Pupster
End-to-end app design for new dog owners to maintain their pups health and wellbeing
Project Overview
When people get a new puppy they can feel overwhelmed with all of the do’s and don’ts, how long to walk them for, what foods are toxic to them, how to manage separation anxiety, and stages of their development.
Many people make mistakes with their new pet that can impact their furry friend later down the line, like too much exercise when they are young can impact their joints, feeding them too many treats can make their pets obese.
During the pandemic the number of dog owners increased dramatically, and many pet owners may have bought a dog and it is likely this trend will rise with more people working from home.
To help new dog owners I will create an end-to-end app that works as a tool to support them with their puppy, and them keep them healthly and well.
Project Details
Project Goals
Create an app that allows users to support their new puppy, and take care of them.
To help users make good decisions and have a reliable source of information about their pet.
Create an MVP to share with stakeholders
Create brand identity: Branding assets logo, UI kit
The User
New dog owners and existing dog owners who want to give their dog the best start in life, and make informed decisions to ensure the best outcomes for their dogs longevity and wellbeing.
User Problem
When getting a new puppy it can be overwhelming, there is a lot of information out there, and people will give advice sometimes incorrect advice. It can be tough for new dog owners to know they are getting it right. Getting a new puppy can be a stressful time, getting the training right, sleepless nights, and health questions specific to the breed, it can feel both joyful and lonely unless you have some help.
Business Problem
They want to offer an app that provides engaging, useful, and reliable information that allow users to look after their pup, and value it enough pay for a subscription.
The Solution
An app that provides training, grooming and health advice to help users make informed decisions. It advocates for early socialising of puppies through featured walks, and meet ups.
Understanding Users
Throughout the research it was clear that having a new puppy was both a joyful and highly stressful time, many of the participants likened it to having a baby, sleepless nights, cleaning up after them, not understanding why they were behaving a certain way and having to rush to the vet when they ate something weird, or their poo was a strange colour.
After conducting interviews with 2 subject matter experts, dog walker/trainer and vet, it was clear that the vet didn’t have time in the health check ups to go over really important information about training. The trainer found that people came to them about health issues, but they were not qualified to speak to that.
Of the 5 new dog owners I interviewed it was clear that all new dog owners want to do their very best to start the it pup off on the right tracks, yet, with all the conflicting information, and breed specific information they often felt alone and unsure about what they should do.
Key insights that came out of the research were;
Dog owners want to make sure that their dog is happy and secure, but they don’t always know if they are making the right decision.
Dog owners want to keep their dog mentally stimulated, but as the dog gets past puppy stage most owners forget that their dog still needs mental stimulation to ward off cognitive decline.
Dog owners are keen on getting advice from specialists like their vet, dog walkers and trainers, but time is either limited, or expensive.
While there is support available such as dog meet ups or Facebook groups it is variable depending on breed and location.
Most new dog owners are not fully prepared for the cost of owning a dog.
It’s important for people to choose the right dog for them, getting the right breed based on their living situation, time, and lifestyle is key to a happy long-term home for the pup.
Dog owners are not always aware of how their behaviour and changes in their life affects their dogs behaviour and wellbeing.
Puppy training is key to setting the foundations for your relationship with your dog, and will make life easier.
Understanding the basics of healthcare, grooming and knowing what is harmful for your dog will help keep your dog healthier for longer and mitigate undue stress.
Being able to socialise with other dog owners especially with the same breed is helpful
How Might We
From the research I had a lot of possible options and directions that I could take. I created two problem statements, which reflected the research. These were that users wanted to give their dog the best start in life and onwards, and that they wanted to minimise health issues. All of the people interviewed said they were busy, and this was a key factor in whatever I would design.
Next I worked up a number of how might we statements to provide a focus for finding solutions. This helped me to focus in on discovering what would solve these problems.
Timeboxing
To rapidly generate ideas, I used timeboxing to help get as many possible ideas out on how to solve the users problems. I included the look feel of the app, as I was starting to think about what the user would want to feel when using the app too.
