Solar Bear
Case Study
The Client
Solar Bear is a small indie start-up that combines weather forecasts with alarms allowing users to plan walks, runs, and excursions by predicting the weather for a selected time, so users know if the weather is undesirable or not.
The Challenge
Solar Bear is developing an app to notify dog walkers of the weather in advance of chosen walking/running times, reducing the possibilities of its users getting caught in bad weather when taking their pets for a walk. The app will also extend to walkers, runners, or those who want to get out for any purpose.
The Roles
Lead UX Designer
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UX researcher
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Interaction designer
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Visual designer
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Branding designer
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UI Designer
The Goal
The primary goal of this project is to develop the dog walker aspect of the app and open Solar Bear to the market. Periphery goals are to widen the user base and improve the flow of the experience through redesigning Solar Bears style and layout.
The Steps
1.) Research, mood board, and benchmark the competition to see what alternatives are on the market and what services they offer and research the market to justify the new selection.
2.) Design a simple feature for dog-walkers. Update the current design and improve its usability for registering, and out-and-about interaction.
3.) Develop high fidelity prototypes with the redesigned layout in mind as a template for the rest of the app.
Time Allotment: 2 Weeks
Step 1.) Research
My research began with an analysis of the user base, needs, and potential market, I found:
As of 2018, there are 471 million pet dogs who need walking every day. That is 471 million potential customers. Consider how many of these customers have had walks delayed or interrupted because of the weather.
Is There a Market? Going through studies and research I found online was not enough, I found myself creating a survey and relaying it to dog owners to try and get a grasp of the opinions and needs from within the community:
Roughly 64% of dog owners surveyed believe that walking their dog is an expression of love for their dogs. However, 57% of owners admit to skipping walks. Mostly due to bad weather and bad planning.
Potential users and customers walk the dog for 8 hours and 54 minutes a week, the time is perfect for socialising and meeting new people, it is an incentive to exercise, and the walks have left their dogs seeming happier, more energetic, relaxed, and de-stressed. Seems like justifiable reasons to get dog owners out for walks!
The next stage of my research was to create a competitive benchmark and an analysis of the competition Solar Bear has:
There is no exact presence of direct competition in the market. Timetable apps and alarms are the closest competition to Solar Bear, which holds an advantage as it will let you know what the weather is like for your walk. It also is fully functional as a weather app as well as an alarm reminder.
Analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the different alarms and weather apps on the market allowed me to develop a framework for the design that best approached both roles. Compiling all of my research through an affinity diagram I was able to map out and broil down to the most essential requirements of the app.
Step 2.) Processing the Data/Planning the Design:
This design had to be simple to interact with, and glanceable to understand.
Planning the app design needed to include considerations like an easy way to set up and change the alarm, with straightforward notifications that convey the weather at a glance.
To fully grasp the requirements for the app I developed user personas to run through early-stage scenarios and figure out what might be missing from the app.
These would be used to determine the pain points and issues in the suggested flow.
The Personas were based around the general responses to the survey. Meaning, I would not be strayed by my own (petless) instincts and recognising the pain points would be far easier.
With the personas in mind, I created a Flow Chart that was easy to navigate, running it through every potential scenario and even expanding its use to include a notification alarm on both mobile and smartwatch devices. Developing User journey maps from the flow and personas allowed me to see potential pain points and focus on an easy to use platform that can be maintained on the go.
After developing a seamless flow for the user I began developing a basic wireframe and started to fully consider the UI side of the project, How best to portray my findings, this came in the form of rough sketches and layouts of how the app could look, as the visuals fell into place, suddenly other aspects required attention, font choices, colour schemes and even down to the word choices:
Some details will be required to sign up:
Email, for motivational content and potential updates (walk tracker analysis maybe?)
Pets name, to personalise the message “walk time” Becomes “Domino is ready to go!”
Owners name, further personalisation “Lisa, Domino is ready when you are!”
Otherwise, all we need Is the reason for going out, if there is one, and the location which will be determined automatically.
Opening for the first time, the user meets the landing page, is asked to register or sign-in, give the information above, then begin by setting up their first alarm. The Home page will present the weather in an easy to read fashion and allow users to view set and edit alarms. The notification will appear 30 minutes before the set time and then again 5 minutes beforehand. Through a simple graphic and phrase, the user must know if it is safe to go out.
Phrases like:
1.) You're good to go!
2.) Maybe not today.....
3.) It is a mixed bag
With a graphic to match the weather, informing the user at a glance whether it is a good idea or not. The designs ready I needed to prepare a prototype to be tested.
Step 3.) Prototype:
Creating the prototype through Adobe XD and Axure allowed me to play around with the interactivity and layout.
The only question that remains is to do with selecting the time for a user’s alarm. Throughout my research, I saw several examples of how to design it, unable to settle on one I decided to work with the most common and factor this into the user testing.
Generating the UI Elements and the responsiveness of the app allowed me to let my creativity take care of the rest, with the guidelines and research to support my decisions. I was confident in my design.
Finally on to some user testings, field testing (out and about) and testings at any time of day with any possible weather to gather the effectiveness of the app. As this is such a quick to use app, the user testings took 20 minutes and happened in different opportunities to see where the app could be let down. Users were warned to highlight any potential issue they might foresee the app having as well as weighing in on the positives.
Step 4.) Testing:
Overall the tests were successful with 100% of the Users being able to navigate the app.
There was confusion when trying to check the weather in-depth. 25% of those tested need access to more details on the weather.
The users liked the visuals, colour scheme and the simplicity of the app. Some were not sure why an alarm would need an email address, but, with the promise of new features, all of them agreed they would provide their email address.
All that is left is to create a full wireframe for the designers to know what they are making.
What's Next?
With the first iteration ready, the reviews can be studied to develop more features, researched from a wider audience of users.
Possible features to be considered:
· Can the sign-up page be merged into a drop-down on the landing page.
· The weather details on the Home screen need to be expanded.
· A potential map feature so users can adjust their location or destination
Reflections
The troubling part of researching this project was how individual people are about how their alarms and notifications should look and interact. So, my In-Depth questionings were off as everyone was suggesting different interfaces to suit them. If I had a bit more time, I might have developed a customisable interface for selecting times and viewing your alarms. I would investigate further is the idea of the tones and alarms themselves. Customisable noises to let you know the good news or bad news, for instance, a dog whining if it is raining or howling if it is stormy. Users can be alerted before even looking at their phones or watches.
