Pup! Walking service app for small puppies

Pup! is an app that helps dog owners find a dog walker. Although, I've been a designer for several years, I took a product design course called Dribbble to enhance my design skills. The program was 3 months long where I was tasked to create a new product from scratch using design thinking principles. Each week, I would meet with my mentor and my other classmates (fully online) and learn different approaches to design thinking, conduct and analyze UX and UI research to inform my design decisions, learn how to bring my app to life by using wireframes, flow diagrams & prototypes with Figma.

Challenge

Create a service to connect dog owners with dog walkers. Dog owners oftentimes have trouble finding a reliable and trustworthy dog walker to take care of their pet.

Research

1. Kickoff interviews - Conducted initial interviews with friends and family and I asked them about their experience with dog walking. 

2. Compiled a list of questions - I asked my friends and family the following questions  

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

• What are some of the reasons why you utilize a dog walking service.

• What do you like about the service? 
What do you dislike?

• Are there any services or features missing?

• What are the most important things you look for in a dog walker?

By asking these questions, I learned what kind of apps dog walkers liked that were already in the market. I also learned that they wanted to ensure that the dog walkers who are enrolled in the app should be trustful and the booking process should be easy. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Market research

I conducted market research to see what others in the pet/dog walking industry were doing. I specifically studied Rover, and the Wag! website and app. I was looking for what was working for these apps and what came to mind was from the interviews that dog owners liked to see a lot of reviews so they can confidently book a dog walker they can trust.

User personas

Based on the research that I conducted with a few dog owners, I created a persona to better understand the user behaviours that way I can create a product. 

User flow

I then created a visual representation of how the route that the dog owner would need to take to sign up for a dog walking service. The route starts at the sign up landing page and the dog owner can sign up in different ways, whether it be via email, apple, google, or facebook. I added more details such as creating the flow when someone forgot their password or the ability to sign up later. These were all possible pathways to onboard the dog owner to sign up or sign in via the app.

Wireframes

Based on the feedback that I received from my mentor and classmates, I made some edits to the user flow and then created wireframes as seen below to showcase the user experience when the dog owner signs up or logs in to the dog walker app.

Where did the name Pup come from? I had 3 different friends that had small puppies and the idea sparked that this would be an opportunity to create an app for only small puppies. I wanted to niche down as much as possible to create a better product that would cater to a specific audience.

Wireframes (continuation)

During the initial kickoff interview with friends and family, they all mentioned that they wanted to read through reviews and see an indicator that the dog walker was one of the best dog walkers in the app with a lot of experience (I added an icon of a crown to indicate top dog walker). By having plenty of reviews and top rated dog walkers, would give them the confidence to book a dog walker that they can trust.

Moodboard

Before translating the wireframes to an actual visual representation of the puppy app with the use color and typography, I wanted to get some inspiration + start to think about the look and feel. As seen below, I created a moodboard to get some inspiration for color treatment and general feeling of the app.

Moodboard adjectives: Soft, Friendly, Happy, Curious, Youthful

Color palette and fonts

From the moodboard activity, I chose the color palette and font below as seen below. I wanted the app to feel youthful, playful using colors and fonts that resemble my chosen adjectives. Plus, these types of colors communicate friendly, and trust which was something that dog owners thought was important when booking a dog walker.​​​​​​​

Visual design

During this phase there were a few rounds of design iterations based on feedback. One of the things I made some visual changes for was the illustration of a puppy on the main cover of the app. Before I only had a large puppy and if this app was meant for small puppies, the puppy in the cover was too big so I added an extra illustrative puppy and made them smaller.

One of the other changes I made to the app was the page where you are looking for puppy walkers. Before I had large tiles where the dog owner can scroll through and see a preview of the dog walkers profiles. The problem is that the tiles were big, especially if a dog owner wants to scroll through quickly. I created a better version where the profiles of the dog walkers were viewed in a list format making it easier for a dog owner to scroll through.

Overall, I wanted this app to have plenty of white space that way the app doesn't feel so busy. Based on the moodboard that I've created, I had inspiration to pick out colors and typography that conveyed a fun, and playful mood. As for the UI, I also had inspiration from Airbnb's mobile site where their UI is clean and vey modern.

Prototype

View the interactive prototype below where you can see the flow from the onboarding, dog walker profiles, and booking.