About Me

With no formal background in design, just a desire to learn from the ground up. I recently completed Dribbble’s Product Design Course. From the first week of research to the final week of prototyping, to writing this case study I was thankful for the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of product design.

For my first project as a novice product designer, I was given the challenge of creating a dog walking app that focused on making it simple and easy for dog owners to find trustworthy dog walkers.

Please meet my "DogGo"

I welcome you to explore how I learned to create DogGO, an application that aims to help dog owners find top-notch care for their furry best friend.

UX Research

To start the project, I conducted research using the following questions. It was my hope that my questions would illicit answers that highlighted a common pain point.

Q1: Do you ever ask friends or use a service for dog walking or pet sitting? Why? How often?

Q2: What do you like about the service? What do you dislike?

Q3: Are there any services or features missing?

Q5: If you could “see” your dog being walked, would that feature be of interest to you?

To ensure my research was through, I selected people that had different relationship statuses, a variety of work environments (work from home, works at an office and retired) and a range of dogs both in type and in number.

Person #1: Single mom of 3 in 40s, works remotely and has 2 dogs

Person #2: Married 75+ handicap male, one small dog, retired

Person #3: Single male 30s, one large dog, travels for work often

Person #4: Married female in 40s, one step child, 1 dog, works traditional 9 to 5 at an office

From my research I was able to deduce that there was a need for an application that provided dog owners the confidence in securing trustworthy dog walkers to care for their best friend.

Persona

In order to cultivate empathy and successfully communicate my research findings, I created a dependable and authentic portrayal of my main target audience.

User Flow

I learned that user flow in UI/UX research refers to the sequence of steps or interaction that a user goes through when engaging with a product, service or website. I focused on understanding and documenting the user’s journey, from their initial interaction with the application to the competition of their desired task or goal. Below I created a flowchart that illustrated the different steps, screens and interactions a user encounters while navigating the application. This includes entry points, decision points and exit points.

Wireframes and Hamburgers

Knowing that a blueprint is tool used to build a house, it was easy for me to understand that a wireframe is the first step in communicating the basic structure and organization of an app. I created low-fidelity representations with simple shapes, lines and typography.

Although, I didn’t use it in the final design, I found the use of a “hamburger” as a place holder for the future hamburger menu to be funny.

Visual Design Elements

As DogGO came to take shape, I learned that adding visual design elements and aesthetics create a more engaging user interface. I created a mood board where I researched color, typography, graphics and visual hierarchy to make DogGo come to life.

Design Systems

Taking inspiration from my mood board, I decided the on the look and feel of DogGO by selecting colors and typography that I felt made DogGO feel bright, happy and safe.

Prototypes

Prototyping plays an important role in UI design as it serves as a tool for designers to visualize and test their ideas before moving into the development phase. Click link below to see the prototype I created for DogGo user onboarding.

User Testing

I had a couple of people take DogGO for a “test walk”...pun intended. From their feedback I learned that some of the fonts were hard to read and they felt that some images were too small.

Conclusion

Completing my DogGO mobile application as my first foray in UI/UX Design was a challenging and rewarding experience. By incorporating research, conducting usability testing and focusing on visual aesthetics, its my hope that DogGO came together as a mobile app that will allow users to feel safe finding a dog walker for their furry best friend.

While I have just dipped my toes into the deep waters of UI/UX design I am excited about continuing to pursue further opportunities in this arena.