Project Brief:

Some dog owners struggle to find the time outside of their busy work and family life to provide adequate care for their dog(s) needs. Family and friends offer a level of comfort, trust, and care for their dogs but aren't always reliable, due to their own scheduling conflicts. Many dog owners are not comfortable leaving their dog in the hands of a stranger from an unknown third party but also want to provide the adequate care their dog needs to be physically and mentally healthy.

The goal is to provide a superior dog walking service and experience. A mobile application that prioritizes reliability, comfort, safety, and security, so dog owners feel comfortable connecting with dog walkers. Consider how we can help dog owners trust their dogs are in safe hands.

Role:

Conduct market/user research to empathize with the struggles of dog owners and caregivers, as well as investigate where the existing third-party pet care apps fall short to capitalize on missing opportunities. Ideate, design, and prototype an app that provides a superior level of comfort, reliability, safety, and security for all end users. Have all users test the application to confirm it is efficient and easy to use. Continuously measure and analyze app performance and utilize feedback to update and provide the best dog care service continuously.

Research & Empathizing:

I conducted in-person interviews with dog owners at the local dog park to understand and empathize with their experience finding and providing care for their dogs. I also conducted virtual interviews with friends and family members who own dogs and even ran several online polls.

Investigating current Dog Walking Apps:

The team and I evaluated Wag! & Rover, the most popular dog walking apps on the market, to determine what flowed well and could be improved. This was important to design and create a more reliable, comfortable, safe, and secure experience for dog owners and walkers.

Market research revealed reliability, comfort, safety, and security are crucial needs of dog owners seeking dog walkers. reliability, comfort, safety, and security. Even though Rover & Wag have excellent ratings, background checks, and users are typically satisfied with the service, some users have reported issues regarding the apps layout- difficulty understanding and using the apps; bad user experiences- a feeling of unknown users being unreliable and unsafe towards themselves of their dogs because they are not know on a personal level; worst reviews include injured and even lost dogs! The main issue with Rover & Wag is they are more focused on the business model and making money, rather than the user interface and user experience.

Opportunity for growth:

After reviewing my user research and the current apps, I determined there is a need to provide dog owners with more reliability, comfort, safety, and security. Connecting users' social media profiles provide an opportunity to easily and virtually connect users. I also want to provide users to message each other in the app, showcase their calendars and write reviews and provide picture/video updates during their dog care sessions. I also noticed there is a huge opportunity for additional pet care outside of dogs.

Ideation, wireframing, & prototyping:

User Flow:

The user flow for finding a dog walker needed to be easy to understand and follow, efficient, comfortable, and easy to communicate with others. Both Wag! & Rover, the most popular dog walking apps on the market, introduces a very long onboarding sequence before a User can start searching and booking. I wanted to improve the signup process by reducing the number of steps it takes to onboard by connecting social media profiles and the ability to skip the onboarding process altogether.

Incorporating Single Sign On (SSO) with Google and Apple eliminates redundant typing of fields, such as an address, phone number, etc. Connecting SSO with social media accounts like Facebook not only eliminates signup time but also provides a level of verification for the user's profile and an easy way for them to connect with dog walkers.

SSO and an optional boarding provide the app with an efficient and easy way to view the in-app opportunities to convince the user to create a profile and provide or receive pet care.

Unlike other apps, PetCare+ provides a streamlined opportunity to receive or give pet care for not only dogs but all pets. It provides users to connect with certified vets and veterinarian hospitals, special needs handlers, etc.

Users can comment and provide testimonials, likes, and reviews publicly tp users' profiles for other users to see, providing a sense of comfort, reliability, safety, and security. It also provides a variety of ways to find and filter pet caregivers and pet owners via location, reviews, likes, etc.

Wireframes:

I designed a set of low and high-fidelity wireframes to help visualize, test, and validate my original user flows.

Low Fidelity Wireframe:

High Fidelity Wireframe:

Check out a video of the app.

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Check out the Interactive Figma Prototype on your phone or computer!