Woofy

Context

Woofy is an application that aims to monitor the activity you have with your dog. At the same time, with the help of the collar, the application can help you find your dog or tell you where it is.

Role

UX Desginer

  • It was important to do research about the target audience
  • To empathize with the situation in which people find themselves when they lose a dog and what are the steps they follow to find their dog.
  • to create personas
  • to create interviews with users

UI Desginer

Problem

The main problem is that many people lose their dog and it takes a long time before they realize that their dog is no longer in their area, and the time to find the dog is long. Every minute the dog is lost increases the rate that the dog will spot something.

Goals

  • to create an application for finding dogs in the shortest possible time
  • to create an application that is easy to use even when doing an activity with the dog
  • the application should be intuitive and not require a lot of browsing time

Personas

To be able to clearly understand each type of potential user, and facilitate their access to the app, we have selected personas from three different groups: pet owners, people with disabilities, but also dog trainers

These are the personas:

Alin

  • Age: 47
  • Education: High-School Diploma
  • Hometown: Bucharest, Romania
  • Family: Married with 2 Children
  • Occupation: Dog Trainer

"It's a wonderful thing when you know you've achieved every goal you set for yourself"

Goals

  • he wants to have a record of the activity he has with each dog

  • he wants to know what activities each dog knows

  • he wants to know that every dog he cares for is in the correct area

Frustrations

  • it is difficult for him to have a record of every activity he had with each dog

  • he does not know what activities dogs already know

  • It is difficult for him to search for every puppy in all the training areas

Alin is 47 years old and has been a dog trainer for 12 years. lately he has a lot of dogs under supervision and it is difficult for him to remember what activities he did with each one. in addition, he wants to know what activities each dog knows in order to participate with them in competitions. another problem is the huge space it has, and sometimes the dogs end up in the wrong pens. he would like to know that each dog is in the right training area.

Andreea

  • Age: 33
  • Education: Master's Degree
  • Hometown: Bucharest, Romania
  • Family: Unmarried
  • Occupation: Software developer

"Dog is man's best friend!"

Goals

  • to find the dog quickly and safely

  • to be able to see how much activity she did with the dog in order not to become sedentary

  • if anyone has found the dog to be able to contact it quickly

Frustrations

  • she is in a wheelchair and this prevents her from moving quickly

  • the dog is chipped but cannot see where it is

  • she wants to know how much physical activity her dog needs

Andreea is 33 years old and works as a software engineer. Since she was confined to a wheelchair a few years ago, her best friend is Rudy, her dog. Maricica lives at the house with the garden and Rudy always digs under the fence and leaves the yard. This happens because of Rudy's unspent energy. For this reason, Andrea is afraid of losing Rudy and wants to help her friend to consume his energy in a better way.

User Pain Points

  1. Dog Trainers
    • Difficulty in tracking activities with each dog.
    • Lack of knowledge about each dog's known activities.
    • Challenges in managing training areas effectively.
    • Lack of detailed activity data for competitions.
  2. Pet Owners
    • Struggles in finding and ensuring the safety of their dogs.
    • Inability to track their dog's location in real-time.
    • Uncertainty about their dog's activity needs.

User Journey

We tried to observe people that participated in the interview both interacting with their dogs, but also simulated the unfortunate event that they lose their pet.

With the help of a user journey map we emphasised with the intervieweees and understood the impact that each of these events can have on them. This was an extremely useful step in creating an application that is as efficient as possible in achieving its goals.

Wireframes

Results

Conclusion

Woofy is a project that aims to connect dogs with their owners, evenmoreso during training.

It's crucial that the application is simple enough even if the app is used during a dog training session, where your focus cannot be fully directed to your phone. Another important aspect is being able to quickly find your dog in case it gets lost.

I think I managed to achieve both of these goals, by creating an app with large, specific, UI elements, but also by facilitating the connection with other users that might find themselves in closer proximity to your dog, in case it gets too far away from you.

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