Streaks, Designing for Deeper Connections on QLU Social
Ali Abid
About the Client:
QLU Social is a mobile app for professionals seeking to build authentic, lasting networks. Its mission is to help users both make new connections and deepen existing ones. The platform prioritizes meaningful interactions over surface-level networking.
About the project:
As Head of Product Design, I led the strategy, mentored the design team, and contributed hands-on to this feature's design. We tackled a critical challenge: user conversations frequently died after only a few messages. This wasn't merely a usability issue, it threatened the app's core promise of fostering deeper connections and undermined its business objectives.
The Problem:
Engagement on the app was low. Users were connecting through roundtables and group chats in DM’s, but the momentum didn’t last. Within a few days, most conversations would fizzle out.
We looked at the data and spoke to users.
UXCam sessions showed short-lived message exchanges.
Interviews revealed that users felt no reason to continue chatting once the initial excitement wore off.
One user summed it up perfectly:
"I connect with someone, we chat for a bit… and then it just dies."
Problem Statement:
Connections were being made on QLU Social, but without an easy mechanism to sustain engagement, most chats went silent within a week
Research and Insights:
We combined quantitative and qualitative research:
Monitored metrics like number of messages exchanged per day.
Interviewed users who had recently joined roundtables or started new chats.
The insight was consistent: users wanted to stay in touch, but didn’t know how to keep the conversation going without feeling awkward or forced.
Ideation and Strategy:
We brought the entire team together design, product, dev, and QA, for collaborative brainstorming sessions. After exploring dozens of ideas, we landed on one that felt promising: streaks.
Inspired by Snapchat and Duolingo, we saw streaks as a lightweight way to encourage ongoing interaction. But we didn’t want to copy. We wanted to reimagine streaks for professional relationships.
Designing the Feature:
After countless iterations and user testing, we launched a playful but purposeful version of streaks:
Users tap an emoji to send a streak.
The recipient has 24 hours to respond and start the streak.
Once a streak begins, new emojis unlock as the streak grows.
If a user taps the streak button again, it doesn’t send a new emoji—but it builds momentum. The emoji bubble becomes more visible, and a counter shows how many times it’s been tapped.
This wasn’t just a feature, it became a ritual. A simple way to stay top-of-mind without forcing conversation
Collaboration and Execution:
This was one of the most creatively challenging projects I’ve worked on. Everyone was involved from day one. We pushed boundaries with visual design, explored dozens of micro-interactions, and tested relentlessly with users.
As a design leader, I facilitated cross-functional alignment, mentored junior designers, and helped shape the emotional tone of the experience
Results:
The feature landed well. Users began sending streaks regularly to stay connected. Conversations restarted organically, and we saw a noticeable lift in both engagement and retention.
One user told us:
"It’s such a simple thing, but it keeps me reaching out and staying connected."
That was exactly the behavior we set out to encourage.
Reflection:
This project reminded me that the best ideas often come from cross-functional collaboration. When you bring together design, product, engineering, and users around a shared goal, you build more than just features, you build experiences that matter.
Streaks wasn’t just a clever mechanic. It was a signal that app cared about connection, not just communication
Thank you for reading
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Posted Aug 23, 2025
When conversations died, we built streaks, a playful mechanic to revive engagement and strengthen connections.
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