End to end UX design capstone project: Dawgo
Role(s)
UX|UI Designer
UX Researcher
Content Designer
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator
Platform
Mobile IOS
Duration
10 Weeks
Problem
Aspiring dog owners are unprepared, leading to rehoming
I remember when Game of Thrones was popular, and there were a few things happening:
Rise in Husky popularity due to resemblance to dire wolves
Surge in Huskies being brought into shelters
Consequently, this was the result of new owners discovering the behavioral & economic difficulties of having a Husky. I wanted to create a design solution that could mitigate situations like this from happening.
Solution
Connecting dog owners to each other in lesson-based settings
Networking apps like Meetup tend to be free, and a lot of value is obtained from connecting to people within the same field or, in this case, dog owners who may share similar experiences. Dawgo is like that, but tailored for dog owners and trainers.
Desk Research
What are the stressors for dog owners?
As an aspiring dog owner myself, I was curious to see how relevant & true these behaviors might be today compared to back then. Beginning my investigation (AKA Google), I found some data points concerning such a correlation.
Ideation
Structuring the design for dog owners
With these data points in mind, I wanted to focus on making a task flow that revolved around dog owners wanting to find nearby & affordable events where they could connect with other dog owners.
Branding
Logo Design
Even though, I had no experience with graphic desining, I was determined to create a logo that could help give the feeling of a real-world app, and so I dipped my toe into Adobe Illustrator and 1 free trial later, I wound up with this as my logo.
Design System
Brad Frost's Atomic Design Principles
I followed Brad Frost's Atomic Design principles for creating my design system for Dawgo, who has a strong background in coding and design systems. As designers, I think it is important to have our designs be as translatable as possible for developers who will be turning our prototypes into real products.
Atoms = HTML Tags, i.e., form labels, buttons
Molecules = 2 Atoms
Organisms = Group of molecules
Templates = Group of organisms
Pages = Instances of templates
Design System
UI Library
Even though developers were not involved, I made sure to redline the sizing and distance of my elements as though I would be handing off my UI library over to a developer.
Final Design
Key Takeaways
This capstone project gave me the experience of wearing multiple hats in a short time frame and a holistic lesson on the design process. Dawgo taught me a few things I can take into my future work ventures as well:
Don't get attached to initial ideas
Prioritize the right things