Keeg

Recently tried a dating/connections app for autistic people (already in a relationship but looking for local people to hang out with). After making a profile, I started rolling through profiles, Tinder style, until I ultimately gave up, unsatisfied with the experience. Part of this was due to nobody being particularly close (I live in the middle of the nowhere, so not surprising), but also the experience just felt weird. When it comes to the little bits of info on the profile, it wasn't enough to make me think I could reach out and have a comfortable/relatable conversation with anyone.
Ultimately it got me thinking: this is an allistic app that happens to have autistic people on it.
In my experience, connections with other autistic people do not form the same way they do with or between allistic people. Doesn't that make it a fool's errand for a dating app for autistic people to use design that was largely made to facilitate connections between allistic people? I don't know a ton about app design, but I feel like a different approach could be needed.