D-Event
A mobile app for dog owners to establish and maintain a healthy, energetic and sustainable lifestyle alongside their furry companions.
D-Event aims to help dog owners to enrich daily activities with their dogs, maintain close connections with fellow dog enthusiasts, and foster sustainable and vibrant dog-human communities, by providing a platform for discovering, creating and maintaining personalized dog events and social groups.
Duration
6 weeks
(June — July 2023)
Tools
Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate
My role
User Research, Concept Development, Interface Design, Visual Design
Challenge
Inspired by the challenges I faced in finding activities and companions for my energetic Border Collie, I conducted initial research and interviews, discovering similar problems among other dog owners. Due to busy lifestyles, limited time and energy, social circle constraints, and urban space limitations, it is difficult to find diverse dog-friendly activities and know other dog owners beyond original friend circle. Existing platforms lack specialization for dog owners, requiring them to switch between platforms and resulting in inefficiency and a lack of sustainability. As more city dwellers choose to have dogs as companions —
How might we allow urban dog owners to efficiently find dog-friendly activities and build long-term connections with other fellow dog owners?
Objective
1
Design a comprehensive platform for urban dog owners to discover diverse dog-friendly places and activities tailored to their preferences and dog's needs.
2
Cultivate a strong community of dog owners, facilitating connections, event organization, and shared experiences.
3
Empower user autonomy through customizable activities and communities.
4
Enhance user communication and connection through a contact platform.
5
Enable convenient recording and retrieval through a library for storing activities and posts.
Feature
01
Discover diverse dog events tailored to your needs
Offer a diverse range of dog activities through recommendations, categorization, and keyword search.
Enhance your participation and experiences with comprehensive, detailed, and personalized event introductions.
02
Connect with dog owners in fellow communities
Invite you to join vibrant dog communities, connect with like-minded owners, discover fun activities, share stories, and forge lasting bonds.
03
Customize your own events and communities
Empower you with the ability to customize activities and communities, perfectly suited to your needs.
04
Store your favorite moments in your dog-related journey
Help you effortlessly store activity and post contents for quick reference, organizing and accessing your dog-related journey seamlessly.
05
Build connection with fellow dog owners
Provide an all-in-one platform that keeps you updated with activity notifications and messages from fellow dog owners, fostering connections and enhancing the dog owner community experience.
View Final Prototype
The Process
Research
Context
As lifestyles diversify, more people are opting for dog companionship, seeking enriched and high-quality lives with their dogs. Based on my own experiences as a dog owner and discussions with friends, however, time, energy, and access constraints hinder fulfilling these expectations.
Affinity Map based on User Interview
Based on my initial findings, I interviewed 25 dog owners aged 15 to 65 about their dog-raising experiences. From there, I compiled an affinity map based on their challenges in improving their dogs' lives, including time, energy, transportation, finances, finding dog-friendly places, social factors, and other concerns.
Challenges and Needs
From the affinity map, I derived common challenges among dog owners.
Time - Time for dogs is limited due to academics and work.
Energy - Energy limited by life pressures or physical constraints hinders meeting the dog's needs.
Transportation - Finding dog-friendly transport for outings beyond private cars is challenging.
Budget - Budget for dog care on average finances is limited.
Access - Access for discovering dog activities and connecting with friendly dog owners is limited.
External Factors - Dog-activity types are limited due to factors like societal regulations and weather.
Other Concerns - Worry about not providing better companionship for dogs.
These challenges highlight shared needs:
Discovering fitting and enjoyable dog activities to counterbalance the challenges.
Connecting with non-profit dog enthusiasts for assistance to better address the challenges.
Analyzing Competitive Apps
While a dog-centered app cannot fully address life and economic concerns, it can help bridge these gaps by facilitating dog-related activities and fostering communities to support dog owners.
Amidst the demand, multiple apps are trying to address this issue. I have conducted an analysis on this matter.
Insights
From interviews, summarized challenges, needs, and competitive app analysis, I derived the key insights.
Balancing the needs of dog owners and their pets is challenging.
Time, energy, access constraints, and external factors like weather and environment, impact the fulfillment of dogs' varying energy levels and preferences.
Joining an activity involves multiple steps.
From discovery and organization to participation, communication, preparation, and finally execution, this process requires significant effort and information integration.
Dog owners are no longer satisfied with ordinary dog walkings.
They seek unique, diverse activities that cater to specific factors like weather and location, while also considering their individual constraints and preferences.
Like-minded dog owners: good for a rewarding dog ownership experience.
They share innovative ideas for the well-being of dogs and provide mutual support, making dog care enjoyable and effortless.
Suitable dog activities can address multiple issues.
Ideal dog activities can meet the needs of both owners and their pets, ensuring a happy and stress-free life for both.
Staying connected promotes the sustainability of dog ownership.
Maintaining lasting and close connection with fellow dog owners and activity engagements is essential for a fulfilling and enduring dog-human companionship.
So far, this process has led me to design an app that serves for urban dog owners to:
Efficiently find diverse and social activities that suit both their lifestyle and their dogs' needs;
Build lasting connections with like-minded communities.
( Considerations for dog owners' lifestyles include: time, energy, living situation, and financial status.
Considerations for dogs' needs include: breed, size, gender, energy level, activity intensity preferences. )
These activities and communities aim to enhance the overall quality of life for both people and their dogs, regardless of their unique circumstances.
