TAKE A MOMENT
If you care as much about what your pet is eating as you do your own meals, then you've probably already heard about I and Love and You. This pet food brand not only cares about what they put in their food, but they also care about the well-being of every pet, pet owner, and even the environment. Based in Boulder, Colorado, they have one of the best business plans and market outreach to the surrounding areas. However, most customers have only heard about the company through friends and family. Although this brand is doing pretty well in Colorado, we believe it can do much better and have increased visibility across the nation. With their company values, they may just strike a chord with consumers outside of their current target audience. This is why a classmate and I decided to research I and Love and You further in order to pin-point gaps within their current brand ecosystem. The market is changing and consumers are becoming more and more aware of the kind of companies they want to be associated with based on that companies' goals and values.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
This project is from my time in Design Studio III, a course within the Digital Design program at the University of Colorado, Denver. We were tasked with finding a gap within a company's current brand ecosystem and designing a concept which may help to close this gap. My classmate and I chose I and Love and You based on their company values and the fact that they were only popular in the Colorado area. We believe our app concept would build more advocates of current customers and bring in new customers.
Since most of I and Love and You's customers come in from word of mouth, we wanted to emphasis this in a new way. Providing a service to people from all walks of life, they would then become familiar with the brand and the company's goals and values. Our goal was to increase visibility and create more brand advocates.
Project Timeframe: 5 weeks
MY ROLE
I worked on this project with a classmate and we were responsible for the experience strategy and design, research, and UI design for this project. For the most part, we divided our efforts; I took on most of the UX and research while she focused on the visual design. We worked closely together sharing work, ideas, etc. in order to create something that would be beneficial to this company.
With such a tight deadline, we knew we would have to rely on our individual skill sets in order to complete it on time. However, working together in the past, we knew what those skills were and how to use our time together most effectively.
SKILLS USED
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UX/UI Design
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Human-Centered Design
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Graphic Design
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UX Research
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Competitor Research
PROJECT DELIVERABLES
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Wireframes
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Sitemaps
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Data-Driven Persona
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InVision Prototypes
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UXR Documentation
TOOLS USED
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LucidChart
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InVision
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Adobe XD
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Adobe Illustrator
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Adobe Photoshop
UX RESEARCH & INITIAL DESIGN
CONSUMER INTERVIEWS
We started this project with consumer interviews in order to determine what current customers enjoyed most about the I and Love and You brand as well as what they would like to see improved. We also gathered demographic and psychographic information to see what these individuals were like outside of just being a customer of this brand and what their other interests may be.
ACTION ITEMS
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UX
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Create an easy way for shelters/rescues/organizations to add events to the app
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Focus on activities, fundraisers, silent auctions, entertainment, and wine tasting events
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Add an option to sign up as an organization vs individual event holder
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Create a reminder system (app notifications/emails)
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Add a calendar view for events
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APP
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Add an option to sign up as an organization vs individual event holder
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Create a reminder system (app notifications/emails)
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Include organizations’ social media links on the event details page
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Revise filter system for the search feature
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Add a calendar view for events
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Help organizations and individuals see when other events are happening in the area so they can plan around these dates accordingly
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DATA-DRIVEN PERSONA
Kelly Fox
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40-45yrs old
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Mother and animal lover
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$60k-$65k annual income
Behaviors
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Volunteers at the local animal shelter
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Attends animal-related events once a month
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I and Love and You customer for 2yrs
Needs & Goals
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Easy way to find animal-related events in the area that she is interested in
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Reminder system for the events she wants to attend due to her busy schedule
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Get more involved with the community by use of this app
“When I go to an event, it’s usually a fundraiser so I look for ones that I can participate in.
As long as there is something for me to do, I’m happy.”
ITERATION ONE
SITEMAP & WIREFRAMES
Home Screen Option 1
Home Screen Option 2
Event Detail Page
PAPER PROTOTYPE
We created a paper prototype of an app which would hold animal-related events in the users' area, curated by I and Love and You, and tested it with current customers. We also gathered further information on the individuals to add to our previous research.
ACTION ITEMS
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UX
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Link banner notifications to the individual ‘Upcoming Events’ detail section in-app
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Include the ability to delete events from the ‘Upcoming Events’ calendar view by swiping left on the event or unchecking “Going” or “Interested” from the event details page
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APP
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Revise login screen for improved accessibility to the ‘Skip’ option
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Shift share and website link locations on the event detail page
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Include a description to indicate functionality of social media icons
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Distinguish active vs inactive social media icons, in the case that all links are not provided
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Modify language on the ‘Register’ button, preparing users of navigation to an external site
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Include events created in ‘My Events’ on ‘Upcoming Events’ calendar view
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Distinguish “Going,” “Interested,” “Approved Events” and “Pending Events” in calendar view
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Include ‘Notification Preferences’ within Settings
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Change icon for ‘My Events’ to a paw print
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Include input field for price amounts on ‘Create Event’ detail page
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Include details for denied events on ‘My Events’ detail page
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Revise filter system
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DESIGN ITERATIONS
ITERATION TWO
SITEMAP & HIGH-FIDELITY SCREENS
Home Screen
Event Detail Page
Calendar
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
ACTION ITEMS
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UX
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Link banner notifications to the individual ‘Upcoming Events’ detail section in-app
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Include the ability to delete events from the ‘Upcoming Events’ calendar view by swiping left on the event or unchecking “Going” or “Interested” from the event details page
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Include the ability to automatically add events marked as “I’m Going” and “Interested” to Google, Yahoo, and Outlook calendars
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APP
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Revise feature names for ‘Upcoming’ ‘My Events’ and ‘About’
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Revise ‘About’ icon
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Clean up calendar view
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Increase visibility for ‘Connect with us’ on the event detail page
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Change ‘Registration Page’ button language to a call to action
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Clarify the ‘Registration Page’ button functionality with an external link icon
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Revise “I’m Going” and “Interested” button states
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Revise ‘Approved’ ‘Pending’ and ‘Denied’ status indicators
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MVP
ITERATION THREE
HIGH-FIDELITY SCREENS
Home Screen
Event Detail Page
Calendar
COMPANY FEEDBACK
We reached out to I and Love and You’s Marketing Coordinator and got to speak with her over the phone about our concept. We showed her our first high fidelity prototype and got feedback on it and our general idea. She said that she loved the idea, but that it was currently not in I and Love and You’s budget. She said that if the company was to implement something like this, it would be in a few years.
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Add opt-in for e-newsletter at sign up
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Think about partner eligibility
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Contest feature to incentivize app usage
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Not in current budget
“This would be great but I see this being several years out.”