How I built a simple yet effective dog walking app, based on dog owners pain points

Context

As part of my graduation on Dribble product design course, I did a case study for a Dog Walking app. The process was composed by the main actual steps of a product development cycle: researching, hypotheses, designing and iterating the app solution.

The process

The design process for this dog walking app followed the steps:

• understanding the problem through research

• defining the target audience and the problems I was going to design solutions for

• defining user flows and wireframing

• putting up high fidelity designs and building prototypes to test

Uncovering the problem

User research

For this case study, I selected a sample of people, who are dog owners, from different backgrounds. From 25 to 60 years old, living in big cities but different family arrangements: living with parents and family, singles, living with spouses. They have answered a simple survey, aiming to uncover their relationship with their pets, their routine and main pains they have.

Some interesting findings:

• Around 80% of respondents reported their dog walking routine varies according to their appointments and duties.

• Around 40% of people report that their dogs behaviour is something that could improve during their walks. Another 50% say that their pet's relationship with other dogs is not ideal.

• 75% of dog owners report their main challenge on being an owner is having the discipline to keep up with their commitment, even when they don't feel like to.

• Only about 15% of respondents have ever acquired a dog walking service and among those the main reason for doing so was to be able delegate that duty for another person for one day. On the other side, their main barrier for acquiring that service was feeling that their pet was safe in the hands of the dog walker.

Benchmark

As part of the research process, I conducted some benchmark of similar products, to uncover common patterns and established UX choices that could reveal typical user problems as well as industry standards.

Most solutions have a common pattern: they reveal the importance of showcasing trust for dog walkers to complete the service acquisition and start with some simple form to later finish sign up and service booking.

Framing the problem

Defining our problems, goals and persona

Based on research outputs, the core user of this app and its problems was defined as follows:

The user persona

The persona was way to illustrate and give more scope to our core segment and the problems it faces. It was built on top of the quantitative research results, by getting a snip of that sample and picking the type of user that seemed the most interesting to design for.

Project goals

With that context in mind, some project goals and specifications were set, to guide the development of the app.

Designing the solution

Designing the solution started with a few user flows and wireframes, before jumping into the complete visual version, prototyping and testing.

User flows and prototypes

The user flow was a built to find a way to get users as fast as possible, with the smallest amount of steps, to the search page, where it would be possible to convey the trust needed to finish the acquisition of the service.

Hence, it was decided to collect some basic information in the initial screen before login to show a initially filtered list of walkers, without having to fill too much information in the initial form and risking losing users due to this friction.

Wireframes

Version 1

First wireframe draft, with lower fidelity in terms of UI patterns, elements and components.

Version 2

A higher fidelity wireframe, improving some interface ideas and studying variations of the user flow

Branding

The Dogdigger app brand was designed inspired by imagery of puppies in the nature, its textures and colors. The idea was to inspire a sense of adventurousness and joy, but also trust and care.

High fidelity designs

In the final designs, a few features were added in more detail:

• walker evaluation;

• price level;

• current demand;

• badges showcasing its special abilities;

Those resources were designed to convey immediate trust, after a very quick initial form.

Component library

After wireframing, I started with creating the components of the app to ensure UI consistency and respect to the brand decisions.

Final applications of components and brand elements upon the decided features and user flow.

After the initial search and encounter with dog walker profile, users can schedule a time and send more information about their pets and proceed to sign up, also giving their payment information. After this, the booking process is finished.

Testing

During prototype testing, the app worked just fine. Testers were dog owners that responded the initial survey and they were able to complete the acquisition process with no trouble. A few adjustments in the interface were required though. Those were related to sizing and distribution of elements that were hard to see or click.

Limitations

Product

For the purposes of this study case, a few aspects of any product development were not considered. Market sizing and real dimension of demand for dog walking apps, for instance. This exercise was merely for the purposes of creating a fictional product using product design techniques. Also, the main "trust features", meaning the icons and badges in the walkers profile pages, could be an important aspect for stress testing to make sure they are enough to convey the safety the users seem to need, but that wasn't able to be captured during the prototype tests.

Design

In terms of design, the visual aspect of the experience was not optimized. The imagery and icons were simply used from free databases so they may not have the visual consistency required for a real consumer facing product.

At the same time, this product was designed mostly in an individual basis. I understand product design is a highly collaborative discipline so the ideation and iteration processes I followed weren't optimal.