A mobile app that allows dog owners to easily "spot" unhealthy ingredients in dog food.
Yes, this project is 100% inspired by my love and obsession for dogs 🐕.
Based on my own experience from being a dog owner, I realized how difficult it can be to find dog food that is truly healthy for our canine BFFs. There are countless options available in the market, with many claiming all sorts of health benefits. But are all the products truly healthy?
I surveyed 15 dog owners to see how they feel about the dog food industry. What does "healthy" dog food mean to them? Do they care about ingredients in dog food? What else do they care about when buying dog food?
Based on the survey results, the top factor that dog owners care about when buying dog food is ingredients, followed by the nutritional content. Surprisingly, 86% of the participants do not understand all the ingredients in the food they give to their dog.
86% believe ingredients are important. However, they also don't understand all the ingredients listed on the packaging.
80% feel sort of confident that the food they give to their dog is healthy.
7% believe there is sufficient transparency in the dog food industry.
In addition to the survey, I conducted user interviews with 4 dog owners to identify user motivation, habits and pain points. I was able to uncover a lot:
100% mentioned ingredients are important but it's difficult to understand chemical ingredients
75% also look at product reviews and nutritional content when picking dog food
75% indicated there is a lack of educational resources for finding healthy dog food
75% have had poor experiences with a dog food product due to health concerns
Customers pick Bikechain over other bike shops because of positive google reviews, reasonable pricing and convenient location
Design opportunity: highlight factors above in the home page
Customers prefer to book bike repair appointments online due to convenience
Design opportunity: Add a clear CTA for bike repair appointments
Participants want to know pricing for bike repair services before booking an appointment
Design opportunity: The service offering page should easily be discoverable with pricing details captured
80% indicated vaccine appointments were not centralized which made it difficult to find available appointments
80% did not feel informed when booking an appointment. They would like to know the following information: type of vaccine, eligibility criteria, potential side effects
.png)
100% had to rely on sources that are not affiliated with the provincial healthcare system to find available appointments (i.e. Twitter, word-of-mouth)
Based on the research insights, there is a need for dog owners to understand ingredients in dog food so they can make an informed decision about what to feed their dog. With the insights gathered, I was also able to identify one distinct persona group: Sam, a health conscious dog-owner.
Sam, a health-conscious dog owner, needs a way to understand dog food ingredients so she can feel confident and informed when picking the right food for her dog. Our solution should allow Sam to learn about any potential health risks with the ingredients used in dog food.
With the persona and problem statement in mind, I used simple sketches to translate my ideas into a storyboard. With the persona’s goal in mind, I was able to visualize the user’s ideal journey when using the mobile app.
Some of the key features defined in the storyboard includes:
From here, I went ahead and created the mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma. With support from my mentor, I was able to gather feedback and iterate early on in the process.
Drawing inspiration from “Adventures of Spot” (my favourite childhood book series), I named the app after the main character “Spot”.
Inspired by the character Spot, I chose a yellow shade as the accent colour. I want the brand of the app to be fun, modern and reliable.
I created a high-fidelity prototype in Figma and recruited 4 dog owners for usability testing. Participants were asked to complete a series of tasks. The goal was to test the discoverability and usability of the app’s features and its overall experience.
The app concept was proven to be successful based on feedback gathered from usability testing:
Participants described the app as modern, clean and user friendly which aligns with the brand’s adjectives. In addition, participants provided some valuable feedback to further improve the user experience for the final design.
With the user feedback gathered from usability testing, I was able to revise my prototype to further improve the user experience of the app.
View the final prototype in Figma or scroll down to see the design highlights.
Proposing concepts and validating with research: This project gave me the learning opportunity to work with a blank canvas. I really enjoyed talking to users and dissecting research data to guide and inform my design decisions.
End-to-end design with a time constraint: As the sole Product Designer, it was challenging to design an end-to-end app within two weeks. However, I learned to prioritize and focus on the bigger picture. I was able to gain a holistic view of designing a mobile application from beginning to end.
There are a few things I would do differently if I had additional time:
Say Hello 👋🏻
