, where they initiated a variety of new measures to track loneliness and created a public-facing portal with community events and other resources for people experiencing loneliness. In Barcelona, about 15% of the population struggles with loneliness, with rates higher for adults under the age of 44.
Loneliness can be linked to depression, anxiety, heart disease, stroke, impaired executive function, self-harm, suicidality, accelerated cognitive decline, dementia, and even earlier death (“Health Effects of Social Isolation and Loneliness,” CDC Social Connection, May 2024). On the other hand, increased social interaction can lead to boosts in happiness and well-being.
After understanding the state of loneliness in Barcelona, we developed our problem statement.
Recent transplants to Barcelona need inclusive social networks that take them outside the home, because non-natives have not had time to develop strong networks and people who struggle with loneliness spend a majority of their free time at home.
This solution should consider how to connect users to their local public spaces and incentivize users to make repeated interactions with the same group.
We used user interviews to inform our understanding of our target audience.
We then took a broader look at the current app offering for people looking to make connections with others. We looked at various app categories, most apps focus on romance, online interactions, professional networking, or niche communities like sports and recreation, but most focus on one-one connections and lack a dedicated space for in-person, platonic friendships. This gap presents an opportunity for an app that prioritizes real-life connections, social well-being, and meaningful friendships for those feeling isolated to making lasting connections.
This SWOT analysis highlights our app’s strengths in fostering real-life connections through small group activities and event-based engagement while addressing challenges like user retention and privacy concerns. With rising awareness of loneliness and opportunities for local partnerships, the app is positioned for impact but must navigate competition and cultural adoption barriers.
Solution
We landed on Veïns: a simple chat app that creates 1 group chat with 5 neighbors and recommends plenty of local activities. We started our design with a simple user flow that allows a user to make a local acquaintance. We then transformed this flow into a user journey, to understand the feelings and experiences throughout app use.
Next steps
We evaluated the feasibility of creating this application as well as the constraints. Overall, the app’s simple functionality makes it easy to create, and it can rely on existing events and location databases, particularly integration those developed by the Municipality of Barcelona to combat loneliness. Our constraints centered on engaging our users for the full cycle of one group chat, especially because they may be more likely to be socially anxious and may be hesitant to advance across the user journey.
The engagement plan focuses on helping newcomers to Barcelona combat social isolation by fostering real friendships through local events and outdoor interactions creating a tight-knit, supportive community for meaningful connections. The core message is simple: Find real friendships and meaningful connections in your area.
We will evaluate the success of our application through various metrics, using the metrics used by other friendship apps like Bumble BFF as a model. We hope to reach a Friendship Conversion Rate (the percentage of users who form at least one meaningful connection through the app) of at least 8%. To evaluate whether users are making meaningful friendships from the app, we hope to see a Social Network Growth (increase in users’ social circles after using the app for 3-6 months) of 10%. Lastly, to ensure that the app is playing a role in the public health of Barcelona, we hope to see a 12% reduction in the number of Barcelona residents who do not socialize with friends or family at least once a month after the first year. We will collect this data from user surveys as well as the data collection that the Municipality of Barcelona conducts on a regular basis, particularly as part of their Strategy Against Loneliness.
