My task was to make a dog walking app. So I teamed up with The Dodo YouTube channel to make this happen. They make video content about animal stories so I figured this would be a perfect fit. I took their platform and turned it into a dog walking app.

Problem

Dog walking apps need a lots of coordination and buy in from the different parties involved in order to be successful. Owners need to trust dogs walkers with their dogs & dog walkers need to be fairly compensated and see enough business potential in order to provide their services.

Objective

My approach was to leverage The Dodo’s community in order to bring animal lovers together into the app. This way the people we are targeting are already coming to the app because of their interest in animals. The pet services would just be a feature that would match up perfectly. This approach will bring a diverse range of people to the app which will add to the vibrancy of the community. This builds trust and attracts more potential customers to the platform.

Market Research

I took inspiration from the popularity of video social media apps. I combined this with The Dodos format and added a community and services section. I also took note of other competitors to see what they were doing well and what they were lacking. I noticed a lack of activity through the apps which could become a downward spiral.

Empathize

I interviewed dog owners to get a sense of their pain points. Eric, a busy dog owner said he needed a dog walker because of his schedule but said peace at mind about his dogs experience was important.

Strategy

I drew great insights from an idea board I created with my team and from my interviews with dog owners. I realized how important feeling at ease with your dog walker is. In order to solve this trust problem between walkers and owners I knew I had to build trust beyond reviews.

Concept

I solved the issue of creating trust by creating a sense of community for the app. This includes the forum where people can ask and answer pet related questions as well as a resources section for pet related content. Users can post here and comment and upvote in order to interact with other pet lovers.

This culminated in a community score which better reflects a persons abilities and trustworthiness. It reflects your knowledge, experience & helpfulness. You can improve your score by attending community events to learn about different kinds of pet caring as well as receive accomplishment badges to highlight your experience.

Design

I designed minimal sections in line with The Dodo style. The pull up cards I used for various sections made it easy to navigate content without switching the page. So whether the user chooses to read a forum querstion, an article or watch a video, they can easily go back to the browsing page by closing the active modal. I also made sure to separate the sections into categories so that they are easy to navigate without overwhelming the user. Quick filters act to easily find what you are looking for.

Creating a small design system was very useful for me. After I finished the wire frame concepts I went on to make design components. Here I could focus on creating a style that would match The Dodo. I extracted their design features in order to transfer it onto the app components

I placed the design components together to form pages. Here I could finally see the final designs coming together. They allowed me to see what was working and what wasn't. I could see the design as a user and make changes that became obvious.