Paw is a product design for a dog-walking app which empowers owners

to find the best dog walkers in their area fast.

Life can be busy, and we might not be able to do everything which needs to be done during the day. This is something which can also be true for dog walkers. These dog owners might require help taking care their dogs, e.g. afternoon walks when the owners are at work. In this case study we will explore how we can help these owners to find a dog walker.

Research

Leaving your best bud with a stranger

can be hard

Performing interviews and discussing the results of course peers several point seem to occur recurrently.

When considering dog walking services dog owners face multiple concerns. It can be hard to trust someone you don't know well with your best bud.

Furthermore, it might be hard to find someone with experience, or the right experience for dogs with specific needs.

Finally, the availability of dog walkers can be too restrictive to match the needs of the dog owner and their dogs. As well as matching owners to walkers within their price rage.

Persona

Following Noah’s journey to finding

the perfect dog walker

Balancing a demanding job and Ollie's needs can be tough. If there were an easy solution to ensure his proper exercise on my busiest days

Noah and Ollie, stock photo by Tadeusz Lakota, Unsplash

The Decision

The feeling of being unable to meet the Ollie

Noah is a busy engineer who loves their dog Ollie. Although Noah loves spending time with their dog and going out for walks, he isn’t always able too. He works at home most day, and makes a short walk during his break. It makes him feel guilty when after an extra busy day at work he lacks the energy to go on more than a short walk.

The Search

Finding a trustworthy dog walker quickly

Noah decides to search for someone to walk Ollie during the afternoon. But he's unable to find someone in his social circle. He's looking to find a trustworthy dog walker on short term. He want's to ensure ollie get enough time to enjoy outside.

Like many young professionals Noah uses popular apps to make life more easy and do tasks, e.g. online grocery delivery, he watches series while commuting using HBO Max, and maybe buys a little bit too much from Amazon.

Paw aims to help users such as Noah find a perfect dog walker for their four footed friend.

User Flow

From the first start to booking the first walk

Noah's path from signing up to booking a dog walker

To help users like Noah find their perfect dog walker swiftly, the path from opening the app to planning the first walk is optimised in several ways.

First of all, the sign-up flow enables users to quickly review dog walkers in their area without the barrier of commitment that is requiring a sign-up before seeing the potential value of the app might incur.

The tougher-to-win-over users can complete the sign-up anytime or when ready to book a dog walker.

Wireframes

The right step in Noah's journey just-in-time

Wireframes show the sub-flow going from the home page to the profile of a prospective dog walker and the booking page.

After completing the onboarding flow or skipping like Noah, users arrive a the homepage. For new users, the main focus of the homepage is to help users fit a walker that suits their needs. For example, Noah is looking for a walker for workdays that can provide more active walks for Ollie. He selects filters on weekdays, and after some scrolling, he finds that group of walkers specialised in adventurous walks.

When investigating one of the walkers, Max, a bit closer, he continues to the profile page. Here an overview of Max's skills and experience verified through reviews are provided.

Continuing the booking process on the final screen, Noah is prompted with several questions to collect relevant information to plan Ollie's first walk. These questions intend to reduce unnecessary back-and-forth messaging between the user and the walker.

Visual Design

A modern, clear, but fun design language

The initial screens of the sign-up and booking flow in Paw.

The visual language used in Paw aims to provide a modern, clear, but fun feel.

Design Library

The visual experience of Paw

The components and styles from the design

(latest iteration after refinement based on usability testing).

Usability Testing

Refining Paw's design with new insights

During usability testing several issues were noted by the testers. Although related to the task, one of the testers noted that they found it rather hard to read the text on the price labels. Moreover, one of the somewhat playful title, "Let’s get started", and the action "Continue", in the sign up flow were unclear without further explanation. Finally, during testing users found it hard to find information about availability.

Furthermore, during the discussion with fellow design students some other points were noted, most notably the purpose of the more prominent listing of a dog walker's profile on the Explore page.

The refinements made after performing usability testing

and the additional peer discussions.

The sign up process was revamped somewhat, now more clearly stating the purpose of the step. The readability issues on the Explore page were addressed by abandoning the labels in favour of captions for each card. Moreover, the first listing now has an explicit purpose, showing the dog walker which best matches the user's search request. The availability of the dog walks the explore view.

Try out the prototype here...

Conclusion

Takeaway and experience gained

during the project

The refined screens of the sign-up and booking flow in Paw.

While the phases of product design were covered during the execution of the project, there are still unfortunately some things I would have preferred to have done. Most importantly the prototype could have been more extensively built and tested. Enabling further refinement of the design based on the subsequent results.