This allowed me to focus on the POV and HMW and rapidly fire out ideas knowing that time was limited.
This was incredibly useful as there were so many directions I could have gone and once I could see the ideas all I once I would be able to pull together, and strip out things that did not solve the user problem, and combine, and work on ones that did.
Narrowing the Focus
After getting initial feedback I was able to I scope out four ideas a little further that felt like they matched the user requirements and needs the most, and could become an MVP.
Training and Health in-person or live online support - This idea had a lot of potential as this met the users needs, however it didn’t seem viable to have people set up for this live interaction without having a clear understanding of the possible demand so the ever green pre-recorded video content would make the most sense and be accessible for users.
Symptoms Checker - This met the needs of being able to check in about the dogs health and get advice about issues, but didn’t meet the mental wellbeing and training aspect.
Planning for your new pup - this met the users initial need to plan for their new pup, for things like finances, what type of puppy to get, health information, where to walk, managing their diary how long they walked for etc, but felt limited to pre-puppy and might not keep users interested longer term and it was key that this app allowed users to keep using it as their pup aged.
Mental Health for Dogs - Many people talked about how they didn’t understand their dogs mental health or mood, this idea met this need, but I did feel that it might not keep users engaged, and as the training was for the owner too I was aware that this might feel too much work.
In the end I decided to combine idea one and two, with the diary / walking element of idea three as this felt like is closely matched users needs.
There were a number of other ideas that felt like ‘nice to haves’ and I wanted to keep a note of them for phase two of the product development.
Product Requirements
From the research, and brainstorming and final idea work up I was clear of what the initial product needed to have, but there were a lot of other ideas that came out of the brainstorming that could be future elements of the product. I used a product requirements document to capture the must have elements of the app, and what were nice to have and future features.
The research said that new puppy owners needed relevant and timely information about their puppies health and wellbeing to save on expensive trips to the vets.
Training and mental stimulation was a vital part of the pups foundational education, many of the users said that this is one of the key things to focus on and get right.
Meeting other dog owners was another key insight that came out of the research that I wanted to include, as this would give users reasons to engage with the app to build connections with other dog owners.
Therefore it was key that the product I developed further covered main pain points that came out of the research, health and physical wellbeing, training and diary management, and socialising.
Site Map
When developing the site map I wanted to make sure that the important information about their pup was easy to locate, and information like account details would be in settings. This took a number of revisions as it was easy to over complicate, and I wanted to get feedback on this to ensure it made sense to users.
I also wanted to keep the number of clicks to a minimum so that they user could easily get to where they needed to go quickly and without fuss. The site map was guided by the product requirements.
Task Flows
I considered three possible flows that users would be taking when they first engaged with the app, and wanted to map these out to build and test each of these flows in the usability tests.
The first flow would the On Boarding journey as users would need to provide information to set the app up and ensure that it could immediately start providing relevant information.
The training flow felt like a key user journey as users would use this daily when getting a new puppy, and want to track their puppies progress.
The final flow I wanted to test was the symptom checker. Users could move through the symptoms checker to get information about whatever their dog was going through.
User Flow
While mapping out the symptoms checker task flow I recognised hat users might search multiple times, and that they might also then go through the vet flow if the information they received needed additional clarification or they were worried that about the results of the symptoms checker.
I wanted to map out the possible user flow that they might take based on this knowledge to help me build out the symptoms checker flow into the vet flow.
Design Principles
I wanted to have simple yet powerful concepts that would guide all design decisions, these values are front and centre in the design process.
These design principles were based on the research, and what users needed to be able to do when they used the app. Keeping the user at the front of mind when making key design choices.
Wireframes
I wanted to ensure that user could clearly move through the app with minimal disruption. It was key to build wireframes that were mid fidelity. I wanted to get the concept clearly mapped out in wireframes so that I could get early feedback from users.
I was able to clear up some early issues with particular screens and where the flow did not make sense.
