Problem Statement

Dog owners sometimes need help caring for and walking their dogs. Create a service to connect dog owners with dog walkers. Consider how we can help dog owners trust their dogs are in safe hands.

User Research

I interviewed 15 dog owners via survey monkey to find out if they used dog walking services and what their exceptions were.

Overall people disliked being a burden to friends/relatives and like to know their dog was being left with somebody they can trust with their best interests at heart. They wanted to know that the person they employed to walk their dog was safe and vetted (DBS checked or similar) In many cases the walker is expected to enter the owners home to retrieve the dog and drop them off again.

Market Research

When looking at the existing market most applications expected user to sign up before they could browse walkers, I found this off putting as sometimes you just want to browse before committing to signing up. All had similar set ups around taking details of the users location and the size / breed of dog before matching them with walker within their vicinity. A common theme was messaging the walker to book rather than booking straight away.

Persona

Matt is a trainee nurse who works shifts, his dog Milo is a large breed that requires regular walks. Matt wants a simple way to book a dog walker local to his home that pop by and walk milo a couple of times a day when he’s on long shifts. He wants something that’s easily to navigate when he’s tired from work and needs to plan Milos week alongside his work.

User flow

Tails gives user a quick and easy way to view walkers in their local area with the ability to provisionally book a walker. Based on research users wanted the ability to browse before signing up and realising there wasn’t anyone who was a good fit for them. 



I opted to take the user through our onboarding process teaching them about the product, allowing them to search then signing them up to the platform.



Upon seeing search results users can favourite walkers and sign up to contact or book them.

Library

While getting to grips with Figma I really enjoyed creating components and building a library, this enables me to create new screens at speed. Having previously used Adobe in my career I've enjoyed learning about design systems and libraries while creating my prototype.

Wireframes

Visual Designs

Prototype

One of my favourite features in Figma was putting together my protoype and really seeing my design come to life! Prototyping allowed me to test the product on users, take on feedback and make changes to the app.

Try out the prototype here

Outcome / Results

Creating Tails has been a great intro to product design, getting to grips with Figma and working in my cohort to collaborate and ideate as we work. There are so many things I would do differently next time around having learnt from this experience. Product design by nature is all about learning and growth which is something I can take from this experience and implement into my next project!

Thank you!