A little background info...

According to the ASPCA, more than 23 million households adopted a pet during the pandemic....

...And my husband and I are part of that statistic. By way of fate, we rescued our dog from the side of the road in May of 2020. Ever since then we can confidently attest that our lives have changed for the better.

While our sweet rescue pup is perfect in our eyes, we realize that she does have behaviors that need to be addressed, particularly leash pulling and squirrel chasing. We were curious how we could address these behaviors or if we could even enlist professional help, given the parameters of the pandemic and social distancing measures.

One day, while doing exploratory research on professional dog training options, I discovered that while most aspects of our lives have pivoted to a digital, remote-friendly format, there weren’t many options on the virtual dog training front. That was a problem that needed to be solved...

The Challenge

The uptick in pet adoptions has created a greater demand for dog training, however in-person training has become more difficult given the parameters of the pandemic. Furthermore, finding the time to squeeze it into your busy and unpredictable schedule can be challenging. Now more than ever, dog owners are seeking ease and flexibility when it comes to dog training.

So, how might we make professional dog training more convenient and accessible for dog owners?

Assumptions:

In creating this online solution, I began to hypothesize a list of possible pain points and problems dog owners may face when it comes to training:

The dog training industry is not regulated and there are no licensing requirements. One must do their own due diligence when finding a dog trainer

Dog owners may not have enough info to qualify and decide between various dog trainers from a quick phone call. It can be hard to get a feel for their methods without meeting them

Dog owners need guidance in selecting the right trainer. It can be a confusing and lengthy process as there are several different techniques and methodologies. Dog owners may not know what criteria to search for when hiring a dog trainer or what information to seek to make an informed decision.

Dog owners need a low risk way to vet a dog trainer before making a commitment for their services

Solution:

Design an app that enables its users to receive real-time dog training anytime, anywhere. Book a professional dog trainer for one-on-one video calls to receive private training without the prohibitive costs.

Competitive Analysis

Before we can fully understand the problem at-hand we need to conduct research. Gaining an understanding of the competitive market will enable us to expose gaps and better fulfill needs. What dog training apps are out there and what are their strengths and weaknesses? What opportunities and weaknesses lay in the current market? I decided to perform competitive analyses on Good Pup and Wag!, two mobile apps that offer virtual one-on-one dog training services.

Wag! initially launched as an on-demand dog walking app and has only recently added dog training to its service offerings. While perusing the profiles of the dog trainers on their platform, I noticed something pretty significant was missing: their accreditations and certifications. Since the dog training industry is unregulated and essentially anyone can call themselves a dog trainer, this poses a problem - how would one know if the dog trainer they want to hire is a qualified professional?

Good Pup provides video call dog training from the comfort of your own home. Their platform requires payment and a minimum of a five-week commitment upfront for their training services (which was a bit frustrating, honestly). This barrier to entry was displeasing - I couldn’t explore their app without paying for it first.

Surveys

So how many dog owners are seeking professional dog training in the first place? To better understand the landscape and need, I conducted a survey with dog owners on Google forms with the following goals in mind:

I received 53 responses within a couple of days. 91% of those surveyed were either the primary caretaker or shared responsibilities equally for their dog and 44% of them adopted their dogs during the pandemic. Below are the results of the survey:

have done professional dog training or have considered doing professional dog training

have never used a dog training app as a dog training tool

stated they would be willing to give virtual dog training a try

Interviews

While the survey let me gain a surface-level understanding of dog owners and dog training, I needed to take a deep dive and obtain qualitative data. I conducted interviews with three dog owners, all with various scopes of familiarity with professional dog training. The purpose was to gather attitudes and opinions towards dog training and identify what tools or resources these dog owners felt they needed to have a successful training experience:

"What would be most helpful is the trainer could do an initial consultation with us to set expectations and give us direction based on our dog's personality and needs" - Interviewee #2

"There is no one-size-fits-all approach and something that works for one of our dogs may not work for the other" - Interviewee #3

Their feedback and experiences confirmed my previous notion of how time-consuming and difficult it can be to find the right dog trainer. Additionally, in order to have a successful outcome, it is crucial to find a trainer whose methodologies and teaching style align with yours. After all, dog trainers aren’t training your dog - they are training you on how to train your dog.

Last but not least, dog owners are looking for a more personalized approach when it comes to dog training, with considerations to the dog's breed, age, and temperament.

These interviews enabled me to garner the following insights and validated some of my aforementioned hypotheses:

User Personas

The insights I obtained enabled me to identify the following personas: John, who has never worked with a professional dog trainer but is interested in trying, and Colette, who has cycled through a few dog trainers to find a training regimen that works for her dog. Understanding their needs, pain points and goals will allow us to better empathize with our users and build a better experience to cater to what they’re looking for and what they’d like to achieve.

