Leashed: Case Study
Background and Context
The following is an overview of a project I completed for the Dribbble Product Design course. The intent was to understand what pain point dog owners have today with the available dog walking options, and design a new solution that solves those problems. The project went through many of the key steps of the Product Design process:
Target Market Research.
Concept Design & Iteration.
Prototyping.
Consumer Feedback.
Because this application was never developed, I did not get an opportunity to iterate and analyze based on insights from on a fully developed application.
Problem Statement
Based on the market research, including competitive analysis and user interviews, the problem I set out to solve is that today there is not an on demand application to support dog owners in bigger cities that may need dog walking services within a short period of time from a pool of vetted trustworthy dog walkers.
Market Research
To understand and to get to the opportunity in the dog walking application space, I completed competitive research (Rover and Wag) to understand what products were available today and what problem they solved for, and I also completed multiple user interviews.
User Persona
The opportunity surfaced in the user interviews and in the competitive research, there was a need for dog owners to have a more immediate, "of the moment," dog walking service. With this insight, I went on to develop my target user persona (Ideal Customer Profile).
User Flow and Wireframes
From here, I went on to design a solution that focused on surfacing vetted dog walkers that were available on demand for dog owners like Meredith, who don't have time to review many options, and just needs to book a walker that she can trust with her dog, Max.
In the user flow, I tried to focus on streamlining the sign up and booking process to eliminate as many hurdles as possible to get dog owners to that dog walk.
The wireframes focus on a specific time based availability, and the option to book a 1-time walk. In my research, I learned that dog owners also appreciate ongoing services, so I ensured that the solution enabled both 1-time and ongoing dog walking. I started my wireframes with rough sketches of key screens.
Visual Design
I wanted the design to be welcoming and friendly, but also trustworthy. I also wanted to instill a since of "activeness" in the design. I used mood boards and did different design exercises to align on a palette that I believe is friendly and approachable, but instills trust with the end users.
Mood Board
Visual Design Exploration
Final Visual Design
Prototype & Testing
Once I designed the full flow of the application, focusing on the dog owner persona, I built a prototype to solicit user feedback from real potential users.
Prototype
User Feedback
Using the prototype, I solicited input from users. I took a task based on approach, and prompted the user to complete a specified task. Each task was completed successfully during the session with the users I interviewed.
Summary and outcome
From this exercise, over the course of many months (March - June 2023), I was able to take an abstract prompt about designing a solution for a dog walking app, to conducting research, identifying an opportunity in the market and designing a solution that potentially capitalize on the "on demand" needs of many urban dwelling dog owners.
The dog services market is crowded, but I'd love to turn this into a real application and get real world insight, but that is not immediately feasible, so the main takeaway I have is that I have dug deep into the product design process, and I know that I love solving problems, so I'm excited to see how this course will enrich my career as a product manager.
Design System
One of the elements of this project that I really enjoyed, was developing the initial pieces of a design system. I included key components, colors and styles below that I aggregated once I had finalized the visual design.