Ideation
My enhanced understanding of dog owners' needs through research has led me to more detailed and targeted ideation.
User Persona
From the interview and affinity map, I narrowed it down to two user personas based on the dog owners' family status, time and energy availability, accessibility to dog-related activities, and their dogs' specific needs.
User Journey Map
Pain Points and Design Opportunities
Based on the targeted user personas and journey map, I identified dog owners' main pain points and derived five design opportunities to address them.
Pain points
Switching between platforms
Inconvenient and laborious to switch between different platforms to find events, join events, and contact other dog owners.
Information overload
Time-consuming and laborious to get information, manually filter user’s needs, and memorize all the potential events on various platforms.
Information integration
Hard to memorize all the potential events on various social platforms, and nowhere to find records of past events for future references and memory tracing.
Lack of targeted dog owners
Nowhere to find fellow dog owners with wanted features (e.g. raising a wanted dog breed, expecting suitable event duration and intensity, etc.), making it hard to form social groups or finding participants.
Unspecialized event instructions
Tiring to get prepared before joining dog events, including getting event information, planning the route, checking the weather, considering what necessities to bring with, etc.
Design Opportunities
Filtered & personalized dog-friendly events with comprehensive instructions
Filtered & personalized fellow dog owner communities
A all-in-one platform for keeping contact with fellow dog owners
A library for recording participated events & collecting liked events/posts
Customization of events & communities
User Scenarios
Looking for potential events
Joining & preparing for events
Establishing a network with fellow communities
Maintaining connection with fellow community
Initiating and organizing independently
Design & Prototype
I designed the app with five main features: Home for personalized and filtered activity discovery, guiding, and participating; Community for engagements and interactions among like-minded dog owners; Plus button for customization of activities, communities, and posts; Message for user communication and updates on activity progress; Me for recording and storing activities and posts.
I aim to create an integrated and sustainable platform for the dog owner community.
Development
Information Structure
Wireframes
Low-Fidelity Prototypes
Home
Community-following
discover
recommendations
community
Message
Plus
Event initiation 1
Event initiation 2
Me-events
collections
collections
Designing Interface
Visual Identity
Home - personalized event discovery
Homepage showcases diverse activity options to address user needs and encourage active participation. It provides key features of keyword search, activity categorization, recommended activities, and nearby popular events, catering to users' diverse, filtered and personalized requirements.
The location-and-keyword-based activity search and display system enhances convenience for quick discovery and engagement.
I categorized events based on types, and placed options of commonly-practiced walking, weather-sensitive indoor activities, transportation-involved roadtrips, and comprehensive day and night activities at the top for easy exploration. When scrolling down, users can find recommended and nearby popular events listed.
Community - fellow dog owners’ connections
Two options are offered: "Following" and "Discover”, allowing users to stay updated on chosen communities, while opening up new possibilities for them to explore. Key features include keyword search, community display, event showcase, community categories, and fellow dog owners’ posts.
“My Communities” display offers two options: “following” and “founded”.
Keyword filter bar for community discovery.
Customization - customized community page
Each community has an interface with personalized elements, displaying community activities and posts. It aims to create a network of like-minded dog owners, fostering engagement, discussion, and sharing among members.
Within the community, it aims to foster an engaging and user-driven experience.
Plus button
The plus button, available on any interface, enables users to initiate activities, publish posts, and found communities.
Events - display and initiation steps
To create detailed and personalized activity content, I divided the "initiate event" process into 15 steps with illustrations for better engagement.
In addition to the basic event information, I included dogs’ needs (breed, gender, age, size, energy level). Moreover, I considered dog owners' needs (special family members, transportation, dog-sitting services). I aim to assist users in addressing their personal needs and time/energy-related constraints through communities.
These details are displayed on the individual event page, combining images and texts for a comprehensive overview.
Animation demonstration
Individual pages
Message - connection maintenance
The messaging feature enables users to contact, share activities, get updated, and exchange experiences, fostering convenient and lasting connections.
View channels for likes, bookmarks, comments, and friend lists, enhancing connections with friends and communities.
Pinned event notifications keep users updated on joined events, including cancellations, time changes, and other important information.
Me - event and post storage
There are two sections: “my events” and “my collections”. Users can view upcoming and past events, as well as their collection of saved events and posts as a handy reference.
Display upcoming and past events, as well as saved events and posts for retrieval and future reference.
Side bar showcases user and dog’s profiles and other functions.
Click to access individual dog descriptions in the generated report.
Questionnaire & Report
Based on research, interviews, user personas, and the app's design concept, a dog's size and energy level are critical considerations for potential dog owners. To assist them in choosing the right breed, I have created a questionnaire focusing on these factors and other relevant criteria.
Project Reflection
What’s Next?
Diverse Audience Involvement: In the early stages of research and interviews, I primarily focused on profiling users in the broadest demographic, targeting urban young and middle-aged dog owners. Although I included options for family-friendly and elderly-friendly activities, these are only supplementary features. Additionally, rural dog owners were not considered. For future improvements, the app should segment and cater to various demographics, providing more specific communication platforms and targeted activities.
User Safety: Emphasizing both online and offline social interaction involving humans and dogs, future improvements should prioritize features like uploading dog licenses, vaccination certificates, and user real-name authentication to enhance security.