pet jet

Date
2022 - 2033
Design Type
Mobile App Design
Purpose
Portfolio Project
Pet Jet is a fictional airline dedicated to enhancing the pet-friendly travel experience. The mobile app offers pet-friendly air travel services, suggests destinations suitable for pets, and provides the assurance that your beloved furry companions will receive exceptional care throughout their journey.
MY ROLE
The entirety of this project was completed by myself with the guidance of my experienced mentor.
Ideation
Research & Analytics
Information Architecture
Branding
Wireframes
Usability Testing

Challenge

‍The pandemic caused a rapid increase in pet ownership, and since traveling restrictions have been lifted individuals are experiencing the difficulty that comes with traveling with a pet. Even when companion pets are allowed to be in the cabin of a commercial airline they experience discomfort and anxiety due to the unfamiliar environment and noise levels.

goals

- Provide accommodating travel for humans and pets alike
- Prioritize safety and satisfaction for pets

RESEARCH

secondary research

In order to understand the impact of rising pet adoptions during the pandemic, I delved into research topics on the subject.

According to Forbes.com, Pet ownership has been on the rise in the past 3 decades.

‍“78% of pet owners admitted to gaining a pet during the pandemic.” - Forbes
‍
Alongside the increase in pet ownership, the U.S. Travel Association has stated that total travel spending has increased in recent years.
"Pet Ownership Statistics 2023"
Go to article
"The Latest Travel Data"
Go to article

competitive analysis

In order to achieve my goal of minimizing the amount of stress people experience while traveling with their pets, I needed to review how companies were currently addressing this issue.
‍
I chose a companies that matched different targeted different audiences to provide diverse insight.

Highlighting their weaknesses allowed me to easily acknowledge avoidances while designing this product.
Wheels Up
Private aviation charter
  • Small scope of operations
  • Only available for domestic use in USA
  • Limited aircraft fleet
Alaska Airlines
Commercial Airline
  • Crowded aircraft cabins
  • Restrictive pet mobility/comfort
  • Costly fees based on pet breed and size
Facebook
Private aviation charter community
  • No accountability for customer service
  • Inconsistent, unpredictable prices
  • No travel insurance
Insights
Currently, there are no airlines or services that are putting pet-friendly accomodations at the core of their mission.
Access to relative information is a vital part of a travel business and should be accessible at any point.
Airlines who claim to be pet-friendly view pets as "add-ons" and do not offer additional services catered to the pet.
When booking pet-friendly travel companies provide relevant FAQs and tips for pet safety/comfort.

user survey

I wanted to gain a clear understanding of what travelers, specifically pet owners, expect throughout the process of planning out their trips.

Primarily, my goal was to acknowledge the struggles people go through when traveling with their pets in any form of travel.
go to survey
Insights
Since "finding pet-friendly accomodations" was the top challenge for participants, the design should make it easier for users to access this information.
Participants selected “Spacious and comfortable pet-friendly cabins”, “Well trained staff”, and “On-board amenities for pets” as the most desirable features expected from a pet-friendly aviation experience. This lets me know how much users expect in terms of comfort and accomodations.
Pet safety should be addressed as a main goal for the product to provide assurance for the user.

user interviews

For the sake of gaining the most accurate qualitative data, all of the participants in these interviews were individuals who own pets and travel by plane 3 or more times a year.

reid

Has 2 dogs
"I wish I could fly with my dog, but airlines are restrictive of her breed/size."

rachel

Has 1 dog and 1 cat
"I think a blog that shares pet-friendly travel tips would be helpful."

Brandon

Has 2 dogs
"It's very time-consuming and stressful researching pet-friendly places when I'm on vacation."
see interview guide
Insights
Since "finding pet-friendly accomodations" was the top challenge for participants, the design should make it easier for users to access this information.
Participants selected “Spacious and comfortable pet-friendly cabins”, “Well trained staff”, and “On-board amenities for pets” as the most desirable features expected from a pet-friendly aviation experience. This lets me know how much users expect in terms of comfort and accomodations.
Pet safety should be addressed as a primary goal for the product to provide assurance for the users.

research summary

After conducting my research, I felt inspired to produce these questions that would allow the product to address the needs of users on a personal and business level. I also wanted to encourage myself to empathize with the user and focus on the comments made from surveys and interviews. These questions formed the backbone for including the features and information needed to tackle the problem head-on.
How might we alleviate pet owners’ concerns and ensure the safety and happiness of pets during air travel?
How might we create a supportive and engaging platform enabling pet owners to share their experiences?
How might we ease the process of finding and booking pet-friendly air travel options, making it easier for pet owners to access the information desired?

