— App Design —

Muttnik

Where Will Your Dog Go?

This was a very early project attempting to discover how we might increase social levels of—and variety of experiences for—our dogs.

Three months of research resulted in Muttnik, an app providing information about dog-friendly places, utilizing “Missions” to provide a sense of adventure and exploration.

The final visual design mimics the Soviet space program and therefore uses space imagery as well as the Soviet colors red and yellow.

The app includes a full onboarding process that includes a 3-panel “story” as well as indicating what a user’s dog likes and dislikes.

The first Mission is for “Basic Training” which, when completed, unlocks additional Missions. This serves to not only get users out with their dogs, but also acts as a tutorial for how to use the app.

Behind the Scenes

During conversations with dog owners, it became apparent that they wanted their dogs to socialize more, but weren’t sure how to do that. For the most part, they had fallen into a routine: going on the same walks and visiting the same parks and establishments.

Interviewing additional dog owners residing in L.A. County helped create 3 distinct personas: The Dog Walker, The New L.A. Transplant, and The Energetic Puppy Companion.

At first, the information gleaned from those interviews pointed in a direction where a geo-social component would be dominant. This would allow users to “see” when other users were, for example, at the nearby dog park.

To better understand how social and geo-social elements were being used, several apps were studied for their structure and attributes.

But as the idea of a geo-social app started to take form and was brought to those very same users previously interviewed, there was a surprising resistance to the use of GPS to share their location, even if users had control over who, if any, could see their location.

Because of this new data, the app changed its focus to be more about gamification, only using GPS when users wanted to access maps to help find sites.

With this new direction in mind, I tested several competitive apps, including Bark Happy, Bring Fido, and Dog Land.

From there, flows and screens were sketched out, resulting in the revised wireframes.

The new prototype testing garnered more favorable feedback, so I began developing the look and feel of the app as well as the first round of mockups.

Since the app is supposed to elicit fun, I wanted the design to be playful. Exploration for that aesthetic began with the logo where images of astronaut suits, dogs, and Soviet designs influenced the final look.