Project Overview:

This project started from an issue I noticed with pet owners in the city. They always wanted to bring their dog with them but struggled to know what places dogs were allowed.

The Challenge (Problem):

We aim to help dog owners navigate cities with their pet companions. We need to test the assumption that it is difficult for dog owners to find new places and activities in the city.

Solution:

The goal is to create a product that will help provide a better experience for dog owners in cities, by solving the main issues dog owners have living in the city with their pet.

In order to determine what exactly the problems and issues were I leaned into secondary research. I searched through the internet to learn more about dog owners and their dogs.

These are the questions I used to learn more about my problem:

● Why is it difficult to have a dog in the city?

● Who (audience) is struggling with a dog in the city?

● What are the main causes of this struggle?

● How are these people currently doing in the city?

● What alternatives or solutions make living in a city with your dog easier?

After conducting research I conducted 5 user interviews that were each 45 minutes. I used these interviews to gain insight about the problem and to better understand my users. This allowed me to approach the rest of the design process with a better understanding of my users’ behaviors, pain points, needs, and goals.

I created a screener then selected the participants who met the following criteria. When selecting Participants I used the following Selection Criteria:

● Should live in a major city

● Own a dog

● Use a smartphone

● Owner should actively look for places to take their dog

I synthesized the key findings from each of the user interviews and separated them into themes:

● Information about dogs

● Walks/ Daily Routine

● Favorite Places & Activities for Dog Owners and Dogs-

● How They Find Places

● How They Get Places

After all the notes from each interview were separated. I took the key findings from each theme to create quantifiable data and used that to start crafting my design solution.

Ex.

How they find places

5/5 use word of mouth

4/5 googling

4/5 social media apps

I crafted user personas to represent the insights I gathered from the interviews. I wanted to ensure user needs were at the forefront of my design and found having personas would pave the way for that to happen.

Key points I touched upon in creating my personas:

❖ The importance of socialization for owners and their dog

❖ The want to explore and do new things

❖ Emphasis that new activities were convenient and fun

Empathy Map

When creating the empathy map I really wanted to understand the feelings of my users. I used the empathy map to organize the insights, observations and quotes from the user interviews.

Top 3 How Might We Questions

After creating my empathy map and personas I used the organized insights to start developing the problem statement. I framed the problems as How Might We Statements to focus on the problems I wanted to solve in my design solution. I used my insights to craft the following How Might We statements.

Once I completed all the initial sketches I used my ideas to create a Marvel prototype. I used the guerrilla testing method to test out my ideas quickly. I used this test to determine if: 

• The app functions were clear

• To see how users felt about the overall design of the app

The findings from this testing showed me there were quite a few aspects that weren’t clear and gave insights on what needed to be fixed. 

Aspects That Testing told me that needed to be Improved: 

• Places and Activities needed two different screens

• Map feature was not the best way to show places

• Add more dog themed elements to design

After creating the high fidelity red routes of my screen, I made them into a prototype in Marvel. I used this prototype to test the usability of the app. 

Objectives

• If the screens are easy to navigate

• Uncover usability issues in red routes 

• First impression on App design (Do they like it)

• Make sure the icons on home screen are readable

 I conducted five tests. Two of the tests were done in person and the other 3 were done remotely. The in person tests were done in a quiet room with a prototype. The remote tests were done via zoom using the prototype.I had each user complete three tasks.

Test Scenarios/ Tasks Example

You're out walking your dog with a friend and decide you want to keep hanging out and grab a beer nearby. Find a dog friendly brewery for you and your friend to have a beer.

Usability Test Findings 

After conducting usability testing, I learned 5/5 users could complete the task. However I had missed some very important aspects in my prototype that needed to be addressed.

Key Findings From Usability Test 1:

• Not enough informations about the places and activities 

• Not enough info about dog owner and dog for play date

•  Issues with logo and  visibility of headings 

After discovering these issues I went back and made the needed changes to my prototype. I added the address and hours of operation. Included a section information about the dog owners. I also adjusted the headings and moved the logo over so it wouldn’t be confused with a button.

After making the changes I went ahead and did another round of usability testing.

Objectives

• If the screens were easy to navigate

• Ensure the Set Up Playdate route was clear

• All the information on was clear and adequate for places and activities

 I conducted five tests. All the tests were done in person. The in person tests were done in a quiet room with a prototype. I had each user complete three tasks.

Each user was able to complete the task however there were still things that could be improved.

Key Findings From Usability Test 2:

• Clear rules for dogs for each place/ activity 

• Improve the Select location in Set Up Playdate

• Improve search by filtering by temperament