Dogo
Product Design & Visual Design
April 2017
Dogo is a concept app that connects dog owners and dog sitters.
Imagine you are not able to take your puppy during
your summer vacation, Dogo is here helping to
find a satisfactory dog sitter home for your beloved puppy!
THE CHALLENGE
It is very difficult to find a proper dog-sitter family when dog owner was not available to take care of them. A friend? Or Grandma? They may not have enough knowledge to do that, but a stranger pet sitter or pet store is not trustworthy.
INITIAL THOUGHTS
The primary function is to find a dog-sitter. No matter good or bad, we need one at least. Therefore, the first feature settled down is to search and discover nearby dog-sitters or pet stores based on customer defined conditions, such as the available time slots, sitter’s house size, price .etc.
However, is that enough? What if you find someone as Irene's grandma?! So, we need to give you a proper and satisfactory dog-sitter.
Irene
one of the interviewees
Once, I sent my dog Tony to my grandma’s, she fed Tony lots of chicken bones and was happy to see him eat a lot. I was frightened into sweats after heard that! You know, every year thousands of dogs were dead due to chicken bones stuck in their throats.
RESEARCH
How to define a proper dog-sitter? With this question, we interviewed 19 dog owners and focused on their stories in finding dog sitters and their experiences in the whole process.
Here are three typical quotes from all interviewees:
Nina
I won’t place my dog to pet store anymore. Staffs there are not professional and lack experience. I don’t know if they have treated my dogs in a proper way.
What people say
Jonny
I have tried to look for someone to help walking my dog on an app. But until now I have never requested any person for help yet. Even if the app can locate my dog anytime and anywhere, I ‘m still not sure if the person who walks my dog is trustworthy. I’m worried about his safety.
Leonard
My dog is very smart and not close to others. He tried to show his anger on hunger strike once I sent him to my friend’s house.
DIG INTO THE RESEARCH
During the interview process, we realized the owners cared for their dogs much more like we initially imagined, dogs are not only pets but more like their family members, let’s say, children! Almost every owner mentioned the importance of trust when selecting dog sitters. Online certificate and good custom reviews could prove the professional of a sitter. However, an owner would hardly trust a sitter only based on those virtual proofs. Therefore, the fundamental function of our app is to build trust between dog owners and sitters.
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Notes: Teammates are from multiple time zones and locations. Therefore, we use an online
real-time board to collaborate and analyze the data gathered from the interviews.
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The user needs to trust the dog sitter! But, how?
After categorizing and summarizing data, we found trust is based on professional and match between sitter and dog:
Match + Professional = Trust
Match
The dog likes the sitter and the new place to stay
The sitter knows/understands the dog
The sitter is concerned about the dog
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Professional
The sitter has enough knowledge and experiences to take care of the dog. (No chicken bones :-)
DESIGN SOLUTIONS
To build trust is not a one-day project, our App could provide more opportunities to know and meet with your potential dog sitters to determine if your dog is a Match and if you could trust them. Therefore the design objectives are:
Create a dog lovers community DOGO where everyone is encouraged to share daily pictures/videos about their dogs, articles on dog sitting experiences. A user can discover potential dog sitters or just go to events together through our app to make friends. ​
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By enhancing understanding and building trust day by day, you can finally find a better dog sitter to take care of your beloved dog, and more a congenial friend!
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STORYBOARDING - Anne's story with Dogo
Dogo isn’t a typical search app where you can see nearby dog sitters and pet stores but more, it focuses on the connection between the dog owners and sitters.
LO-FI WIREFRAMES
Based on the clear goals and user flow, we started to define the details on the main menu: ​
1. Online community. View/create/upload pictures/videos/articles.
2. Offline community. View/create events. Book to join if interested.
3. List of dog sitters. View nearby sitters or pet stores. Request to book if interested.
4. Chat with others (say, a potential sitter)
5. User Profile.
COLORS
HI-FI SCREENS
Moments is the initial experiences after onboarding our app. I wanted to ensure that users can explore interesting and freshly made daily pictures/videos/articles about the dogs near them.
Dog Moments
Events
Simply browse and search events
around you!
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Build offline connections, know more about your potential dog sitter.
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Have fun with your beloved puppy:)
Event Details
Hosts
Discover dog sitters around, use the filter to browse a list of potential hosts.
A host could be a dog owner like Anne or professional dog sitters including pet stores. As long as they have verified certificates.
Host Details
Know more about the dog sitter's requirements, such as, price, service types and more. .
Simply click on Request to Book to proceed to book. Click on 'Contact sitter' to go to the chat page.
Chat
Let's Chat.
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You can chat with anyone in our community, a dog sitter, an event holder or anyone you are interested in.
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Ask questions before booking if you are not clear about something.
Profile
There are three sections for the profile page:
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1. Basic info. Verified certificate icon will show up for a professional dog sitter.
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2. User's events & dog's home. If the user is hosting events or a dog's home, this section will show up.
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3. User's moments.
You will see 'Edit' button if you are viewing your own profile. Or you will see 'Follow/following' and 'Chat' buttons if you are viewing someone else' profile.