User Flow

“As a dog owner seeking a particular training style, I want to book a consultation call with a potential dog trainer, so that I can get a better sense of their style and methods”

User Journey

Understanding how Colette thinks and feels as she works her way towards her goal of booking a consultation call will enable me to be mindful of her feelings and anticipate her needs to build for a better experience.

Sketches & Wireframes

Lo and mid-fidelity wireframes were made to map the user/task flows previously identified. While the aim is always to deliver a seamless experience for users, there was a fine balance that needed to be achieved between enabling users to reach their end goals in as few steps as possible while ensuring enough crucial information was extracted to customize their experience and deliver satisfactory results. Are the task flows logical? Are the processes efficient? These were questions I had to keep in mind while designing.

Additionally, our range of target users is wide (dog owners between the ages of 18 and 65) so I wanted to ensure all demographics would be able to reach their objectives efficiently and intuitively, regardless of their technical know-how.

Prototype

A high fidelity prototype was made in Figma to bring interactivity to the wireframes and task flows. To start, I built out a few features that correlated to my personas’ needs. This will then be presented to users for testing so that I can assess how test participants respond to it and garner feedback for further iteration.

Usability Testing

So how did my designs fare with users thus far? I performed a usability test with 6 participants to assess the learnability of a few key features, uncover usability issues and identify key areas and opportunities for improvement. The features tested included:

Booking a video call with a dog trainer - are users able to complete the task without questioning the process? Are we missing any vital details during the booking process?

Bookmarking a dog trainer - do users find this feature straightforward?

Leaving a review for a dog trainer - how do users feel about the process? Is it missing any details? Is it prescriptive enough?

Watch a training video - are users content with the way the training videos are categorized and presented? Do the videos meet their expectations?

From this usability test, I discovered that all participants found that leaving a review for a trainer was more difficult than anticipated, as users didn’t expect to find the function under their call history. Based on these results, I added a notification banner to the trainer’s profile. This way, users can leave a review from the trainer’s profile page to match their mental model of that task, amongst other changes.

Preference Testing

I conducted a few preference tests on Usability Hub to further evaluate my design. Below are the resulting key takeaways:

1 . Trainer Reviews
I wanted to see whether users preferred seeing a trainer’s reviews directly on their profile page or if they’d rather access them on a separate page.

Results: 76% of users surveyed preferred the latter, primarily because users felt that having the reviews on the profile page would be information overload. Users also mentioned they’d rather access the reviews when they want to read.

2 . Account Creation Method
I hypothesized that users would prefer signing up for an account via a social login, as it simplified the registration process.

Results: Users surveyed preferred the traditional email and password method as the primary mode for creating an account, not social logins. This was double-verified in another preference test where I placed greater emphasis on the social login buttons and 83% of users still preferred the traditional email and password to logging in via their existing social media account.

The Design

Onboarding

Call-to-action buttons are placed on every screen to provide users the ability to create an account or log-in at any point during the onboarding process.

Validated by the results from my preference testing, the traditional email and password method is presented as the primary mode of creating an account.

Assessment Quiz for Dog Trainer Recommendations

Users can take an assessment quiz to narrow down their search for a dog trainer based on the specific criteria they are looking for.

Watch a Training Video

Browse training videos by category or receive tailored video recommendations based off the information provided from the assessment quiz.

Book a Trainer (Free Consultation)

Interviewees expressed the desire to vet a dog trainer prior to committing to their services. With Good Fido, users can book a complimentary 15-minute video call with their preferred trainer to interview the dog trainer and find the right fit before proceeding with training services.

Final Thoughts & Learnings

As a career-changer, this project was my first deep dive into the design thinking process. I learned many valuable lessons along the way, with the key takeaways being:

Functionality supersedes aesthetics
As a designer, it can be easy to get wrapped up in the aesthetics of your designs. While you may feel the need to build pixel-perfect creations or a stunningly beautiful interface, the fact of the matter is users will come back to your product not because it is pleasing to look at but because of the function it serves and value it brings.

The beauty of iteration
Nothing is permanent. Products and designs are constantly evolving. There is always room for improvement and nothing is perfect from the get-go. That is what is so great about product design and UX!

You don’t need to have all the answers
Are there too many steps in your booking process? How much is too much when requesting info from users for personalization purposes? It’s okay if you don’t know - that is what testing is for. The input of your end-users will help guide your design decisions to better create impactful and meaningful solutions.

Invest in research if time allows
Research is important - a designer cannot create meaningful solutions without understanding and consulting the user. Being uninformed not only hinders your ability to effectively solve problems for your users but can lead to non-viable or useless solutions.

Last but not least...

A final shout-out to my rescue pup and dog(h)ter, Kiko, for being my muse and enabling me to help dog owners everywhere with their virtual dog training needs. This idea would not have been paw-sible without her!

Check out the prototype here.

Thanks for reading!