One key piece of feedback was around some of the wording in the symptoms flow, the language was ‘alarmist’ and made users feel ‘uneasy’ or ‘worried’. This was incredibly helpful insight as I wanted to build trust in users from the start, and language can impact how users engage with the content.
At this stage I was exploring icons versus emojis to help users clearly understand what they were looking at quickly and remember this so they could navigate through the app more smoothly.
Brand Key Words And Style Tile
Based on the research, I began to work on the brand key words. What was it that users should feel when they arrived on the app. A key insight that came out of the research was that new dog owners needed to feel they could trust the information as everyone was telling them things. They wanted to feel like the information was from a trusted friend.
They also needed to feel empowered and have a sense of fun with this new adventure of dog ownership.
From a visual perspective I didn’t want this to feel childish, but I did want it to feel fun and engaging to users. I chose to use emoji’s to help them quickly build familiarity with the diary entry and training, and to make it feel playful.
I kept the colour palette soft using more pastel colours to evoke a sense of tranquility in a stressful time and maintained a lot of white space so as not to overwhelm new and busy puppy owners.
I chose to use cute and funny images, as all users talked of their new puppy in such endearing terms, and said things like ‘they are part of the family’, or ‘I couldn’t imagine life without them’.
I opted for one typography Commons Classic as it is easy to read on small screens, and but had enough weight options to ensure I could created hierarchy.
On Boarding
I kept these screens minimal so that the user could seamlessly navigate through this flow.
I wanted the user to know exactly how long the On Boarding would take through the progress bar. I thought it important to give the user the opportunity to skip stages if they didn’t have the information at the time and a clear way to navigate back if the made a mistake.
Home Screen And Diary Entry
I wanted to create interest in the home screen and diary by using a touch of the secondary yellow to brighten it up. I wanted to introduce flashes of colour and fun.
In the description page I pre-populated some information and in other parts gave space for free text as users talked about being able to let their partner know about how their pup was on the walk, or what they had eaten that day. I used small cards in the diary to make it easy to log activity, I wanted to make this process as quick and seamless as possible.
Training , Grooming And Healthcare
I created cards for both these sections, in the training section I used emojis and colour along with the text to help users clearly identify where they were and what activities they were engaging in on this page.
For the grooming and healthcare cards I used images and the icons to differentiate the cards, and provide variety to the user. Using the pills at the top to act as filters enabling the user to move through the different options.
For the training activity and grooming page I went with bottom sheets, to allow more information to be available to the user, and easy to access from the screen rather than having to navigate to another menu.
Symptom Checker
I kept these screens clean and simple so that the user could seamlessly navigate through this flow. I treated these screens similar the on boarding flow, using pills to select information and to navigate forward or backward.
Due to the fact that the user will likely be stressed and worried when using this flow, and so I wanted to make it simple, and memorable, and minimal user actions to get to the information they wanted.
Walks
I mixed up the design of the cards for the walks, it felt necessary to have slightly larger images as the location was the key point, and I wanted users to be ale to see and be inspired by the image of the walking location. I wanted to give the user the option to view by distance to their location and allow them to click on the pin and view the location on a map.
When the user clicked on a walk, they could open this out into a map with the pin dropped on the location they had selected. To make the map more interactive I added the small cards at the bottom of the screen to allow the user to check out the other walks and explore different walking options.
I used the bottom sheets in the map as this allowed information to be concealed until the user chose to view it, so the user had the option to click on the cards, scroll along the map or pull up the list of walks from the bottom sheet. I felt that this would make the process of finding new walks more interesting and hopefully encourage dog owners to find new places to explore with their pet. This was something that all users described, wanting to meet other dog owners and find interesting places to take their pup for socialisation.
Prototype
Usability Tests
I conducted usability tests with 5 users over zoom all new dog owners.
The key flows I wanted to test were the training flow, and the symptom checker flow, I would run through the On Boarding flow if there was time.
