Petsy is a dog walking app created to help dog owners find trustworthy dog walkers who can walk their dogs.

Dog owners might not have the chance to walk their dogs as often as they need to, due to lack of time, physical limitations or other restraints. Petsy aims to help them solve this problem. Through the app, dog owners can easily find dog walkers near their location, book a walk and be rest assured that their dog is is being exercised and well taken care of.

Research

This consisted of market research and user research. I carried out market research on companies that offer similar services, like Wag, Rover and Pawshake.

Afterwards, I carried out interviews where I asked dog owners about their experience with dog walking services. I noticed recurring themes of trust, ease of use and good customer service.

"Trust is very important to me. I wouldn’t use a service that’s generic."

''I liked how easy it was to set up and choose a dog walker, and how they handled the first meet and greet with my dogs"

"True empathy and affection for our dogs. Trustworthiness , honesty and reliability."

User Flow

Another thing I noticed through my research interviews is that users like to look around and familiarize themselves with a service first before going ahead to sign up and book the service.

So I made sure to keep that in mind when creating the user flow. Dog owners can search for dog walkers in their location and view dog walker profiles, without having to sign up first. When they're ready to book a walk or chat with a dog walker, they're prompted to then sign up or sign in to move ahead in the onboarding flow.

Wireframing & Visual Design

I went on to create two low-fi wireframe iterations for the app, taking note of making trust factors (reviews, verified badges, special skills etc.) prominent and also keeping simplicity and ease of use in mind as well.

Then I went on to create a high-fidelity designs for the app and visual design elements .

I chose Green as the main color for the app, because it symbolizes tranquility and that's what I want users to feel when using the app, to feel at peace and trust the service.

Dogs are also really playful so I integrated that into the color palette as well, as the color orange to reflect that playfulness.

Prototyping & Refining

Next up was to actually create a prototype and get people to use it and give feedback. My goal for this app is to make it easy for dog owners to find trustworthy dog walkers and chose one to walk their dogs based on their needs.

Getting feedback in this stage was really valuable, as I went back to the designs and made changes, and this allowed me to take a better look at the app and what I can do to make it better.

You can see some of the changes and additions below.

You can go through a prototype of the app here

Conclusion

This was my first time trying to design an app or do anything like this. So it was challenging but so very fulfilling. User research was really important in making Petsy what it was at the end of the design process. Going forward, I'd work on interviewing more people for user research.

Going back to the design, using feedback and looking for how to make the app better was a great process and overall, I'm happy with how the app turned out. Feedback received for the app design has been positive and I feel the app design covered most of the pain points discovered during user & market research.

Thanks to Jaslin Tonton for his feedback and mentorship during the 12 week Dribble Product Design Course.