After analysing the survey results, it became clear that if there was an app created which gave dog owners the opportunity to view and search for dog friendly places with accurate information available, it would be used by dog owners across Northern Ireland and be helpful to them.

I created several user personas and an empathy map based off my user survey results, to help further identify what users would want to see from an app like Spot. As mentioned above, my main target user group is dog owners in Northern Ireland, however an additional group was also identified which included those traveling from the UK, Ireland or elsewhere, to Northern Ireland with their dog.

After I had completed initial user research, I moved on to creating the brand for Spot. For this, I carried out extensive research on typography, logos and colours along with analysing several dog related brands such as Pooch & Mutt, Denzels and travel related brands, including Tripadvisor, Airbnb and others.

Overall I was happy with the brand I created. I feel as though the branding elements work well together to communicate exploration and adventure which matches in with the app. You can read more about Spot’s branding process here.

To develop the features of the app, I used a card sorting exercise with a number of people in my target user group to see what features they would like to see from an app like this. By carrying out this exercise it ensured that I was including the main features that my target user group would be likely to use on a daily basis from the app.

Once I had decided which features to include, I created the apps user flow along with several user journeys. I spent time on the user flow to ensure I would be correct if a user was navigating through the app and that all the main content would be easily accessible. The user journeys helped me identify relevant pain points to the user when they are normally looking for dog friendly places to visit and how Spot’s app would help and make their search to find places easier.

I sketched out a number of wireframes before moving to Figma to create digital low fidelity versions. Mid fidelity wireframes followed this, allowing me to see how the content and images could look. This was beneficial as it helped me decide with screen layouts would work best for the content I was including on the app. View more about the design process here.

Once I was happy with the direction of the mid fidelity wireframes, I created high fidelity designs and the prototype. Again these were created in Figma and through using this application, I was able to create a realistic and functional prototype which shows how the app would work if released to the public. Once I was finished with the prototype, I carried out user testing using Maze.co which helped me improve the overall development and design of Spot.

Overall I am pleased with how Spot developed over the course of the project. I am excited that it is an app that would be beneficial to dog owners here in Northern Ireland and to those who choose to bring their furry friends here for a holiday. It would be great if one day I could secure the funding to have Spot developed and make my idea a reality ensuring that dog owners here would have everything they need at their fingertips, to go out and about, confidently, with their dogs.