UI/UX Case Study: Designing Our Way to Better Dog Play Dates
For many Seattleites, socializing their dogs is an incredibly important part of their lives. And while many dog owners take advantage of dog parks, many more are increasingly looking into alternate forms of socialization for their pups. Enter dog play dates and their growing popularity. While the concept has caught on quickly, the ability to make play dates happen has come at a much slower rate. With the modern busy Seattleite, time is of the essence and planning doesn’t always come easy.
Understanding the Pain Points through User Interviews
I surveyed 7 Seattle area dog owners to glean how they approach dog socialization and their attitudes toward play dates in general. My main takeaways:
1. People are incredibly interested in socializing their dogs, but don’t want to travel very far to do it.
2. People care about the type of dog their dog socializes with.
3. People want flexibility and an easy scheduling process for play dates because of their busy and ever-changing schedules.
Challenges as Illustrated in the User Journey
Dog owners are triggered by thoughts of their pet’s needs. As I went through this user journey I paired actions with thoughts and feelings at each point of the journey to visually represent the pain points in the process of setting up a dog play date. From here, I determined the greatest opportunities for improvement to be instances where dog owner could choose their dog’s playmate, determine distance they’d be willing to travel, choose desired amount of play time, and easily reflect on the experience.
An Applicable Solution through Design
The idea of matching up dogs is not so far-fetched. After all, people have managed to design solutions that create solid people matches (tinder anyone?). So why not apply it to pups?
My idea is to provide opportunities on a mobile application for neighbors to come together to find suitable playmates for their dogs at a reasonable distance. Rather than stumbling upon the perfect playmate, my app is designed to customize the experience for each dog owner and their furry friend by filtering dog options, creating a network of preferable playmates, and documenting the success of each experience.
As the specifics of my idea came to life, I looked to other social dog apps to identify successful features and features that needed improvement. An example of a page I focused on is the profile page where I decided that instead of having only a few limited details like my competition shows below, I would use the opportunity to share user personalities and insert a call to action. I determined that given the ultimate goal of having people meet each other, pictures and personal details would play an important role in building trust and confidence among users. The low fidelity sketches on the far right illustrate ways I envisioned the profile page compared to other dog social apps.
Illustrating the Design Solutions
In order to illustrate and begin to understand the best ways for the user to perform the improved tasks, I generated a user flowchart. My goal was to create an easily navigable system with multiple ways of completing the task of scheduling a dog play date.
Low-Fidelity Sketching and Wireframing
The user flowchart helped pave the way for low-fidelity sketches and wireframes of the app. Here I mapped out the more functional needs of each page and the content elements needed to complete the tasks. Annotating the sketches helped me make the case for each button and placement choices, while the wireframes helped me flush out the flow of the pages and the hierarchy.
Through low-fidelity wireframing, I was able to create several mock ups of each page without exerting much effort. This allowed me to test for content and test variations of titles, layouts, text, etc. I also conducted an exercise instructing people to explain through the wireframes the purpose and function of each of my pages. This feedback was critical to ascertaining whether my app was easy to understand and use. From this feedback I was able to make edits and move into the digital prototype. (Test the digital version by clicking the link below.)
Usability Testing and Future Iterations
The insights I gained from usability testing on the digital prototype were invaluable. My research questions paid particular attention to the behaviors and attitudes users have toward dog socialization. Each session included a short briefing, 9 user and behavior questions, 3 task completion requests with the prototype and 4 reflective questions post-task completion. Among the tasks: set up a play date with given criteria, leave a review, and view a profile. Usability testing revealed confusion over the rating system and the need for titles on icons in the navigation. However, there was also high praise for the filtering system in the “Plan Your Paw Date” section and excitement over the digestibility of the profile page.
Future Iterations
From the usability testing, I was able to outline the next set of iterations for this app.
Labels and Icon Choice
Label the navigation menu and possibly changing some of the icons such as the “Star” icon which was meant to take users to the rating page, but users associated with the term “Favorites.”
Adding Filters
While conducting usability testing, users expressed surprise at not having a rating as part of the filter options despite it being such a huge part of the app’s overall function. I am not convinced that this particular filter is necessary, however, there were other filter options that I’d like to consider.
Review Placement
I would build in a pop-up that reminds users to leave a review upon reentering the app after having a play date with another user.
A Final Note on this Case Study
All in all, the app has great potential and seems to be a solution to a problem dog owners face in Seattle. I was able to use design principles to find an elegant solution to a real user problem. I am confident that given the opportunity, Seattleites would come together through this app to find more suitable playmates for their dogs.
