top of page
WoofMe, a Mobile App for Dog Playdates February - May, 2021
WoofMe is a mobile app that aims to help dogs meet with ideal playdates in real life by connecting and matching based on preferences, making the process of finding new dog friends easier and less worrisome during the pandemic.
Duration: 12 weeks
Location: Remote
Design Tools: Figma, Invision
Teammate: Aichen Guo, Xiujie Bi,
Wuke Zhou, Zhichun Zhao
My role:
-
Research & Analysis: interview, affinity diagram, persona, user journey, competitive analysis
-
Design: ideation, paper prototypes, medium- and high-fidelity prototypes of Explore, Map, and Match pages
Outcomes
Clear and Organized Onboarding Process
The onboarding process gathers basic user info, dog info, dog playdates preferences, and verifies the vaccination record to ensure the health and safety of dog playdates.
Explore Playmates based on Time
“Ready to meet” is designed to provide users with doggies that are free to meet soon in a short amount of time.
Nearby Playmates
The map features easily adjustable filter bars and active dogs in nearby dog parks for users looking for dog playmates and dog parks nearby.
Invite Playmates to Join You!
Didn't find an available playmate in your area? Post an invite to let more people know!
Approchable Preference Setting
Make changes to your preferences whenever you want on "Match".
Browse based on Preferences
Swipe playmate profiles to discover and connect with other dog owners.
Schedule an Appointment in Chat
Send an invitation of dog playdate so that they don't forget!
Accept Woofs to Start a Chat!
Approve playdates' requests under Woof and start a conversation with them!
Automatic Suggestion on Topics
Not sure how to start a conversation? WoofMe provides some suggested topics for you.
Update Profile Anytime
Edit user info, dog profile, preferences, and settings anytime.
Photo-Centered Dog Profiles
The dog profile page avoids text-heavy visual and uses tags, icons to enage the users.
Keep Health Info Updated
Health information are verified to ensure the safety of playdates.
Introduction
Introduction
PROJECT TIMELINE
ABOUT DOG PLAYDATES
Playing and having fun helps eliminate stress from people's life—and the same holds true for dogs. In fact, having dog playdates as a part of dog's life routine is vital to helping doggies develop a healthy, loving personality.
Dog playdates can be beneficial to dogs in multiple aspects:
-
Physical health. Active play helps keep dogs' heart healthy, keeps the joints lubricated, and improves their overall balance and coordination.
-
Mental health. Playdates enable to force dogs to use their brain, not just their body. This can help keep their mind sharp and focused.
-
Social skills. When dogs play with other dogs and other people, it helps improve their overall social skills. Dogs playing together from a young age teaches them communication and self-control. They learn basic rules and how to play by them. A dog that is sociable with other dogs is more likely to be sociable with people too.
But how can people effectively find new dog playmates?
User Research
User Research
QUESTIONNAIRE
Objective: to better understand the needs and preferences of dogs and dog owners regarding dog playdates.
Sample size: 8 interviewees (all are dog owners)
After gathering information from 8 interviews, we used affinity diagram to organize all the information and gain insights from our research. We firstly put key info from interviews on sticky notes using Miro, then grouped them together into three main categories -- facts, difficulties, and needs.
KEY RESEARCH INSIGHTS
App Features
App Features
From our research insights, we created our features around four major user needs.
Persona & User Journey
Based on user research and app features, we came up with 2 personas along with their user journeys to have a better idea in mind who we are designing for.
1. Proactive dog owners:
This type of dog owners loves meeting new friends. They want to find ideal playdates in a short amount of time around their area and they would like to post a playdate invite to have others join them. They value the process of posting an invite and connecting with other dog owners.
Persona & User Journey
2. Passive dog owners:
This type of dog owners is very cautious about meeting new dog playmates. They care about the health and hygiene of their dogs. Thus, they value the filter function, preciseness of matching, and the process of connecting with other dog owners.
Comparative Analysis
What we did: Conducted comparative review of 4 relevant mobile apps: two are about pet's care and social life, and the other two are social apps that have complex interactive functions.
