CityPup is a new startup that wants to help people living in cities find the perfect dog to adopt. They brought me on board to run a design sprint to quickly test out a possible solution in five days.
The researcher in Citypup has already conducted the user interview and survey, I need to synthesize the resources and design an adoption app based on my insight.
18-45 years old
People living in cities
5 Days
Analysis
UX designer
People living in cities struggle to find the right dog to adopt due to their unique needs.
1. HMW makes the search feature user-friendly?
2. HMW lets users get to know the dogs better?
3. HMW enables users to get quick feedback if they have questions or want to adopt?
Adapted Design Sprints
Design sprints are typically conducted for 8 hours each day, for five days. However, because this is a modified design sprint, the work outlined in each “day” (or subunit) only took me four hours per day to complete.
Start at the end
Target
Understand the problem.
On the first day, I focused on understanding the problem that would help me to build a better solution lately. I read the research info carefully and marked down the users’ complaints. Then I used the below three steps to dig deep into the users’ pain points.
Step 1: Start at the end
What actions could the company take that would turn a person away?
What might cause someone to stop adopting?
Step2: Map out user’s behavior
Based on the persona, I created a scenario that would help me further understand a user’s behavior and how a user would complete a task by the app.
The scenario is Ellize lives alone in a studio apartment in NYC. Now she doesn't have roommates, she finally feels “ready” for the responsibility, and companionship of a dog, so she wants to find the right dog on CityPup and adopt it.
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A User of Ellize would:
When I figured out the problem, that means I completed the work for Day1. The next day, I need to research what CityPup has designed and how other brands solve the problem.
Remix & Improve
Crazy 8's
Vote
Sketch the solution
On the second day, it was time to sketch the solution. Before sketching, in addition to getting the helpful idea, I started to go through several existing apps to find great interactions that could inspire Ellize’s experience. This included all types of apps, not just limited to adoption apps.
Get inspired:
I explored several apps to try to get some inspiration, and I found something inspired fromTory Burch (web app), Skillshare (app), and Petfinder (app).
Crazy 8’s: a game to create 8 pics screen in 8’s
Once I had a general idea in my mind, then came to the fun part. I utilized a game: Crazy 8’s to visualize the critical screen as quickly as possible. I sketched eight different solutions to the screen in eight minutes, then selected one of the best objectively.
Compared to the 8 sketches, the third one on the first row has enough room to show the dog’s photos, as the photo and the video play a big role in helping users make an emotional connection with dogs.And the slide card below the bio photo supports a shortcut for users to check the different info about the dogs, like video, personality, level of training, etc. it also gives users marked “emergency exit” if they want to jump to the other parts.
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Final solution sketch
After I made the decision, I started to sketch out a solution sketch, a three-panel board of the screen that comes before my critical screen, the critical screen itself, and the screen that comes after your critical screen.
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Once I felt satisfied with my final solution sketch, that means I completed the works for Day 2. Yeahhhh! On the next day, I need to draw a storyboard.
Storyboard
Drawing Storyboard
Based on the solution sketches and the user behavior map that I did on day 1 and day 2, I expanded it into a simple storyboard to see if logic makes sense or not for Ellie’s experience.
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Once I felt satisfied with my final solution sketch, that means I completed the works for Day 2. Yeahhhh! On the next day, I need to draw a storyboard.
Trial Run
Look for Mistakes
Building Prototype with Figma
When I felt satisfied with the storyboard, I started to jump into Figma to create a prototype quickly in around 10 hours.
When I built the layout, I immediately felt an intimacy with the journey of adoption, that feeling reminded me of the experience of making friends or dating on social media. They are very similar as viewers are always being attracted by the portfolio picture at first sight and then check the bio to see the details.
So based on this idea, I combined the concept of social media and adoption apps that made those cute furry friends look like bloggers. They can show their personality and hobbies on the app. This will make viewers feel relaxed, familiar, and friendly when they interact with the app.
Interviews
Taking notes
Learn
Validate
Here comes the most exciting part to validate how the app works. I chose to conduct a usability test with 5 participants remotely. 2 of them have adoption experience in the shelter.
Show more information about the dog on the homepage cards.
People are very concerned about how the dog gets along with other animals, kids, and strangers. Display the icons on the home page will make it easy for users to scan.
Delete the online chat feature on the home page
The chat feature seems redundant for users as all of them said they wouldn’t need any help when they just landed on the page unless they were already in the process.
Improved the readability and visual consistency by changing color.
The before the version with yellow font and grey background were in low contrast, which causes a poor reading experience. To improve it, I changed the high contrast color of the font and background.
Try the prototype
I found it’s hard to measure converted rating accurately on a prototype, but we can measure the impact by selecting the correct question and task and doing a usability test or AB test, then we can get a very intuitive answer by comparing the results of different versions to see how much percent it is improved.
We can barely understand a group population without knowing their backgrounds. In the process of getting to know them, we can really understand how their opinions are formed, what their real needs are, and what problems they are generally facing.
For instant, if you want the user to do certain activities with the app, then just list everything that might cause someone to stop doing it?
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