Using community-centered development to improve the interface of an application targeted at lesbians

Sammanfattning: Lesbesocial is a mobile application for same-sex attracted women, with the main purpose to strengthen the community and provide a safe environment for social interactions. Lesbesocial was designed with the intention of providing a space to discuss LGBTG-related topics, meet new people and find events. However, Lesbesocial struggles with participation among members. Lesbesocial is not the only online community, targeted to same-sex attracted women, that struggles in this way. While applications targeted to gay-males are thriving, similar applications for women are few with less downloads. Previous research on communities for same-sex attracted women have been emphasizing the importance of having them, because being in such communities can help to support identity formation and increase self-esteem. Furthermore, This paper utilizes a community-centered design approach to investigate how to improve lesbians’ participation in online communities. I do this through examining previous research on online communities and investigating fears and desires of the lesbian community in relation to being same-sex attracted. The analysis identifies six design implications to improve the application and engage users to participate. Social- and personal trust, as well as a sense of belonging, was found to be the most relevant aspects to consider when developing a community for same-sex attracted women.