Puphood Dog Training App

Professional training programs anytime and anywhere

Meet Lucca!

What inspired me?

I recently became a new dog parent and worked on dog training with my new puppy every day. As a new dog parent, I found that there is too much information over the internet and it is difficult to decide what is the best for my puppy. There is only one puppyhood for each dog and I know that puppy training is essential but also so painful for all new dog parents. I want to do my best for Lucca.

I tried so many different ways of training along the way, including Google, YouTube, asking for advice from friends and family, in-person training classes. And I thought it would be great if there is one solution that could put everything together. The challenges in my life inspired me to create a solution to solve the problem that bothers millions of new dog owners just like me.

Project overview

Objective

To solve the problem, I created a mobile app, which provides dog training videos, growth and training tracker and generally just a place for new dog parents to get and organize all the information about their new puppy.

Project duration

The project is one of my recent projects and I just finished it in October. The whole process takes about 3 weeks.

My role

I completed this project on my own and I did everything from scratch, including user research, user testing, and the design solution.

Figma link

Here is the link to the Figma document where I create the design.

My assumptions

Before starting the project, I did a lot of thinking about how I wanted this app to be and what I wish I can do with it. Then I listed everything I felt struggled as a new dog parent and looked into them to find what can be generalized to a large group the most:

Puppies require a lot of attention at their early stage of development, and proper training is essential to help them get through a healthy and happy puppyhood and become well-rounded adults
There is too much information online and it is difficult to tell which are good or bad
First-time paw-parents may find it very overwhelming or confusing about making training plans and setting up routines for their fur babies
They are looking for the most effective, efficient, and low-cost(both in time and money) way of training their puppies

Learning the user

At this step, I already had some information about the market and the potential user behaviors. Now is the time to test if my assumption about the target user is right, in order to determine the must-have features and prioritize user needs.

Given the pandemic situation, all the user interviews were done virtually, either over the phone or video chat. I interviewed 5 participants from diverse backgrounds and asked them questions about their dog training journey and their expectations, goals, and achievement.

I grouped all the information into six categories: Bio, Motivation, User habits, Likes, Dislikes, and Expectations. Those tags were very useful for the later persona design and tailor down the target user group.

Based on all the user needs and behaviors I learned from the user interviews, I created the sample task-based user flow to show what a target user would interact with the system and how they can complete the basic task and experience the main features.

The user flow shows how a new user would do on a specific page and what they would choose if a decision needs to be made to complete the task. This step is the preview of how a typical user would interact with and complete their goals with the product.

How is it gonna stand out in the market?

The next step is to look carefully into all the existing solutions in the market to question me "How I could make it different and better than any other ones?".

I did a competitive analysis on 3 popular dog training apps in the market to see their pros and cons, and here is the result! While diving into the analysis, I found most of dog parents are using Google or YouTube as their main source of dog training information.

Stand in the user's feet

After determining the sample user flow, I tried to think and feel like a real user and predicted how they would feel about each page while completing the task. Getting to know their feelings is a great way to walk through the up-and-downs during the whole process, and to learn more about user pain points and frustrations.

Design Iterations

Simple at the first sight

The most important information on the homepage should be training-related. While designing for this page, I tried to simplify and minimize the number of items to reduce confusion and prevent new users from feeling overwhelmed. Adding a search bar to the homepage makes it more convenient for users to complete a specific task.

Everything about training

Dog training videos are the primary focus of the product, but we also created a couple of features to support the training and daily care of the puppy, including a weight tracker, to-do list, as well as some fun reads, and nearby training-related events to help new dog parents to bond with their puppy.

Make the training easy

I want to make it easy for users who hold their phones while training their dogs. On the training video page, they are able to find everything they need easily, including text instruction, required tools, and some helpful tips about how to nail down this trick with their puppy.

The Final Solution

Final takeaways

Assumptions can leave vital information unseen or heard in the process of creating a new product. Take the time to attend to every detail. If there are any assumptions being made, make sure they are tested during the user interviews or testings.
From the business perspective, what the company focuses on may not agree with what the user needs. But as a designer, when there is a conflict, try to help the user get their needs done without damaging the benefit of the company.
Paying attention to users' feedback, not just verbal feedback, but also their gestures, emotions, facial expressions, and any other cues that were observed during the interviews or testings. Those can also be valuable information to determine whether it is a great solution for them.