Online dating. Well, not quite dating, but an outlet to find your future college roommate. With a fast-growing media presence impacting your roommate’s decisions,trying to find someone you connect with can become few and far between. The app, Bunky, promoting itself as the “roommate matchmaking heaven” offers a variety of questions and photo opportunities to set up a profile.
Creating a profile takes five minutes and takes you through a series of questions asking what you are interested in and three prompts that you can choose from: where you are from, and most importantly what you are studying. Creating a profile is free, but there are premium options for $14.99 a month. The high price may stand out as a red flag, but in reality you only need the premium version for a month or two.
Once your profile is complete the “dating app” portion begins. Profiles are sent to you based on the options you choose when setting up your profile. Once you check the person’s box you are then either matched with that person or shown a new person. The app allows you to then chat with the individual you matched within the app.
The whole process of setting up and going through the app seems well designed but I feel the design was the only element they thought about. Communicating with people through the app isn’t the most straightforward design. Having to sort through people’s profiles in order of how you matched, not the newest chat makes it hard to find someone you want to talk with. You are only able to see who liked your profile and matched with you if you have the premium version of the app as well.
The design of the app is trendy and is marketed towards their major audience, teenage girls. Besides the aesthetic of the app, I feel that Bunky is mostly a waste of money. If you are an out-of-state student I see the benefits that may come with the app, but in an age where Instagram profiles for incoming students have a large impact on people’s roommate decisions, I feel the best way to find a roommate would be through those forms of profiles. Bunky has a great design, but I feel the app is too new in the market to have any major impact on consumers.
