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Puppy Love

UX Case Study

Helping Your Furry Friend Find Their Next Best Friend!

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Project Overview

​Objective: Identify a human need and design an app to address the issue

Project Information: UX Design Project, Mobile Application (iOS)

My Role: User Research (2 interviews), UX Strategy, UX and Visual Design (low and high-fidelity wireframes), Usability Testing (2 tests), Prototyping

Duration: 2-week sprint - June 2021

Context: First concept project during UX/UI Bootcamp at UC Berkeley. 

Tools Used: InVision, Miro, Figma, Trello, Google Survey, Zoom, Slack

The Problem

Dog owners need to find safe and reliable playmates for their dogs because it helps to improve their behavior and health.

The Solution

Design an app that allows pet owners to find compatible playmates for their dogs.

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Design Process

Empathize

  • Competitive Analysis

  • Survey

  • User Interviews

  • Affinity Mapping

Define

  • User Persona

  • User Journey Map

Ideate

  • I like, I wish, What if

  • Feature Prioritization

  • Paper Sketches

Prototype

  • Rapid Prototyping

Test

  • 2 rounds of Usability Testing

  • Changes based on feedback

Empathize

Competitive Analysis

We organized information from direct competitors to understand how other designers created similar solutions. Then, we noted features we wanted Puppy Love to include, such as additional details on the dog and owner profiles and refined filter options. ​​​​​​​ 

Strengths

  • Maps include nearby dog-friendly places

  • Allow users to undo likes and wrong swipes to promote freedom and control

  • Fast and easy swipe feature

Weaknesses

  • Negative reviews, untrustworthy 

  • Difficult navigation is not easy to learn

  • Poor description of dogs makes compatible matching unlikely

And the Survey Says...

To best design for their needs and circumstances, we needed more information about people who could be potential users. We also used the survey to find potential interview participants.

75%

of participants said socializing their dog is very important

85%

of dog owners said they do not go to dog parks

Survey example: What challenges do you experience when attempting to socialize your dog with other dogs?

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User Insights

We conducted 5 user interviews to better understand pet owners' thoughts, feelings, and frustrations when socializing their dogs. With this information, we can ensure that our designs are unbiased and based on issues that actual users face.

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Define

User Persona

Our user persona emerged from our research data as a proactive pet owner who prioritized her dog's health, safety, and socialization. 

Journey Map

With the information from our user interviews, we were able to outline their potential experience with using Puppy Love. To design more holistically, we created a user journey map for our user persona.

Ideate

What's The Big Idea?

We brainstormed ideas using the "I like...I wish...What if..." method, and plotted them onto a feature prioritization matrix to help us sort ideas with high impact and low complexity.

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User Flow

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Paper Sketches

Finally, it was time to start sketching! First, each team member sketched paper wireframes. We then dot voted on the elements we liked best and combined them to create our low-fidelity wireframes.

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Prototyping & Testing

Low-Fidelity Testing

We conducted usability tests on 6 users, asking them the following tasks to complete:​

Task 1

  • Create a profile for yourself and your dog

Task 2

  • Match with a dog by swiping right

Task 3

  • Send a message to a dog you have matched with

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User Feedback

Matching

  • After matching with the other dog owners, users weren’t sure if the task was completed.

Swiping

  • Some users didn’t know what swiping left and right meant. It’s necessary to add a tutorial screen before starting the app.

Prototyping

  • The prototype had some connection errors which made it difficult for the users to understand the product.

High-Fidelity

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User Feedback 

Matching

  • Increase the visibility of the swiping action result by adding “Match” and “No Thanks” while the user is swiping.

Swiping

  • Add tutorial screens about what swiping left and right means so that users aren't confused.

Prototyping

  • To assist people with limited mobility, all controls and interactive elements have a hit target of at least 44x44 pt. 

You Say It's Puppy Love, We Say It's Full Grown!

Final Thoughts

  • Incorporate additional accessibility features: e.g. VoiceOver control, haptics, audio descriptions, and increased personalization

​

  • Add a video feature to the user and dog profile

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  • Teamwork is essential to brainstorming and key to a successful design 

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Thank you!

Check Out My Other Projects

SFJazz Redesign

The redesign of the current SFJazz website emphasized accessibility on the home, membership, education, and donation pages.

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Aviva

Aviva helps users find complementary and alternative medicines to help fill the gaps in their current medical treatment plans.

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