Furdy

Reliable Dog Walking App

Want to ensure your furry friend is in safe hands? Let's explore how Furdy's user-friendly app connects dog owners with reliable and vetted dog walkers!

About Furdy

Furdy is a hypothetical mobile app developed in Dribbble's Product Design Course in 2022. The app addresses the pressing problem of busy dog owners struggling to find reliable and trustworthy dog walkers. Through its intuitive features and tools, Furdy seamlessly connects dog owners with their preferred walkers, providing a seamless and enjoyable experience for both parties.

Role

Product Designer

Duration

The project spanned ten weeks, following the course schedule, from March to May 2022. After the initial phase, I devoted an additional four weeks in March 2023 to conduct in-depth research and implement improvements to enhance the app's functionality and user experience.

Tackling the Trust Gap:
Solving the Challenge of Finding Trustworthy Dog Walkers

As much as we adore our furry companions, the quest for a reliable and affordable dog walker that meets all our needs often feels like a daunting and endless search. Our busy schedules leave us struggling to find the perfect fit, and at times, we even have to forgo plans due to the lack of a trustworthy and budget-friendly option. The trust gap in this domain poses a significant obstacle for dog owners seeking loyal caregivers for their pets.

Solutions

Furdy is a mobile app for busy dog owners seeking trustworthy and reliable dog walkers. The app bridges the trust gap by providing comprehensive background checks on all walkers, ensuring only reliable caregivers have access to the platform. Stay connected with real-time GPS tracking during walks, and make informed decisions with verified reviews and ratings from other dog owners. The user-friendly interface and intuitive filters simplify users' search, ensuring the perfect match for furry friends. With 24/7 customer support, Furdy is committed to the well-being and happiness of our furry companions.

Comprehensive Background Checks

Rest easy knowing that all Furdy walkers undergo rigorous background checks. Furdy prioritize users’ peace of mind by ensuring that only reliable and trustworthy caregivers have access to the platform.

Image depicting the Furdy app's GPS tracking interface, demonstrating real-time location monitoring during dog walks. The interface features an interactive map displaying the dog's route, walker's progress, and key details, enhancing transparency and peace of mind for dog owners using the Furdy app.

Real-time GPS Tracking

Stay connected with the dog's walker through real-time GPS tracking. Users can follow their dog's route during their walk and receive updates, so users are always in the loop.

VERIFIED

Verified Reviews and Ratings

Make informed decisions with confidence. Furdy provides verified reviews and ratings from other dog owners who have used trusted walkers' services. These insights empower users to choose the best fit for thier furry companion.

Image showcasing the Furdy app's dashboard interface, providing dog owners with an organized and comprehensive overview of their dog walking activities. The dashboard offers insights into appointments, walker profiles, and real-time GPS tracking, enhancing user engagement and control within the Furdy app.

24/7 Customer Support

The dedicated customer support team is here for the users around the clock. Whether the users have questions or need assistance, support team are just a message or call away.

Understand the Market and User

What apps/services already exist in the market?

To gain insights into the current market landscape, I analyzed popular pet care service apps, Wag! and Rover, which dominate the iOS and Android app stores. By studying user reviews and a few relevant articles, I compiled a list of the pros and cons of each app, highlighting their strengths and areas of improvement.

Features comparison chart showcasing the offerings of Rover and Wag, leading pet care service apps. The chart highlights key features such as user reviews, GPS tracking, background checks, and customer support, aiding in the evaluation of features' alignment with user needs and design strategy.

To further understand the strengths and weaknesses of these apps, I downloaded both Wag and Rover and conducted an in-depth feature analysis. This analysis helped me identify common features, flows, and systems, along with the elements that establish trust with users.

Meet the dog parents

To tap into the perspectives of potential users, I created and shared a dog owner survey on my Instagram. Within a week, eight dog owners participated, providing valuable insights into their dog walking habits and criteria for selecting a walker.

The most common criterion for dog owners when choosing a walker is reliability.
Over half of the participants rely on family/friends to walk their dogs when they are unavailable.
37.5% of participants choose to cancel plans if their preferred walker is not available.
Half of the respondents who have not used pet service apps express discomfort with letting strangers enter their homes and walk their dogs.
Apart from reliability, the walker's reputation/rating and the quality of professional care toward the dog are important criteria for users.

Define the User

Based on the survey data and background information of several participants, I created a user persona to represent the common traits and needs of our target users. This persona provides a clear direction for designing Furdy to cater to the user's goals and address their frustrations effectively.

