Role
Product designer
(All creation)
Tools
Figma, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Illustrator, Google Form
Team
Solo
Delivered
Concept & Research, Interview, UI/UX design, User Testing, Prototyping, 3D modeling
Pawfessor
Pawfessor is a dog training application product that provides accessibility for all dog parents. The application’s customization ability could tailor to each user’s need individually, so users don’t have to spend too much time wandering through sites to find the training information for their dogs.
Introduction
Americans adopted millions of dogs during the pandemic. Not all dogs are well trained so when their dogs have behavior problems, they might struggle, blame and be disappointed with the difference from what they expected which results in owners not being able to build a stronger relationship with their dogs. When this happens, they might return their dogs to the shelter or just abandon them.
Unfortunately, returning dogs to shelters increases their risk of premature death. Most animal shelters have capacity issues, often resulting in dogs euthanasia when capacity is full. Every year about 3,100,000 dogs are sent to shelters and about 390,000 are dogs are euthanized in the United States. The top reason dogs get returned to animal shelters is because of behavior problems. Therefore, in order to avoid returning a dog to the animal shelter or being abandoned, training dogs is a good way to avoid dog returns happening.
Process
Competitive Analysis
There are similar dog training apps available on the market now. To understand more about the dog training app in the market, I conducted four apps analyses. Below are my findings from the analysis.
User Survey Highlights
There are 32 dog owner that responded to the survey and there are 56.3% of dog owners that are between the ages 25-34. The key insights were:
User Interviews
Key takeaways from Surveys & Interviews
Persona
Information Architecture
Sketches
After learning what users need when using a dog training app, I began to sketch different design direction
Low-Fidelity Wireframe
For this stage, I created Low-Fidelity wireframes and synthesized all the collected information including users’ research to determine the contents and overall look of the screen design.
The learning
In order to validate my design effectiveness, I conducted usability test with dog parents. The purpose was to let them complete the tasks and report their experience and provide feedback on the process of navigating the app through the high-fidelity prototype.
Final design
Get Started
It provide information about how the application works for first time users
Sign up and Pet’s Profile
Fill out basic information about user’s dog. Scan or take a picture of their dog, and then It will transform the user’s dog image into a 3D avatar. It automatically generate a 3D avatar to the dog profile and embed it into the visual training instructions. The avatar function is for visual fun and give dog parents hope while training their dogs. They can raise confidence by seeing an obedient and well-mannered dog in an avatar way that it is impossible to see if their dog is well-mannered in real life.
Behavior Assessment
After the pet profile is set up, users need to complete their dog’s assessment to get a recommended training plan. Personalized training can help users find the right training method. Each dog is special, the way of training might be different depending on what kind of dog you own such as health, size, breed, and personality.
Homepage
On the main page, users can find the customized training session plan, edit the training plan, and keep track of their dog’s training performance progress. When users tap the start button, they can see their dog avatar in the visual training instruction.
Training Documents,Trainer and Profile pages
Users can explore other fun tricks and grooming tips other than behavior-based skills on the training documents section. Trainer section can help users save time finding a satisfied trainer or training school by narrowing down the research. Lastly, the profile allows users to change or add about their family member or another dog.
Conclusion
Creating this dog training app was enjoyable. I learned that it’s essential to do market and user research in the earlier product design stage. It helped me understand dog parents’ pain points and needs which led me to an effective design to create the best solutions for them. I also learned from user feedback by conducting usability testing, which helped me uncover problems to improve. For example, the improper design layout confused users about information, and users prefer fewer steps to achieve their goals. Finally, I learned how the iterations helped me quickly create and test ideas.