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ZEMED
ZEMED is an app for jewish ethiopians that help to mitigate potential partners and to get acquainted with your family tree by getting to know your distant relatives
Overview
The Ethiopian Jewish community has a strict rule regarding dating within the same ethnic group. According to the rule, individuals can only date if they are seven generations apart in terms of family lineage. This can be challenging as the community is small, and it is common for couples to have some correlation in their family trees. This led to the exploration of a digital solution to this problem.
Like many other families in the Ethiopian community, my family is large in number. This means that it is quite possible to go on a date with someone without realizing that they may be related to you. This can lead to heartbreak, as I personally experienced when I was younger. To make things easier, I came up with an app called Zemed that helps individuals find potential partners without the worry of them being related in some way.
My father side of the family
Understanding the problem
Dating within the Ethiopian Jewish community can be a difficult and embarrassing task for many. In order to date someone from the community, individuals must ask for the other person's family tree. This can be exposing and revealing for both parties involved. Additionally, the lack of knowledge about one's own family tree, which is more common among younger people, exacerbates the problem and can lead to having to seek out one's parents or other authority figures to obtain the correct information.
Product vision and solution
Initially, I planned to create an app that only addresses the dating problem within the Ethiopian Jewish community by filtering out any relatives that are under 7 generations apart. However, as I researched more, I realized that there was another issue that needed to be addressed: many people in the community have a strong interest in learning more about their own family tree. Therefore, I decided to make the app have two key features: the ability to find a compatible mate that is automatically 7 generations apart, and the ability to find and communicate with more family members.
Surveys
To fully grasp the need and demand for an app like this, I conducted 22 interviews with single individuals from the Ethiopian Jewish community who are looking to date within the community. These interviews revealed a significant need for a solution to the problem. Many people in the community experience a lot of embarrassment and shame surrounding the issue, which has even led to the creation of a phrase to describe the hardship, "Ethiopian telenovela". The data I collected from these interviews highlights the main pain points that I identified during the research process.
87%
of participants faced the dating prohibition, with half having to break up due to parental pressure.
64%
expressed a desire to learn more about their family tree and origins, many also wanting to improve their Amharic language skills for a deeper connection to their roots.
13%
reported being satisfied with their knowledge of their family tree and felt no embarrassment when asking their parents to confirm a potential mate.
Persona 1
Meirav Beilin , 28 Tel Aviv
Social Worker Singel
Needs
* Wants to find love interest
* Wants to date people from her own community
* Wants to get to know her own large family
Frustrations
* The prohibition limits her ability to date anyone she wants
* Dependency on her relatives to find a love interest
* Big and scattered family tree
* Large gatherings makes it difficult to get to know everybody
* A lot for relatives from the same age group
Persona 2
Rachel Samain , 43 Ashkelon
Kindergarten Teacher Married + 3
Needs
* Wants to find relatives and expand her family tree
* Wants to get to know her own large family
* Wants to keep in touch with people from her age group in her large family
Frustrations
* The data about her family tree is mostly at the hands of elderly's and their memory is fading with time
* problem with communicating with the elderly due to lack of knowledge of the language and the elderly poor memory
* Big and scattered family tree
* Large gatherings makes it difficult to get to know everybody
Wireframes
Task Flow
Primary + Secondary Flows
The Product
Editing your family tree
The editing process is super easy to use.
You can either type your relative name yourself or sync with facebook.
Editing your profile
Chatting with new family members
Finding a date
Adding a new member to the family tree
by adding only one member of your family your family tree and the new relative tree will complete one another
The Finale Product
Thank You!
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