Fetch is a mobile dog walking app case study that I designed during "Dribbbles Product Design" course. Fetch aims to build positive relationships between owners, walkers, and dogs.

OVERVIEW

During the pandemic, nearly 23 million dogs were adopted in the United States of America, that's approximately 1 in 5 households nationwide. As the workforce begins transitioning back into the office, dog owners seek reliable options for walking their dogs.

As the product designer of Fetch, it was my role to find pain points for Owners hiring Walkers. I took all the necessary steps in the design process to ensure that my decisions were rooted in reason and purpose for our users. My goal was to create simple and efficient solutions to the intimidating process of letting a stranger walk an Owner's beloved family member.

Project Timeline - 7 weeks

Tools used - Figma, Adobe Premier, Adobe After Effects, Zoom

RESEARCH

Competitive Analysis

I researched four dog walking apps: Wag, Rover, Barkly, and Spot. All apps have robust walker profiles, including ratings, reviews, pictures, and background check badges. In addition, wag and Rover offer live GPS walks. Barkly has a free in-person meet and greets option; the other apps charge a premium fee for this service.

Qualitative Research

I conducted ten interviews with eight dog owners and two dog walkers. I asked dog owners questions about what makes them trust a stranger/service on the internet. I asked dog walkers what information they needed to have a successful walk.

Takeaways

• Owners see communication as an indication of trust.

• Owners see transparent and clear walk details as an indication of quality service.

• Walkers want to be able to vet the owners before service.

• Walkers need to know a dog's behaviors/training before service.

3. Psychology and Industry Research

After reading numerous studies and articles about trust, I came across “The Three Elements of Trust,” written by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman via Harvard Business Review. This helped me formulate how I will build trust between our service, owners, and walkers. I kept these three elements at the forefront of my design decisions:

4. User Personas

The research allowed me to create User Personas that guided my design decisions throughout the entire process of creating Fetch.

THE PROBLEM

LACK OF TRUST

Dog owners don't trust dog walkers. The current market of dog walking apps falls short of users' expectations; they do not provide the features they need to trust that their dog is in good hands.

FEATURE 1

MEET AND GREET

Building trust before service

Meet and Greet is something that both Owner and Walker needed. This is a necessary feature because it humanizes a stranger, which builds trust; it also helps the walker hear about the nuances in the dog's personality.

Usually, people have to meet in person, but I wanted to expedite that process by providing a video chat option in our messaging feature. A modal suggestion follows a video chat, so the Owner can easily book the walker.

Building the feature

Began the process with Crazy 8's. I made a list of requirements based on the research I conducted. I chose the best screens and then progressed until I had high-fidelity screens. Scroll through the gallery to see the workflow.

Final Screens

Prototype

I animated a prototype to show the direction of the screens; I wanted to create a feeling of progression.

FEATURE 2

LIVE GPS MAP AND UPDATES

Building trust during service

This page comprises three features: Live GPS Tracking, Activity log, and Photo log. These features create openness and transparency to help build trust between Owners and their Walkers. Many users use Uber as their rideshare app; I choose to make the UI feel similar to that experience.

Building the feature

I followed the same design process for building out this feature as I did for the "Meet and Greet" feature.

"Live GPS Map and Updates" Prototype

Here you can see what it would be like to follow along on a dog walk; we can see the icons and time stamps for notable activities.

"Live GPS Map and Updates" Screens

FEATURE 3

WALK REVIEW

Building trust after service

If an owner doesn't have the time to keep an eye on the Live Walk Updates, we need to offer them that same transparency to build a positive relationship. I created a "Walk Review" that provides all the walk info that users said was important to them. This is available for viewing after a service has been completed.

USER TESTING

After building the features, it was time to see if they met the goal of building trust. I tested with seven different dog owners, and here are the results.

Results

Takeaways

1. Distrust of avatars/pictures

Four participants mentioned that when they use Uber Eats, a different driver will usually drop off their food than the one pictured in their app. This solidifies the importance of a video chat meet and greet.

2. Dogs' needs are nuanced

Every dog owner listed a minimum of 3 behaviors specific to their dog during the video chat. This sets the walker up for success for a specialized service, creating a happy dog and a happy dog owner.

LOOKING FORWARD

Timeline

I ran the features by a Senior software engineer to discuss constraints. We concluded that pushing these features live would take 7 - 14 sprints. I would prioritize the features in this order:

• Meet and Greet: 2-3 sprints

• Activity log: 1-2 sprints

• Photo log: 1-2 sprints

• Live tracking map: 2-3 sprints

• Walk Review: 1-2 sprints

Forward-thinking

After Fetch's new features are live, I would do another round of research focused on improving and perfecting the features. I would also like to see what other services dog owners are interested in. In addition, as Fetch grows, I would design a web platform to make the service as accessible as possible.

Thank you for your time!

KNOWLEDGE GAINED

Here are a couple of exciting things I learned throughout the process of building Fetch.

Branding, Colors, Fonts

This was by far the most challenging part of the process for me. I chose deep purple as my primary color because it represents royalty. I want our Owners to feel that they are purchasing a luxury experience for their beloved dogs. I chose Open sans for fonts because of its readability, and I decided on Bugaki to add some character to the branding.

Building Design Systems

I built a design system following the atomic design approach. Below are some of the components and variants I created and used to make Fetch. As I was building, I learned the value of creating scalable and reactive components. Up until this point, I had done a few passes of UI designs. The design system allowed me to finalize a UI I believed in efficiently.