User persona illustration capturing the characteristics, needs, and goals of a typical user in the pet care app context. The persona provides valuable insights into user behavior and preferences, guiding design decisions and ensuring user-centered solutions within the design process.

Goals Set!

The primary objective of this project is to design a user-friendly app, Furdy, that simplifies the process of finding reliable and trustworthy dog walkers for dog owners. Furdy is built with a user-centric approach, prioritizing the safety and happiness of both dogs and their owners.

Key Features and Benefits:

Comprehensive background checks on walkers
Real-time GPS tracking during walks
Verified reviews and ratings from other dog owners
Smart filter search
Round-the-clock customer support

Exploring Ideas to Enhance Furdy's User Experience

After understanding the problem, user needs, and project goals, a user flow was created to visualize the user journey from sign-up to booking a walker.

With reliability as a key focus from the user survey, brainstorming sessions were conducted to ideate features that would establish trust between users and walkers/business.

What can build trust between owners and walkers?

Walkers and owner's profile images
Walkers and owner's ratings
Walker’s background/bio
Walker’s walking experience with dogs
Communication tools
Walker’s dog care-related certifications
Dog walkers have access to the dog’s vet/health file

What can build trust between owners and the business?

24/7 customer support
Allow owners to send feedback
Require walkers to do a background check
User-friendly product
Adding GPS live tracking on every walk

Information that the dog owners might or would like to know about the walkers:

Brief Bio/background
Ratings
Review
Skills & Specialties
Total walks
Repeated clients
Dog size that the walker has experienced and comfortable to walk with
The location/area of their service
Walker’s pictures
Background check
Rate
Availability

Drawing inspiration from the user flow and brainstorming, initial wireframes were sketched, emphasizing trust and reliability for users.

Wireframe sketches representing the initial design concepts inspired by the user flow and brainstorming sessions. These sketches illustrate the foundation of a user-centric approach, emphasizing trust and reliability in the design process, ensuring a seamless and trustworthy digital experience for users.

The sketches were refined to provide a comprehensive overview of the app's structure, functionality, layout, and UI design framework for future stages.

Refined wireframes encompassing the core elements of the app's structure, including the dashboard, search options, search results, filters, and map view. These wireframes demonstrate meticulous planning and serve as a blueprint for the app's functionality and user interface design, ensuring a seamless and user-friendly experience in future development stages.

Comprehensive wireframes detailing essential components of the app's structure, including walker profiles, booking processes, dashboard notifications, and real-time GPS tracking. These wireframes represent a thoughtful and user-centered approach to design, setting the foundation for a seamless and engaging user experience in future development phases.

Creating Tail-Wagging Designs

To convey the image of reliability, we carefully chose the color blue as the primary color for Furdy's UI design. Blue is associated with trust, security, loyalty, and responsibility, aligning perfectly with our app's core values. Additionally, we selected yellow as the secondary color to provide a positive and energizing contrast, creating an eye-catching and engaging interface. To maintain a clean, straightforward, and confident impression, we opted for Avenir Next as the primary font for the app's typography. This design system and guideline ensure a cohesive and visually appealing user experience.

Collecting Feedbacks

To improve Furdy's usability, we conducted usability testing with two participants from the survey, one in person and the other over Zoom, each session lasting about 30 minutes. Our main objectives were to observe users' ability to book a dog walk and gather feedback on areas requiring modification to enhance user satisfaction and performance. Analyzing the feedback allowed us to make targeted adjustments, ensuring Furdy aligns better with user expectations for a seamless and delightful experience.

Comparison image displaying the user interface of the app before and after usability testing and user feedback. The 'after' version showcases significant improvements, including a personalized notification/status banner for upcoming appointments and walk status, as well as an explanatory banner highlighting the meaning of the green shield icon denoting background-checked walkers. These refinements enhance user clarity and engagement.

Takeaway

While Furdy remains a hypothetical project, the opportunity to design and prototype the app has been invaluable. Through usability testing, I gained valuable insights from participants who successfully booked a walker. One participant highlighted the importance of additional safety measures beyond what I had initially incorporated. This feedback reinforced the significance of prioritizing security and reliability in the app's future development.

Moving forward, I am committed to implementing enhanced safety features that address user concerns and foster trust in Furdy's platform. My dedication to creating a seamless and trustworthy user experience remains unwavering, and I look forward to the prospect of further refining this app to better serve dog owners and their furry companions.