Furluv
This is my first try at wireframing and prototyping for an app I designed on Figma called Furluv. It’s an app that connects aspiring dog owners to dogs in shelters around the nation. I was inspired by dating apps such as Tinder and Hinge using the likes and matches for the practicality of finding dogs for users according to their needs and personalities. Here is the link to the prototype:
Sign up interface:
Dog recommendations interface:
Profile interface:
Likes interface:
Chats interface:
Design Process
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
I followed the 5-step UX design process to create Furluv:
Empathize
I started by first finding a need in my community and researching it. I started this project in July 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During quarantine, there was a huge rise in internet usage. Many people were bored and looked to the internet for entertainment or even consolation, through various websites and apps. Platforms such as Tinder gained popularity, specifically the Tinder Passport function which allowed users to match with people from all over the world. According to this Vox article, for the first time, Tinder swipes reached 3 billion on a single day in March 2020. At the same time, people sought comfort in animal adoption. During quarantine, about one in five households acquired a dog or cat, according to this ASPCA survey. However, the adoption process during this time was difficult Scheduling a time to meet animals in-person was virtually impossible. Combining the the accessibility of dating apps and the need of a streamlined and feasible pandemic pet adoption process, I created Furluv.
Define
In order to better understand the target audience and recognize their diverse needs, I created three personas based on video conversations and interviews with friends who had adopted pets during the pandemic:
Mia: 28 years old, lives alone in her apartment in New York City. She lives an active lifestyle, and loves to go on runs with her doberman. She’s looking for a dog who is friendly with other dogs, and doesn't mind traveling within a 2,000-mile radius to meet her dog matches.
Carlos: 31 years old, family man. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and 4-year-old son. Neither Carlos nor his wife have had any pet experience. They want a small dog, that is trained and is gentle with small children. He is willing to travel up to 100 miles to find his matches.
Sarah: 65 years old, retired schoolteacher. She lives in Savannah, with her cat. Sarah needs a senior dog who is mellow and trained, that also gets along with cats. She does not want to travel more than 20 miles from her home to meet her matches.
Below are persona profiles of these users made on Figma. Click here for the full file.
Ideate
After exploring these three personas and brainstorming according to their needs, I came up with three main ideas:
An app in the Tinder format, with swipes and matches, connecting users to dogs available in local shelters
A map-based app, connecting users to local shelters in their area with emails and phone numbers, but no specific dog matches
An app similar to the Craigslist website, where shelters post listings of their available dogs and users can contact shelters to set up an appointment and meet their dogs.
Prototype
I eventually decided to go for the first option, Doggy Match, as it best fit personas’ needs as well as the original empathy work and research I had done. I changed the name from Doggy Match to a more conceptual Furluv, as the play on words “for love”. I created wireframes and flow diagrams on Figma, as shown in the images and link above.
Test
Just like in the first empathy stage, I circled back to a few friends and scheduled times with some new faces of all ages, through video call. They shared their screens and ran through the prototype on Figma without any instruction. Here is some user feedback:
“Smart idea! I loved the dating app setup. The format was something I’m used to navigating, so it was very intuitive for me. The light and dark modes make it super accessible!”
“I enjoyed the chat concept, it seems like a lot of fun to be able to learn more about the dog before meeting them, and chat with their sponsor beforehand. My one concern is that some of the buttons aren’t clickable which made it confusing to go through.”
“I liked the idea, but I have a few concerns. I’m not sure how it would look like to travel to different cities in the middle of a pandemic. Furluv would be great in a post-pandemic world, though. Also, it seems complicated to go visit the dog; what if it doesn’t work out? That’s a plane ticket pretty much wasted.”
Final Takeaways
Furluv is definitly a concept I’d like to continue to iterate in the future. The feedback was extremely helpful, especially the one about traveling and meeting dogs so far away; I hadn’t thought about that. In the future, I plan on reiterating the prototype to possibly having local results, in a 50 mile radius and not nationally. I would also like to expand the app capability to include cat and other animal adoption, to serve a larger audience; after all, not everyone is a fo. Overall, I really enjoyed this process, it helped me realize how important all these steps are in UX design. I got to put what I learned in class into a real-life, feasible context.