Zoomies
Applied all of the gained knowledge and skills from immersion program to design a simplified dog friendly mobile app directory
Timeline
4 Weeks
Role
UX/UI Designer + Researcher
User Research
Information Architecture
Visual Design
Tools
Figma
Canva
Miro
Procreate
Typeform
Useberry
Zoom
Overview
A dog’s companionship may seem appropriate for exclusively leisure time, but a research study published in the 2012 July Journal of Research in Personality revealed that the participants who were with their pet or thought about them were able to set more goals, feel confident in achieving those goals, and handle stress better than the participants without pet involvement. With that discovery, I was inspired to create Zoomies. I adore my dog's presence but have found much difficulty when finding places outside of my home where he’s welcomed.
Problem
How might we redesign the dog-friendly research process for dog owners so that it's a streamlined experience?
Solution
I designed mobile app directory exclusively for dog friendly places that includes
A filtered search Users are able to refine their search by distance, ratings, pet policies, and many other criteria for a streamlined experience.
User reviews Users want to validate their decisions by viewing others past experiences and recommendations.
Key business details Within the search results page or a business' overview, users are able to view the highlighted features the business has to offer their dog such as water stations, grass areas, etc.
Discovery & Research
Performing a competitive analysis will assist me on outdoing my competition when viewing their strengths and weaknesses
I'm able to identify the areas of opportunity or improvement and include them in my product.
I went ahead and did a comparison chart of three of my competitors. I will say it was definitely a bit shocking that there was only one active resource for specifically pet friendly locations only.
Bringfido is a website and mobile app that advertises as the #1 pet travel guide. I would assume considering it's technically the only one out there.
Google search engine or Google Maps.
Yelp, a crowd sourced local business review and social network.
Qualitative Interviews
After generating the final report from the survey, I recruited some of the participants for follow up interviews. I wanted to dig for a deeper understanding on the users attitudes on the subject. Asking them about their previous experiences encountering the problem provides a rich description highlighting key factors I probably wouldn't have consider.
Research methods
Basic search engine
Social media
Friend recommendations
Calling business or reading guidelines on the website
Deciding factors
Distance
Breed restrictions
Pet fees
Indoor options
Reviews/Ratings
Key Takeaways
Now entering the define phase, with the patterns I found in the collected responses from my qualitative interviews and surveys. I used them to group people and goals together. I then distilled those patterns into common behaviors and traits and created these personas. I gained perspectives identical to those who align with my desired audience to reference throughout the duration of this project.
Information Architecture
Rephrasing the known challenges from my research into HMW statements, influenced my decisions when creating the user flow. Here is a scenario where my created persona, Delilah, wants to take her 2 huskies to an ice cream parlor with no breed restrictions and food options for her dogs. Let's follow Delilah journey through my app.
Behold, the Sitemap. This is the crucial connection between what the product does (user flow) and how it's structured (wireframes). A lot of the inspiration for the structure of the app was influenced by the users responses in my conducted research. The format food delivery apps have was also a huge influence on the sitemap. They carry simplicity by categorizing their options providing smooth navigation for the user's experience that I wanted to replicate for this project.
Wireframes
When submitting these frames, I wasn't required any revisions but I was given some feedback to take into consideration when producing the final mockup.
Bookmark feature to also be on the search results page
Nav bar instead of side navigation to prevent user from repeatedly having to return to homepage to access main navigation
Branding
Green and all its shades or “neutral earth tones” are known to be relaxing because these colors remind us of nature. With my research, I learned that users have found great frustration with the dog-friendly research process and I wanted to provide them a calming atmosphere and remind them why they needed the app in the first place. Users want to bring their dogs outside their home.. and what's outside..NATURE. Thus the selection on green.
Meet the face of Zoomies!
The name Zoomies, if you're unfamiliar with the term it's defined as "An energy burst your dog just can’t contain!" Zoomies are what the brand represents. I want users to use the Zoomies app in order to find perfect dog-friendly locations where their dogs can feel this sudden burst of excitement that cant be contained.
I present to you Zoomies!
Usability Tests
I've produced the high fidelity prototype, and now it's time to put it to test. I've normally moderated my usability tests using the think aloud protocol, but I figured instead of scheduling various tests, I would instead conduct unmoderated tests via useberry.
Tasks
Show me how you would search for ice cream near you
Where would you go to leave a review for Bruster's Real Ice Cream
"Apply filters" to your ice cream search
What I Learned
Although the majority of the feedback from the users were positive, it's important to consider the constructive feedback for the future of Zoomies.
Redesign
Taking in what the users had to say during the usability test, called for a redesign! I experimented a lot during this project by hand drawing the apps's icons to fit the theme of the logo being drawn. And even though it didn't receive the best feedback I still had a great time doing it and will possibly continue this trend once I improve my artistic skills!