Here's mockup of a fictional dog walking app, from wireframe to mockup, by yours truly.

The Goal

My job was to build a dog walking app that simplifies the users experience and helps them connect to the walker on a more human level. This company is serving people who don’t feel comfortable with leaving their dogs with total strangers, or letting them into their homes for check-ins. The purpose of Dog-Go is to eliminate that hesitance, make the walkers and boarders feel more personable and gain the users trust. Think a hybrid between social media and a dog walking app.

The Audience

The best way to get an image of who would be using the app was to perform some user research, and the best way I could think of was to start locally and expand outward. Starting with family and friends with pets, expanding out to people I knew who were walkers as well, they were asked to expand upon their experiences answer some of my questions, like "How easily were you able to connect to a walker/opportunity? Was there anything you wish was different? Did anything stand out that was particularly helpful or frustrating?"

This gave a great starting point and pushed me forward to looking into competitors. and seeing what their customers said, to get a better idea of who would use these apps.

User Personas

User Flows

Wireframes

Visual Designs

Final Designs

After all those little changes, I had finally come up with a colour scheme and presentation that would work for the app. the green colour way came with the idea of calling back to nature, because walking your dog can be a nice time to take in the fresh air and greenery, as well as exercise for you and your furry friend.

Prototype

User Testing

By the end of this 9 week long project, I found that I had become a better designer, I had found myself making small changes to earlier weeks and had to reign myself in because of their ripple like effects in the final designs. Even now I find myself itching to start a redesign, acknowledging the value of the work I did, but seeing new ways to improve upon it.

Final Thoughts

By the end of this project I could tell how much growth i had experienced as a designer, and while still pretty green, I feel that I made great progress and am excited to keep putting out new projects.

(Month 4)