PawFam, Your Home for Dog Care

With the steady rise of apps offering a wide range of dog and pet services, pet parents (owners) are able to easily access and find care for their furry companions 🐶. Although some of these apps market themselves as "safe and trustworthy" with "happiness and convenience guaranteed", concerns of trust and transparency remain the focal pain points for owners.

PawFam is a dog care app solution designed for owners who need reassurance on a platform they can trust to help make informed decisions each step of the way.

My Role

As a product designer, I was responsible for the end-to-end design process, from research and ideation to building the final prototype for the PawFam dog care app.

Design Process

The design process is based on an iterative model, with each step and requirement subject to refinement, allowing the design to evolve at different stages.

Problem Discovery

Solution

Designing an onboarding app experience that allows dog owners to find care and connect with the most suitable caregivers.

Goal

Helping dog owners find the right match by:

• Bridging the information gap that will allow them to make well-informed, confident decisions

• Building long-term trust with supportive features and actions

Research

The research phase comprised of two parts:

• Research Interviews: Interviews with dog owners to understand their needs, pain points, and experiences with dog care services

• Market Research: Comparative analysis of existing businesses offering dog care services

Research Interviews

Conducted interviews with 20 dog owners revealed that "trust", "transparency", and "information access" were among the top considerations in their search for the best care.

Key Insights. When it came to finding care, dog owners defined the most important things they looked for in a caregiver and dog care service:

"I want someone that is kind, loves dogs and would treat my dog as their own."

_________

Market Research

A comparative analysis of apps like Rover, Wag!, and Pawshake helped:

• Establish a benchmark of common practices and design models

• Identify unique solutions across platforms

• Define the potential gaps and pain points with an evaluation of solution opportunities

User Personas and Flows

Based on research findings and learnings from dog owners about their experiences and pain points, a defined set of user personas were created to serve as references and guide the rest of the design process.

• The Loyal Protector: These user personality types are protective of those in their inner circle and rely on recommendations and referrals from close contacts.

• The Scrupulous Investigator: These user personality types are critical thinkers and analytical. They require information to make well-based decisions.

• The Frequent Traveller: These user personality types are flexible due to their unpredictable schedules. They need someone who can accommodate them on short notice and provide regular updates.

User flow diagrams were created to help visualize the user's journey from starting the app service to successfully connecting with a suitable caregiver.

• Onboarding Flow: For users new to the dog walking app. The challenge was to build a seamless, satisfying, and trustworthy experience that would allow users to get acquainted with the service and its features and get them set up to find the best-suited care. It was also important that the flow remain somewhat flexible to new users' early goals and actions.

• Sign Up and Sign In Flows: For new and existing users when signing up or logging in within the app.

• Caregiver Search and Contact Flows: For users searching to find and connect with a suitable caregiver.

Through various iterations, it was important to bring clarity and value to each screen whilst considering the gaps and pain points of existing apps.

Wireframes

User flows aided in the design of wireframes to serve as structural blueprints for the app.

Visual Identity

Before designing high-fidelity mockup screens of the app, it was important to establish a cohesive visual identity for the PawFam brand.

PawFam speaks to mature audiences in a holistic type setting. Inspired by the modern aesthetic, clean and rounded designs are used to provide clarity and confidence in a friendly environment. And key colour combinations of green, blue, and orange-yellow are used to evoke feelings of nurture, trust, and optimism.

Mood Board

Colours

Typography

Visual Design and Systems

With visual elements for the PawFam brand already defined, high-fidelity mockup designs were created for all the app screens.

The visual design of each screen supported the creation and continuous build of a design system – to ensure that all designs for the PawFam app remained consistent, flexible, and scalable.

Design System

High-Fidelity Mockups

Prototype, Testing, and Refinement

After completing the high-fidelity mockups, a prototype was built (with the user flows in mind).

The purpose of the prototype was not only to provide a close-to-perfect "look and feel" of how the app would behave and function but to test the validity of the proposed solution with users.

User Testing and Feedback

A set of defined user tasks were created to assess key features and flows deemed significant to the users.

Key Findings

• Slight deviations in the placement and appearance of a few call-to-action elements caused a "break" in design consistency.

• Having too much information on screens tended to overwhelm or frustrate users.

• The positioning and wording of several action buttons failed to provide clarity.

Improvements

With each round of user testing and feedback, iterative improvements were made to the user experience. Such improvements included:

• Making minor changes to components, e.g. buttons, icons

• Adjusting colour values for better contrast and accessibility

• Rewording text and repositioning elements for more clarity

• Simplifying and redesigning entire screens for better user flow

Final Prototype

With applied feedback from user testing, a final, refined prototype for PawFam was completed.

What is PawFam?

PawFam is "your home for dog care" app solution, built with pet parents (owners) in mind. With PawFam, owners can rest assured knowing that their dogs will be in safe hands with a caregiver they can truly trust.

💡 Key Takeaways

This project shone a light on the importance of:

• Useful and usable designs to create enjoyable experiences

• Users and the role they play in challenging prenotions and assumptions

• Design systems for scalability, flexibility, and efficiency

• Design consistency, simplification, and intentionality for clarity

• Non-linearity. Design is fluid and will be subject to evolution and iterative change.

• Letting go. Don't get fixated on the design itself - let the process guide you.