Objective: To establish guidelines for WoofMe's design by analyzing the pros and cons of benchmarking pet care and social apps.
Comparative Analysis
THINGS TO LEARN
-
both ends agree to continue conversation
-
delete chat if no interaction in a week
-
reminder of topics for chat initiation
-
simple booking function
-
clear & organized onboarding process
WHAT DIDN'T WORK
-
complicated on-boarding process
-
unclear navigation icon
-
invading privacy in anyway
-
cautious about paid function
-
lack of interaction between users, e.g. no chat function
Wireframing & Iteration
PAPER PROTOTYPING
Wireframe
With research insights and app features in mind, we firstly used InVision's new feature FreeHand to draw out the paper prototype.
MEDIUM-FIDELITY PROTOTYPING
After discussion about app features and layout design within the team, we moved on to medium-fidelity prototype using Figma.
User Testing
We conducted moderated user tests on our interactive medium-fidelity prototypes. We invited 8 users and took notes while we were testing. Our moderated user test focuses on the ease and clarity of the onboarding process, the filter function, chatting function, and posting an invite.
User Testing
According to the feedbacks and insights we gathered from our users, we made 4 major changes to our prototype.
The first change takes place in the onboarding process, how do we gather just the right amount of information.
Our users suggested that they would like to see more information about the dog owner since you’ll be meeting both the dog and the owner in real life. We fully agree with that but at the same time don’t want to overwhelm and bore our user with the long onboarding process since we are asking a lot of information including the basic info of you and your dog, your preference, your dog’s health and your address.
So we took out two of the most time consuming parts which is the detailed profile and friend preferences by adding that as an option to complete at the end of the onboarding flow, with a small note saying that “doggies with a complete profiles and preference are more likely to find ideal friends.” This way users can have them in mind and come back later to complete.
The next major usability issue is about our two main features "Explore" and "Feed", how we could do better to distinguish the two features.
Our app have two main ways of meeting new doggie friends: one is time based, and the other is preference based. The time-based options in this case called “ready to meet” are designed to provide users with doggies that are free to meet soon in a short amount of time. The preference-based options are for you to browse in your free time according to your dog’s preference of playmates, you have the option to pass or send likes to this dog as an invitation to connect.
When completing the tasks, our users had a hard time distinguishing the two functions. To make it more straightforward and less confusing, we made big changes on the architecture of the app as well as the interfaces. First we switched over time-based options to be on the “Explore” section along with maps and filters to allow the user to start exploring and find playmates in a short amount of time if needed.
We picked out preference-based options as its own thing to be on the “Match” section and made the interface more like the traditional dating app where you have flows of cards to like or reject. We also changed “Feed” to “ready to meet”. After the changes, the interface are a lot more self-explanatory.
We received a lot of positive feedbacks on the thoughtful filters and the visualization of the map. During our second round of designing, we tried to make that more prominent on the homepage by sticking the filter tabs on top with a search bar, as well as making the map stands out by placing the icon next to Explore. We also designed this overlay tabs to go on top of the map so the user can view map and use the filters at the same time.
The last is about content hierarchy.
Our users liked the idea of using your dog’s personality and identity to find their friends. Everything is based off of who your dog is and what your dogs prefer. Therefore it is very important to showcase both your dogs and other dogs’ photos just like other social networking platforms where images are the dominant content.
Therefore in our next iteration, we prioritized images by making them the biggest and the first thing you would notice on the page. With previous feedbacks, we also found a way to showcase both the name and profile picture of dog and owners at the same time in the chat.
UI GUIDE
Final Prototypes
Final Prototypes
For our user interface, we went with a light and fun style since this is an app for finding friends for your baby dogs. We replaced the traditional icons with doggie elements such as the explore icon with the dog walking as well as the like icon with the little paw. Overall it is very airy and fresh.
INTERACTIVE FINAL PROTOTYPE
Click the image below to experience WoofMe!
Next Steps
Next Steps
bottom of page