Dogs make people
happier & healthier

Charlie is a dog adoption service that
connects people with their new best friend.

Dog finder

About the project

    Problem
  • There are still too many dogs up for adoption.
    Insights
  • People are hesitant towards rescue dogs and not sure what kind of dog suits their lifestyle.
    Solution
  • The solution is a service that connects users to the right dog for their lifestyle.

Key features

  • Onboarding

    User research showed that users were unsure of what dog suits their lifestyle. Through an interactive onboarding, users can describe their lifestyle and be connected with their perfect match.
  • Browsing

    Through a fun and delightful browsing experience, users swipe between dogs that suit their lifestyle and can learn more about each dog by going to their profile.
  • Profile

    The profile helps the user to learn more about each dog and their attributes. Emphasis on photography helps the user to get an instant connection with the dog.

User Research

    What is the goal?
  • Connect dogs with potential owners and create more adoptions.
    Who are the users?
  • Owning a dog demands money, time and activity. The assumed persona is an active and urban young adult.
    What do they need?
  • In order to understand the users' needs, I did in depth user interviews with seven people.

Framing the problem

    Unsure
  • Users are not always sure what dog suits their lifestyle.
    Scared
  • Some users expressed a fear of getting an aggressive rescue dog.
    Confused
  • Users are somewhat confused about the adoption process.

Personas

  • Lonely Linda, 28
    Linda works and lives in San Francisco. Most of her friends have dogs and she has been wanting to get one herself. She enjoys being active during the weekends, exploring the city or going on road-trips. Not knowing much about dogs, she is not sure what dog suits her lifestyle.
  • Scared Sarah, 35
    Sarah lives with her husband and two kids in Portland. They really want a dog and have been talking about adopting one from a shelter. However, Sarah feels hesitant to get a rescue dog because she is afraid that the dog will be aggressive, especially with kids.

Exploring ideas & concepts

After synthesizing the user interviews and clarifying what problems to solve, I used value prop to place the personas in their environment. After sketching user scenarios I could identify what to focus on.

First concept

I did a low-fidelity design for the first concept—a match-maker for meeting dogs. I did user testing on the low-fidelity prototype in order to understand how users interacted with the main interactions and their thoughts on the concept.

User testing insights

    Like vs dislike
  • Users found it confusing what it meant to "like" vs "dislike".
    Lack of information
  • Users wanted more information about the dog to make a decision.
    Swiping
  • The interaction of swiping between dogs was somewhat confusing.

Can I only pick one dog or several?

What does it mean to dislike a dog?

Can I choose from more dogs?

Iterations & design explorations

Onboarding

How might we...design an onboarding that helps us identify the users' needs and connect them with the right dogs?

Browsing

How might we... design an easy, fun and informative way for users to browse and save dogs that they like?

The solution

    Decisive
  • Through an interactive onboarding—Charlie can identify the users' needs and connect them with the right dogs.
    Confident
  • By highlighting attributes such as trainability—users get a clear understanding of what kind of dog it is.
    Clarity
  • Swiping between dogs and learning about their behavior & attributes clarifies the overall adoption process.

Next steps

When I get a chance to continue working on Charlie, I will...

  • ...continue with user testing.
  • ...spend time on building a scalable design system.
  • ...design the other side of the service—how shelters upload dogs to the platform.