ZOOSE

The Problem

The problem is dogs are fast. Unless your dog is well trained, old, easily distracted, or a good samaritan helps you, if your dog gets out they dog could be a goner.

Dogs have a way of quickly becoming part of our family, one of our loved ones, and our best friends, but they also have a tendency to run...very fast.

Allow me to tell you a story. Once upon a time a young husband and wife adopted a Siberian Husky from some coworkers. This dog brought them so much joy. He talked to them, he played, he did ridiculously goofy things, he loved children, he learned to sit, lay down, and occasionally come and stay, unless he saw open road ahead. When the Husky saw an opportunity to slip out, he took it, and took it quickly.

Catching him in a footrace was a waste, this dog was born to pull hundreds of pounds of cargo through mountains and snowy tundras. This is where the Zoose app comes in handy. The problem the Zeus app aims to solve is to work as an alert system when your dog sees the opportunity to go for a stroll.

Key Goal

To create a useful and effective product to quickly locate and retrieve lost pet.

Tools

Sidecar

Sketch

Invision

Balsamiq Mockups

Silverback

My Role

This product is a personal project and I am serving as Lead UX Researcher, Designer, and Developer

For this project I will serve as a one man team with the occasional help and guidance from a my Creative Director as well as my Programming Director. We had a "Project Kickoff" in which we talked about the research and design planning and then split in up where I began my individual research planning.

Competitor Analysis

A similar app already exists however following research the app is lacking in many important categories and we aim to build a more functional and effective product.

Upon research I found a competitors app that has a similar purpose. The app has some of the most important features we aim to have and ultimately serves to solve the same problems we want to solve however after further research we believe our product will be different and will ultimately win the market.

For research I first registered for the app myself to review the product. Following this I noted key features of the app, the information architecture, navigation, and ultimately if the app seems effective. Along with my notes, I brought the app to a few potential users to observe them using the app and to get their feedback.I then began to research how the app markets itself, is the app successful, how does the product make money, and how the app has grown over time.

Lastly, I began to study the reviews in the App Store. The app ranked 2.9 out of 5 stars. The information presented gave me an enormous amount of feedback to use moving forward.

These are some of the major findings I wanted to point out.

Functionality

One of the biggest frustrations in the reviews from the App Store was the actual ability for the site to work. Users had struggles from the beginning just logging in.

Advanced Technology, Advanced Problems

One of the coolest features of the app seems to be its biggest downfall. Users reported that using the Pet Facial Recognition actually interfered with simply uploading images of their animals.

Confusing

Many users described the layout as confusing and difficult to navigate. For us and I assume for them the purpose of the app is to locate or report a lost or found dog but the app had too much uneccessary content.

Understanding the User

To get the best possible understanding of our user and what they are going through mentally and physically, we used a combination of interviews, surveys, observations, card sorting, wire framing, and user stories.

Following our competitor analysis we identified several "potential" users and started off this stage with face-to-face interviews. We created a series of open and close ended questions and engaged our users in conversation, listening to their stories, to try and get the best feeling of what they were going through.

We then analyzed the data from our interviews, singled out some of our users and were able to have them complete some surveys. The surveys contained some more detailed questions that we created based on the original interviews. Our goal here was to identify some of the needs that we had not previously thought of.

My team and I then went to the drawing board and based on our information thus far, created multiple user personas and created both normal, and unique situations to put these personas in to try and understand their needs without our app, and then with our app. We then took a slightly different approach and met up with a few of the potential users, and went over some user stories with them. This exercise gave us a different prospective, while we continued to come back to features and using the app, they brought in emotion and thought process the personas would have.

User Flow

We knew the mindset of the user would be scatter, hurried, and preoccupied so ideally we wanted our product to be quick, and have a limited number of options for the user to choose from.

Once we rapped up our user interviews, surveys, and user stories, my team and I then completed a content audit. We identified what is necessary, unnecessary, and what could possibly be beneficial depending on how we organize the app.

Now that we knew what is essential, we began drawing out the flow of the app. We wanted the app to have very few options and distractions so that the user can "get to the point" as quick as possible.

Information Architecture & Wireframes

We constantly wanted the user to be involved in the design so once we knew how our app would be structured and what information is necessary, we went back to the users to continue designing.

After several redesigns we completed the flow of our app and brainstormed the information architecture and sketched some wireframes. I decided that the best way for this to work would be to turn to our trusty potential users. I had them come in, described what we would be doing and we all started brainstorming the Information architecture.

We did a series of card sorting exercises and then moved to wire framing on paper and the whiteboard. I then created some of the key designs using a wire framing software to get instant feedback from the users while I had them there.

Ideation & Testing

Once the wireframes were completed I then began the design process. We had learned that the design had to be simple, direct, and needed very little distractions in order for the user to be the most successful.

I started with the Home Page of the app. This page would be the most important as it will serve as the main navigation and as we learned in the research, many of the users will be in a hurry or distracted so the layout had to be very easy to understand.

I had some questions about some of the architecture I had sketched out with the users so I created two versions of the app, slightly different from each other, and did some A/B tests.

Design Based on User Wireframing.

Key Learnings

All of the users were successful when trying to achieve their tasks
Several Users expected the alert, or help button to be on the top
A few users didn't think the Help color was strong enough
The other buttons were too dark

Design Based on Hypothesis.

Key Learnings

All of the Users were successful
Users used the app quicker than app1
Users wanted the other buttons to be more visible
Users wanted the Help button to be larger

Final Design

I then took all of our feedback from the A/B test to create the final designs.

Based on the A/B tests, the second designs were more successful. The users were more drawn to the Help button when it was toward the top and center of the screen. The color was originally not bold enough as well so we used a much brighter color to grab the attention of the users.

To address the second pain point we brightened the color of the secondary buttons on all of the screens.

Takeaways & Next Steps

Next Steps

Next I need to test the prototype with a new user base as well as some of the original users. My personal favorite for usability testing on prototypes is Maze.Design. In the past it has been easy to use and has offered great comprehensive data on my prototype.
I then need to take the findings from this usability test, and iterate one final time to make any additional changes that will improve the users experience

Conclusion

There is no space for distractions on limited timelines you have to stay focused on the project and organize yourself. I timed myself and set limits for how much time I would spend on a given task. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, starting from the sketches and the user journey then everything just fell into place.
Don't be afraid to trust your instinct regardless of what some of the feedback has said. I used my best judgment and changed the layout slightly from the user organized wireframe and it was a great deal more successful.