Pup Pals (dog walking app) - Product Design case study
PROJECT OVERVIEW
PRODUCT
Pup Pals is a dog walking app aimed at busy individuals looking for trustworthy and professional dog walkers by connecting with and meeting them before the first walk even takes place.
PROBLEM
Owners see their dogs as part of their family, rarely differentiating between pet and human. So, when leaving their dog in the care of others want to truly believe they are in good hands.
THE GOAL
Create an app where dog owners can search for dog walkers that are trustworthy with experience and reviews to show, along with the ability to message and meet the walker before they begin.
ROLE & RESPONSIBILITY
My role for this project was UX Researcher and Product Design. My responsibility in this project was to conduct research with interviews and then focus on the onboarding and walker search process. This consisted of building a user flow, wireframing, design of individual screens, create high fidelity prototypes and finally testing the prototypes with an audience to refine the final product ready to deliver.
PROCESS
Research
Ideation (User flow, wireframes visual design)
Prototype
Test
Refine & deliver
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RESEARCH
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
USER RESEARCH
USER PERSONA
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IDEATION
USER FLOW
I focused on delivering trust throughout the onboarding process. The user is prompted with messages and screens showing in real time how we are adapting the walkers they see based on the needs the owners (and their dogs) require.
Each stage, although still a simple and fast process, gives our user a reason to choose our app above any other when their pain point is trust and safety.
WIREFRAMES
When wireframing the project I wanted to focus on having a quick and easy process that collects enough information to show the user the best walkers with the most relevant training and reviews.
The below frames show a ‘Did you know?’ card that gives snippets of information highlighting where the app prioritizes safety. A frame that shows walkers with great reviews based on the location and a frame that asks many questions about the dog to match them with the best possible walker.
VERSION 2
I improved the screens after testing to deliver my goal more efficiently.
I added the location element to the ‘Did you know?’ screen removing movements showing where the app prioritizes safety faster on the next frame (Walkers with great reviews). I changed the frame that asks multiple questions with a messenger style chat bot making the decision making process faster and cleaner whilst also ensuring information wasn’t missed.
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ADDING VISUAL DESIGN
Taking key words from my research such as community, trust, friendly and community I began to put together a mood board to create a colour palette and style guide which brought my design to life...
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WALKER SEARCH SCREENS
THE PROTOTYPE
TAKEAWAYS
I have learned a lot from completing this case study, especially with how important research and reasons for actions are in the product design industry. The design thinking process of: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Design, Test and repeat have become an integral part of my daily projects that will continue to help me advance with all future endeavours.
Since completing this project I can see where repeating the Ideate, Design and Test phases can improve the experience of the user and I’d like to explore more into User Flows and how I can better understand human behaviour to produce outstanding flows in future projects.
