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Citypups
Overview
Citypups is a desktop app that aims to help people who live in a city find their perfect dog that fits their lifestyle.
My Role
UX Researcher & Designer
Sketching, Prototyping, Usability Testing
1-week modified Google Ventures design sprint
Background
The Problem
Living in a city provides many challenges and questions for potential dog owners: will their dog be happy in a smaller home? Will their new dog be comfortable in a noisy environment? Will their new dog behave around other animals?
The Solution
These are all questions Citypups aims to solve, with the goals being to increase adoption rate and find happy forever homes for their dogs. Citypups is a new app designed to help people living in cities find their perfect dog.
Day 1 - Debriefing & Mapping
Debriefing
The first day of this design sprint was all about understanding our users, their pain points when trying to find a dog, and creating a map of the possible end-to-end user experience. User interviews were conducted prior to the design sprint.
Here are some examples of what was said during the interviews:
anna interview
dan interview
maria interview
anna interview
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Mapping
After reading through the notes and quotes from user interviews, I created a map that described the actions a user would take on the Citypups app. From the interviews, I knew that our user base would want specific details about dogs based on their lifestyle, so I made sure to include a screening process that would help match them with specific dogs.
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A picture of the map I created. Essentially, users would go through an onboarding process that would identify their needs. From there, they would be matched with dogs that fit their criteria.
Day 2 - Sketching
Lightning Demos
Before I began sketching possible designs for the app, I conducted lightning demos by looking at other apps to draw inspiration. While some were direct competitors (PetFinder), others were used as inspiration for specific features.
Tinder
While Tinder is not a direct competitor to Citypups, I drew inspiration from this since it is still about finding your perfect match. I think the swipe left or right feature might be a fun, interactive way to look for a perfect dog. The big photo and short bio might be a nice way to build a connection with the dog.
Petfinder
I wanted to use the “find your best match” option and draw inspiration for my solution. I like how they had an onboarding process that almost seemed like a survey to help users filter which dogs would best suit their needs.
Curology
While Curology is not a direct competitor to Citypups, I liked the fact that the onboarding process was very personalized to suit the needs of the user. Curology aims to find the perfect skincare regime for their user, which is similar to the idea of Citypups but for dogs.
Crazy 8's
After the lighting demos, it was time to come up with some ideas on how the desktop app was going to look. In order to help facilitate this, I used the Crazy 8's method to generate ideas quickly and efficiently.
crazy 8s pt 1
crazy 8s pt 2
crazy 8s pt 1
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When choosing the critical scene for my Crazy 8's, I focused on how a user would browse to look at the dogs. I thought that this was the most important screen to focus on because the act of searching through and finding a dog was the most critical activity.
Three-panel board
Using one of the screens from my Crazy 8's, I then created a three-panel board that showed the page before the critical screen, the critical screen, and the page after the critical screen.
Day 3 - Deciding & Storyboarding
Deciding
When looking back at all the possible solutions I created during the Crazy 8's, I wanted something that was quick and easy to use. Furthermore, I wanted a format that could show the most important information of the dog and a picture/video to promote an emotional connection between the user and the dog. With that in mind, I decided to base my solution on a "matching" system that looks similar to Tinder.
Storyboarding
Once that was decided, I then created a 15 screen storyboard that outlined an end-to-end user experience.
I knew that the onboarding process was going to be very important, so I wanted to dedicate some sketches to that.
After the onboarding process, I wanted to match people with dogs based on their onboarding survey. I used the Tinder format to do so. The user can then find out more information about the dog, and contact their shelther.
From then, I started thinking of other pages and features I wanted the website to have, so I fleshed out a bit more of the information architecture. I added the profile page, the saved dogs page, and the message page.
Day 4 - Prototyping
Low-fidelity Prototype
Once I had an idea of how the app would look and function, it was time to create a prototype. Based on my storyboards, I used Marvel to quickly and efficiently design a low-fidelity prototype.
These are a few screens that a new user would see when signing in for Citypups for the first time. After creating an account, they would go through a series of onboarding questions to customize their search.
After the onboarding process, the user would be directed to the "match" page where users can click through dogs based on their answers. If the user is interested, they can view a more descriptive bio or add them to their favorites.
Day 5 - Testing
Methodology
Once the prototype was created, it was time to gain insight with real users. I recruited five participants through convenience sampling, making sure they fit the Citypups user profile (live in a major city, loves dogs, etc.). From there, I created a discussion guide and conducted usability tests that took users through the major red routes in the app.
Findings
After the usability tests, the data were analyzed and grouped together to find themes in the responses. A few of the major insights included:
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Users were confused jumping straight from the onboarding to the matching system.
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Users couldn't find the exact address and details of the dog's respective shelter.
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Users were confused why there was a biography on the profile page.
The Future
Overall, the design sprint was a success. I was able to rapidly ideate and design solutions to solve a user need. Based on the insights I got from the usability testing, future iterations on the Citypups design could implement an animation or screen between the onboarding questions and the matching system. Furthermore, a clearer description of the shelter including the name, location, and phone number should be added. Additionally, the profile feature could be reworked, or even scrapped entirely.
Finding a perfect dog that suits your lifestyle is hard, and when you live in a city, this presents unique challenges. There is no better feeling than having a long-lasting bond with a loyal companion, and with the help of Citypups, people will have an easier time finding them.
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