DESIGN

feature set

In order to address the user's wants/needs, I needed to produce features that would be implemented into the product with the intention of assisting the user while interacting with the product. I categorized the features in order to prioritize and design the interface based on these categories. Based on the research above, my goal was to address pet safety, customer satisfaction, and pet-friendly travel information.

sitemap

Based on the feature set categories I was able to identify the main pages that users would interact with the most. The sitemap showed me where the features would be placed and helped me decide how I needed to design the correlating wireframes for the main pages.
Click image to enlarge

taskflow

Before I could start on producing the wireframes, I find it best to lay out the flow of pages and actions that a typical user will encounter when interacting with the product. I decided to focus on the booking process since it will be the most comprehensive flow of the features the product holds. The path is very familiar with other booking processes, but there is an alternative path where users can choose a "shared flight" option in order to offer a budget friendly option for users.
Click image to enlarge

low fidelity wireframes

The goal was to design a wireframe that could keep the information users needed easily accessible while maintaining a simple, clean layout. These wireframes helped me decide where certain features would be placed within the product.
Sign in
Home
Booking
User profile
Feature menu

branding

Due to the amount stress users feel when traveling, I needed a color that promoted peace but also matched the high class experience the product provides. Purple was a great option for this product since it is associated with royalty, creativity, magic, and peace.
Click image to enlarge

high fidelity wireframes

With the branding colors established, it was time to design a flexible layout acting as the foundation for the prototype. This process allowed me to see how the user would interact with the product and envision what thoughtful responses the user would make when viewing the interface.
Sign in
Home
Booking
User profile
Feature menu

TESTING

I produced an initial prototype for the product and conducted usability tests to address the good and the bad of my design so far. There were many aspects of this product that relied heavily on individual user experiences so I ensured diversity in my usability testing, and kept my notepad close by for proper detailed documentation. Here's what I learned:
Users thoroughly enjoyed the product's colors and illustrations. User's commented that the product had a playful yet professional appearance.
The customization of the product gave the users a sense that the company deeply cared about their needs as well as their pet's needs.
The payment process was confusing for users. When presented with the "select a payment" screen users did not understand how to move on to the next step.
Since both the illustrations and buttons were similar colors user's felt confused what was a button and what was an illustration.

revisions

illustrations
Adding an accent color to the illustrations allowed the users to differentiate interactive elements from product illustrations. It also creates a more diverse, inviting color palette to the page.
Original
Revised
payments
Initially, users were not influenced to complete the step of selecting a payment method due to improper design tactics. I altered the process accordingly so that users could easily identify what methods they could choose from while also gaining a sense of completion by filling in the check box.
Original
Revised
destination cards
Adding photos to the homepage cards provided more inspiration and excitement for users. It allows them to gain a sense of their future destination travels and gives some insight on what they can realistically expect from that destination.
Original
Revised
type of flight
Finally, the toggle between shared and private flights was removed. After much thought and research, the conclusion was reached that users would prefer private flights over shared flights. Therefore, that became the default setting. However, I still needed to include the option of a shared flight in order to give users an option to book a cheaper flight.
Original
Revised

final design

Figma prototype file
process reflection
Things I liked
I believe the interface I designed achieved my goal of a simple layout that does not overwhelm the user and provides an inviting, playful experience when accessing user's desired information.
The opportunity to design a mobile app with a booking feature required me to improve my prototyping skills that allowed usability test participants to feel as if the product was refined and polished.
Admittedly, I had a lot of fun drawing the illustrations for this product. Creating my own illustrations allowed me to keep the product's branding consistent which was very important for the final product.
Things to build on
Most of the people I interviewed primarily had dogs as pets, and I'm curious if cat owners would provide alternate insight that would effect the final product.
I believe that interviewing a professional travel agent would have been very beneficial for more insight on the booking process and how to clearly define particular parts of the process.
Ultimately, I think the direction in creating a fictionalized airline was beneficial in the sense of the growing trend in niche products. However, I acknowledge that a product that searched for pet-friendly travel through existing airlines would have been more realistic.