I was able to run through all three flows with 3 users and only 2 of the flows with other users due to technical difficulties on their end. I was able to get enough insight on the key areas for improvement on the On Boarding flow with 3 users.
Iterations
The usability tests yielded great insight, the main areas of focus were the home screen. It was hard to locate the symptom checker and users felt this would be better placed at the top of the page due to the fact that this would likely be used when stressed.
There was some confusion about the selected states for the pills on the on boarding flow, and users wanted more of the diary entry fields to be populated.
There was a need to change the language on the homepage to ‘support’ rather than ‘caring’ as users found this language irritating, and not realistic in terms of what the app was offering. They also didn’t think that ‘progress’ make sense, and thought that ‘activities’ on the home screen card summed up the action better.
Insights
It is hard for users to locate the symptom checker, and they commented that this is something they would need in stressful moment so would want it to be higher up the page
Users found it difficult to and frustrating to navigate from the training section back to the pup diary - they wanted to be able to add the entry in the training page itself.
Navigation wasn’t clear and users did not understand what the paw meant or where it would take them
The track progress card wasn’t clear all users said that the language didn’t make sense, they preferred activity. They also said that they didn’t notice the card and that an image might help to make it pop
Users found that there was a lot of information on the homepage, and that it needed to be in categories where you could move between each
Users wanted a different homepage after onboarding, with a message that reflected this
Users found ‘how can we care for Argo today’ frustrating and thought ‘support’ would make more sense as the app is not caring for their dog
Users wanted more pre-populated fields such as descriptions of poo consistency or the duration of walks. They wanted to have to do minimal typing. However they liked that they had free text in the description
When choosing the symptoms users had lots of questions, and felt that they needed more help from the app on this and the ability to be ‘unsure’ or to have definitions/images of what things looked like
There was some confusion about the pills and once selected users didn’t expect to have to hit next on the onboarding flow or the symptom checker
When in the symptom checker flow users didn’t think ‘save’ made sense, they felt that ‘next’ was more clear
Most users expected some kind of navigation at the top of the page
On the training page users wanted F.A.Q’s, and useful tips from a trainer, things to be aware of and how to know if you are doing too much training
Users wanted the option to add a calendar entry that was not-predefined
Users found the diary layout confusing at they wanted to see time first, and also found that the calendar and profile together didn’t make sense.
Iterations
Move the symptom checker higher up the page
Allow users to add to the diary from the training section
Clarify the bottom nav with text under the icons.
Change the language to ‘actives’ add an image of their dog or an icon to the card to make it more obvious
Consider having tabs that users could navigate through. Or remove the walks / meet ups to the nav menu to free up the homepage
Edit the initial homepage after onboarding with a message designs for new users. Possibly have a guide to the app as a pop up that users can choose to go through when they first get set up
Change the language to how can we support you and Argo today.
Pre-populate fields where it makes sense, and options will be limited
Provide an option for ‘unsure’ and where possible add images, for example if the user selects tilting head have an image show below so the user is clear on what that looks like
When a state is selected if it is a pill for example the dogs sex, it will move to next screen without the user having to click next
Change the copy of the button to next
Consider having a quick nav for key items that users will want to do or moving to the nav bar at the bottom
Add additional information to the training page tips and important to know
Give users a way to add ‘other’ to their calendar
Split the pup profile and calendar to separate pages. For the calendar items have the time first on the card
Reflections
Keep It Simple
I think this project really taught me to keep it simple. During the research I had so many ideas of what direction I could go, and my first round of product requirements were huge and impossible in the timeline. It was a beautiful reminder that a good product doesn’t need to have all the bells and whistles, but it needs to do well at one or two things.
Speaking To The Right People Is Key
One of the biggest challenges on this project was speaking to the right people, this took a lot of time. If I had been working with the business on this I would have had access to speak with there customers.
How Far I Have Come
Throughout this project, I really appreciated how far I have come on my learning journey, and how much this project challenged me in all the ways I needed to be challenged.