Problem statement
How can we help dog keepers record their dogs’ social circle to understand their dogs better and build connections with other dog keepers and their dogs?
Value proposition
Sniffi allows dog keepers to build a social circle for their dogs by identifying their dog’s personalities, connecting their dog’s daily friends, and offering a dog-friendly online community.
Key Features
🌷
FlowerType
User can build a customized profile for their dog based on a system similar to MBTI. A flower will represent each kind of dog personality, and the app will recommend dog friends based on flower MBTI.
🐶
Sniffi Garden
Users can build a social circle for their dog by adding other dogs to the Sniffi garden and recording their dog’s playtime with dogs. The app will build a relationship network to help users understand how they connect with other dogs. They can also share posts about their dog and attend any local dog activity nearby.
💬
Owner Community
Users can learn about nearby dog-friendly places, meet other users, and avoid unfriendly areas through map. Users can also find matched dogs for their pets, search local dog-related activities, and chat with global dog owners for help
or have fun.
🛍️
Sniffi NFC Collar
The collar contains NFC, which can help the user add the dog’s information by tapping the collar. User can purchase the collar inside the app and customize social name cards for their dogs.
Competitor Analysis
Direct competitor: Dog focused app
Related competitor: Dog and cat focused app
Market Opportunity
To conclude, most pet owner community apps prefer public online social interactions and encourage a friendly, relaxing community vibe. Most apps apply a friendly and colorful design system, but only a few are well-designed and have a unified, delicate UI system.
Thus, Sniffi will focus on building a unique and organized design system and offer dog owners both public and personal space to meet new nearby friends and focus on recording dogs’ social daily.
Personas
Research
Why socializing between dogs is important?
💖
Better Behavior
💪
Healthier Body
😌
Improved Mood
Dogs learn to stay calm around others and are less likely to become fearful or aggressive. They also learn how to “talk” to each other using body language, making them better at understanding others, and build stronger communication skills.
29%
decrease in aggressive behaviors after participated in structured socialization programs.
40%
reduction in destructive behaviors among dogs that underwent early socialization.
36%
decrease in compulsive behaviors, indicating improved emotional stability for socialized dogs.
32%
reduction in excessive barking among dogs that received proper socialization.
Playing with other dogs means more exercise, which helps with weight control and lowers stress.
Dogs are social animals—they feel happier and more emotionally balanced when they have doggy friends. Interacting with other dogs also helps shy dogs feel braver and more secure in new situations.
User Journey
Information Architecture
User Testing
🎯 Goal
Understand which feature users think is the most useful
Collect feedbacks for current features and visual
Listen how dog keepers may use it in their daily lives
📝 How It’s Tested
User’s background
Concept introduction and testing
Feature testing and ranking
Co-design and future imagine with users
Synthesis learning
Iterate ideas, features, and wireframes based
on feedback
🎙️ Interviewees
Tia | Senior student
Keeps an introvert dog in China, prefers staying in pet stroller than walking
Serah | Senior student
Helps taking care a four-dog family and an another dog during holidays
Wendy | Senior student
Keeps an extrovert dog in China, loves fetching ball and super energetic
During interview, I asked them how they think about my main features (FlowerType test, Garden, Map, and community), here’s their responses and suggestions:
Most of the interviewees think FlowerType test can help them identify and understand more about their dogs’ personality.
All of them are interested in the Garden social network idea.
Based on my interviewees’ feedbacks, I updated my wireframes and added the features they suggested:
Add a pet health monitor in the playtime summary section. It’ll show if user’s dog is getting not enough, great, or too much level of exercise.
Add warning zones about unfriendly areas on the map, and add more detailed information in the location preview section.
Add a reward market in the shop page. User can collect points through building more relationship networks for their dogs, and use points to exchange free pet-related gifts.
Here is part of my refined wireframes:
Final Prototype
Onboarding
&
FlowerType Test
Users can create profiles for themselves and their dogs when signing up for an account. After that, they can choose to take a 3-5-minute FlowerType test, see their dog’s FlowerType, and get a unique name card.
Meet Friends
Users can see their dog’s relationship with other dogs in the Sniffi garden. They can also see their dog’s daily exercise status, who they played with in the daily playtime summary section.
Share Puppy Moments
Users can add any memorable records in the daily playtime section or create posts in the friend's group. Users can also see other users walking invitation quick posts and join them on the way.
Want To Add New Friends Quickly?
Just open the app and tap the other dog’s NFC collar! The app
will read the name card stored in that collar and automatically display the contact information
on your mobile.
Find Where
To Chill With
Your Dog
Users can find any dog-friendly locations, nearby users, or unfriendly areas through the discovery map and plan their
walk ahead.
Track Your Walking Time
Click “Start Walking” on the map; users can choose to send out a quick invitation to their friends and record their daily walking time with their dog.
Purchase Collar
&
Get Rewards
Users can purchase and customize Sniffi NFC collars on the shop page. They can also exchange any reward products by building and recording more relationships with their dog.
Community
&
Profile
Users can find matched dog friends for their pets, discuss dog-related topics with people worldwide, and join local activities. On the profile page, users can manage their dog’s name card
and NFC collars and review their past posts.
My Takeaway
✨ My Achievements
In this case study project, I challenged myself to create more energetic and practical UI and visual designs and
tried to merge my personal style into those creations.I also explored 3D tools like Spline and managed to build a more realistic visual for my NFC collar product.
This project takes a shorter design period compare to my first one, but I’m proud of its visual outcome and got great feedback from my target users.
💭 Future Planning
Keep refining community and profile features, design how users can book activities, and where to view their upcoming and past activities.
Make the FlowerType test actually work, and design a unique result page for each FlowerType.
Add more variety to NFC collar products and broaden the selection by adding harnesses and dog carriers.
More user testing and push forward...
© Yuanqi Zhang
